Car Choice - 2002 VW GTI 1.8 T

VWs of all flavors have proven to be consistently quick until they almost inevitably break.  As the MK4 was probably a quality low point for VW, the combo will probably be fun right up until it isn’t, every single race.   At least parts cars are readily available and cheap.

We ran one for a few races last year and now graduated that car to AER duty.  longblock is rock solid reliable as long as the turbo and other components hold up   we pretty much have the turbo fall off every day of racing.  We replace with OEM hardware after each day to stay ahead of inevitable failure even when all seems when it will sometime just let go.  Other than that it east wheel bearings alot.  The faster you go the faster it eats them.  One Lemons race on the fronts about and one day at AER race approximately  Very fun car though when well sorted out.  Loves the rain.

I'm making up a MK3 Jetta VR6 for my first Lemons car.  Just got it two months ago or something like that and finally started prepping it.  I've been doing a lot of the internet warrior reading and yeah, lots of people mention the wheel bearings.  I'm probably over prepping but since I've got spare parts at the house I'm going to replace the wheel bearings and bring an extra set of spindles that have a new set pressed into them.  One or two people mentioned putting better grease in them, like aircraft grade.  One guy for my car said to swap to MK4 rear bearings because they are bigger and last longer.  I was wondering if putting some air flow over the whole spindle would help keep temps down and allow them to last longer.

I got a pretty crazy good deal on this Jetta from a VW guy in the next state from me that his wife was trying to get rid of a lot of his stuff so he unloaded three boxes of parts with the car.

I'm not sure if the MK4 rear beam is the same as the MK3 in design but you can weld a piece of metal into the C shaped channel of the beam to make a cheapo rear sway bar.  I plan on doing that to combat some of the under steer.  I just don't know how much to weld in and how thick of metal to use.  Gotta do some more reading\asking around.

Good luck with the car and race!