If you look at my previous builds, you'll notice I love air suspension. It's the minitrucker in me that wants to slam everything to the ground. When it came to this build, I did a lot of thinking and debating on what to do on the suspension. Immediately I wanted air ride, but with the multiple price increases from Air Lift in the last 2 years, air suspension has gone up quite a bit. What used to cost $3-3.5K for a full air suspension setup is now closer to $4.5K. I couldn't talk myself into dropping that much on suspension. I also wanted this build to be more performance focused. "BuT zEb YoU cAn TrAcK a CaR wItH aIr SuSpEnSiOn!" Yeah, I know. You can also track a car with stock suspension, but sometimes there are better options. I finally decided to go with a nice set of coilovers.
While researching, I was trying to decide between the Bilstein B16 and the KW V2. After consulting with the brain trust here at BMP Tuning, I ultimately went with the KW V2 coilovers. We placed the order and they arrived the next day.Â
Since we had the car in the air and were going lower, we added an aluminum skid plate to protect the tupperware oil pan on these cars. We also added a dog bone mount insert from 034 while we were under there.
Robie "Sweets" Goranson doing work!
When it comes to coilovers, I usually slam mine as low as possible and deal with the unpleasant ride that usually comes with that.
Usually I just toss these out.
However, this time I left the rear collars, but had them dialed as low as possible. Originally we had the fronts set as low as possible, but later adjusted them up by a 1/2 inch. Once we got everything buttoned up, the GTI came to the ground.
Front
Rear
Â
After driving the car awhile, the suspension rides really nice. It's smooth and comfortable for normal driving, but when you get into hard cornering is when it really shines and outperforms the factory setup. The suspension has settled more since these photos and it sits a little bit lower now.
-Zeb
Instagram: jewel.rnr
Â
Â