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JR's TR MK7.5 Golf R

sijray21

Go Kart Newbie
Location
northern va
My first introduction to VW was my dad's old 1986 GTI 8v in Alpine White. It was a 2-door, 5-speed and optioned with 4 wheel disc brakes, a sunroof, and full leather (heated!) seats. He passed away when i was 3, but i still grew up with the car and my mom. She eventually bought another car when I turned 16, so the MKII was mine.

Here she is with the crystal cross hair headlights I added for better night driving: (loaded with mulch in the hatch, haha)
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Down the road i ended up parting out the car due to excessive rust and not having the funds to fix it myself. I went through a 1999 Civic Si, an Integra RS (semi-track car), and a Nissan Titan and a few motorcycles sprinkled in between High School and post-college times. Eventually landed myself a new 2010 Tornado Red GTI 2-door optioned with HIDs and a sunroof. I loved this car. The MK6 design was something i absolutely fell in love with when i saw it and i was finally able to afford a nicer car, so i pulled the trigger. I drove it and maintained it well for 9+ years when i sold it in the summer of 2019 for a more practical car that my wife could also drive, thinking we'd switch vehicles a bunch.

Good 'ol Mk6 GTI
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I bought a new, reliable vehicle to sub for the mkvi. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it was so utterly boring to drive (Ridgeline RTL-E). I missed my fun little hatch, i missed driving a manual transmission every day, and something had to change. I blame it on my daughter who said a few months ago, "Daddy, I miss your red car". Worked out the numbers and only lost a little in the switch, but i found this gently used 2019 Tornado Red (3rd color choice behind any cool spektrum color and the Lapiz Blue) in a 6-spd MT w/optional black Pretoria wheels.

I originally was thinking of selling the black Pretoria wheels since i'm not a huge fan of black wheels in general, but these are starting to grow on me. I like how the other black accents and the tint really tie things in with the Red.

Current mods done within the first week:
35% Tint on sides and rear
Aspherical Euro OEM side mirror lenses

First day, no mods:
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Tint:
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Euro Aspherical mirror lenses
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Here is my other fun tinker toy of sorts. A 1999 Z3 2.8L 5-spd.
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uvasteven

Go Kart Newbie
Location
VA
Car(s)
2019 GTI
Awesome! That's a great looking R and cool backstory. I like the black pretorias. Is the share the road plate going on the R too? I keep debating getting it but I want to know where the $10 a year goes ?.
 

sijray21

Go Kart Newbie
Location
northern va
So, I'm still debating what to do about the black Pretorias. I bought a set of mint Englishtown wheels (I actually like the design and I like the OEM look) and swapped tires. I have the set of black Pretoria wheels sitting in my garage for the moment. I'm debating whether to leave them as-is, sell them, or powder coat them. I knew the e-towns would be heavier (measured +3.6lbs per wheel more at 24.8lbs vs the 21.2lbs of the Pretoria) and you can feel the extra heft. I don't mind much since the plan for them was to use them during the winter months.

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While I love the Pretoria design I don't like the black color as I feel it doesn't do the design justice. In-person definitely looks better than in pictures, but I'll be going one of three routes:

1. Mount summers on the black Pretorias and leave the color as is. While I don't love the black I don't mind it. This is the cheapest option.
2. Powder coat the black Pretorias to a gunmetal or satin bronze or polished silver (unsure at the moment). About $750 more. This is what I'm leaning toward since I like the way the Pretorias feel and like that they're an OEM wheelset.
3. Sell the Pretorias and get a different set that I'll use for summers. Depending on the sale price and other wheel purchase price could net me a gain or loss.
 
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PowerDemon

Autocross Champion
Location
Richmond, VA
Car(s)
Golf GTI, Camaro ZL1
Definitely keep the Pretoria’s. I bought some gloss black and had them powder coated hyper black for $150 a wheel in VA.

Edit: Got my colors confused
 
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sijray21

Go Kart Newbie
Location
northern va
Definitely keep the Pretoria’s. I bought some gloss black and had them powder coated hyper black for $150 a wheel in VA.

Edit: Got my colors confused

Oh, do you have a pic of that hyper black? I just ordered a bunch of swatches from prismatic powder to see how I'd like the colors in-person.
 

sijray21

Go Kart Newbie
Location
northern va
Just picked up an R yesterday. Congrats! What tint are you running? 30?

35% on the hatch and sides. It's about as dark as I wanted to go for the fronts, but I didn't want to mismatch the tint between the rears and fronts on the side.
 

PowerDemon

Autocross Champion
Location
Richmond, VA
Car(s)
Golf GTI, Camaro ZL1
Oh, do you have a pic of that hyper black? I just ordered a bunch of swatches from prismatic powder to see how I'd like the colors in-person.

The shop that did the work for me called it their “lightest hyper black”. However it really is just the OEM Pretoria color which is what I wanted. Here are some photos nonetheless.
 

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sijray21

Go Kart Newbie
Location
northern va
Yeah, that's beautiful. That's the shade of Grey I was thinking, also for oem reasons. Looking at some dark bronze-ish colors as well, just for fun. It's hard to find that color and a red vw car for an example.
 

sijray21

Go Kart Newbie
Location
northern va
small update since i'm not really modding this much yet.

Kept the Pretorias gloss black and mounted some Michelin PS4S tires on them. After a lot of picture searching on TR MK7.5 Rs specifically the wheels match the trim and tint too well when compared to other colors i've seen. The extra cost of powercoating them was also a factor.

The rest of the spare tire kit i ordered came in and I got a set of spacers (flush kit from DAP) with some points i had that were going to expire.

The IE intake finally came in a week ago and i installed the intake and the Dieselgeeks SS kit as well. More boosty turbo noises and bypass valve noises in addition to the more notchy, short shifts. Looks like the design of the IE intake differs from the original version, but this is fine.

Contemplating a resonator delete pipe in the near future. I don't drive the car much right now so that's really the only thing stopping me.

In unrelated news i sold the z3. Due to the lack of driving in general (working from home full time) and my desire for more driveway/garage space combined with my lack of desire to fix more of its larger issues it had to go.

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Navi

Autocross Champion
Location
BK/NYC/Hamptons
The shop that did the work for me called it their “lightest hyper black”. However it really is just the OEM Pretoria color which is what I wanted. Here are some photos nonetheless.

do this color
 
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