VW GTI Cross Country Road Trip
Model: 305Forged FT108 | Flow Technik Series | Pearl Graphite W/ Machined Lip
Spec: Front: 19 x 8.5 +35 | Rear: 19 x 8.5 +35 Bolt Pattern: 5x112
Application: MK7.5 VW GTI
Hi, I'm Colin and many of you may have spoken to me before if you have emailed 305 or messaged us on social media. Its finally time to write up a blog on my personal car, a 2018 MK7.5 GTI
I got the GTI new in July 2018 and for a while the car was mostly stock. It was (and still is) my daily driver and I wanted to enjoy it in a stress free simple state. Of course I quickly lowered the car and put on a set of our 19" FT107 wheels. This lasted for a little longer than a year until SEMA 2019 came along.
My friends at Seibon Carbon wanted to develop some new parts for the GTI and asked to use my car as the development platform. Practically overnight the car went from stock to sporting KW V3 coilovers, AWE tuning exhaust, REVO ecu and tcu tune, Integrated engineering intake, a ton of carbon parts from Seibon, an assortment of OEM VW Accessories from window nets to a roofrack and finally forged monoblock wheels from our Stellar Wheel specialty line.
After SEMA the car stayed pretty much the same for a while. I drove it almost daily and used it to make a video for Integrated Engineering to promote their new intake for the car. You can check out the video on their youtube channel here:
Above is how the car appeared for that video.
Many SEMA cars live the garage queen life following the show, but I want to actually use my car. Every year I fly from where I live in LA back home to Pennsylvania to visit my family for the holidays. This year I decided that I would do a road trip so I could drive my car on the roads I grew up driving.
To avoid any potential headaches on the cross country drive I swapped out the Stellars for our FT108s. Since the Stellars are centerlock I didnt want to deal with the potential issues that would cause if i needed to swap a wheel on the side of the road. So it was back to 5 lug.
I also switched up the decals a bit for the road trip. I wanted to make the car as recognizeable as possible if anyone spotted me during the drive.
The drive was about 5,000 miles total there and back and there were a ton of awesome stops along the way. I visted friends in several cities, and got plenty of photo opportunities. The coolest of which was probably Arches National Park in Utah. Which looked otherworldly covered in snow.
After arriving back in LA I didnt wash my car for a few weeks. I absolutely loved how dirty it was and the look it gave the car. It looked something like a Le Mans car after finish the 24hrs race caked with dirt and grime. It was the antithesis of a SEMA car. Dirty and used. I immediately hit up Darrien Craven @_crvn_ one of the best automotive photographers around and challenged him to showcase a dirty car instead of the typical ultra clean show cars most people photograph.
The results speak for themselves. The contrast of the beautiful cotton candy sky and the grime on my GTI is stunning.
Whats next for the GTI? Well only time will tell. If youre interested in seeing more follow my IG @coolin_mc