H&R Wheel Spacers: Go Wide

I wanted to lower my car’s coilovers a bit, but the guys at Group2 Motorsports could only drop it down to a certain point or my wheels wheels would rub the suspension. They suggested looking into wheel spacers to solve the problem, which would also improve handling and aesthetics by offering a slightly wider stance and somewhat more balanced look.

After browsing through a few online stores, I found Achtuning was having a month-long sale on all H&R, and Dion from Achtuning also posted an announcement in the VWVortex PacNW forum that they were offering an additional 10% off for a few days. Perfect!

I went with 5mm spacers up front and 15mm spacers for the rear. The wheels will sit just up to the edge of the fenders, giving the car’s stance a more solid look (and feel), improved handling, and the option to take the coilovers down a few notches.

The spacers will be installed shortly, so stay tuned!

Source: H&R
Props: Achtuning

I’ve wanted to upgrade my factory taillights for many years, but the factory tails just looked so great on the Silverstone paint. The smoked accents on the GTI tails just matched the paint color perfectly.

I’ve always wanted to take advantages of LED technology on my car, and have upgraded many of the factory incandescent bulbs with LEDs: license plate bulbs, inside door “caution lights”, and even modified the factory front bumper lights with custom amber LED bars (stay tuned for the tutorial soon). But nobody ever offered a nice, OE-looking LED taillight for the MK4 GTI. And then the day finally came…. Somebody finally did. The lights were not “ricey” or completely tacky and cheap looking, and they seemed to have a pretty good fit and finish. I’m trying to achieve the OEM-Plus style for my car, and most available taillights upgrades big fat negatives. While searching the terms “LED” and “GTI”, I stumbled on a pair of DEPO-brand taillights that mimicked the M3 crystal/red taillights, but the illumination used the OEM format of my factory tails. The smoked silver of the tails appeared to be a perfect match for my Silverstone paint. A quick search on the VWVortex MK4 forums yielded no results, so I bit the bullet and decided to be the guinea pig. And I’m happy I did. The taillights look fantastic and the fit and finish was spot-on.