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15000
members - 11/04 |
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12000
members - 03/04 |
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10000
members - 10/03 |
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9,000
members - 07/03 |
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7,000
members - 01/03 |
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5,000
members - 06/02 |
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3,000
members - 12/01 |
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B5
of the Month – February 2004
Keith
Minjoot (BTR)
Singapore
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I’ve been crazy about cars all
my life. Always dreaming about the potential of certain cars and
always wanting to learn more about what could be done to them.
Whenever anyone told me I could not achieve something, it gave
me more reason to go out and do it. I got my Passat 1.8T (Tiptronic)
in Mar 2002. It was a big change for me having always driven
manual cars all my life (they do not sell the manual version of
the Passat in
Singapore
). After picking up the car, I then went to have coffee with a
few of my workshop friends. It was there that we chartered a new
direction for the car. Before I knew it, the car was hijacked by
all these friends and only appeared 2 weeks later. Autovox
(local VAG tuning house) supplied all the cosmetic additions for
the vehicle, Jeep Chee (local exhaust and custom tuning house)
supplied all the mechanicals, gauges, piping and exhaust systems
for the car, Servotronic (VAG Specialist) supplied some of the
performance upgrades, and Swift Motion (Audio Specialist)
supplied all the necessary ICE.
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I got in the
car the 1st day it was back and it was a totally
different animal. No longer was she the docile creature that I
had taken delivery of. It started with a rumble and went with a
scream. Was I happy? It was getting there. I started looking for
more stuff to add to the car. Finding Clubb5.com was a dream.
Here I read all the experiences others had and also was able to
relate to some of the incidents members had posted. Being so far
away from the action, I felt that I wanted to share some of the
knowledge I gained and posted up some pics of my ride. The
response was very encouraging. It showed to me that I was not
alone in some of the problems I faced and the community helped
when I had doubts. Back here, my home club, VAGsg (www.vagsg.com),
was also very supportive of the path I had taken with the car
and many members were helping either source for products or
sharing their experiences so that I could take it one step
further. It was at this point that I realized building the car
was no longer a personal goal but rather a cohesive effort of my
friends and clubs.
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I would say
that the car is currently in stage 2 of its life. The first
stage being its basic form and the second being the
transformation to the K04 and other accessories. A slight
setback at stage 2 was the need to take out my Stoptech brakes
because of some unsolved issues with them. I will still need to
source for new brakes and then it will perhaps be going to stage
3 and 4 soon if I can get the support from the overseas tuners.
Already in the pipelines are a bigger turbo kit and intercooler
amongst other improvements. Maybe I can make it back again one
day as B5OTM once I am done with stage 3 on the car.
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Unlike in the States, we do not
have many car shows or an environment that encourages
performance enhancements. When I was initially approached to be
a feature of the month, I was hesitant because of the large
exposure I would get. This project is still on-going but could
not have been achieved if not for these people: My family –
for all my nonsense, Clubb5 - for the lessons it has taught me
as well as the encouragement from all members, Eric for Jeep
Chee – for his constant support and help throughout the years
that I have been doing up cars, Brinal from Autovox – for all
the help with making the car look the way it does, Sam from
Swift Motion – for allowing me to cruise in ICE haven, Dennis
from Servotronic – for his constant troubleshooting in making
my car perform better, and last but not least, my mates from
VAGsg – Ace, Goose, Wolf, Karsoon, Audibum, Chewchews, etc, -
my car is a result of the cohesive efforts that all of you have
put in and inputs shared with me.
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P.S. We did a special just for the
folks at Clubb5.com. hope you guys like the blue bottle.
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