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December 2001 I wanted a sporty medium sized type of car with spacious, classy interior and definitely something Euro. After months of research I decided the VW 1.8T Passat was the car with the most potential and fitted the budget I was working with.

I finally found a 1 owner 1999 1.8T Tiptronic Passat in Windsor Blue with all the options I wanted plus reverse parking sensors and extended warranty. I saw it that morning and owned it that day – I just knew this was the one for me.  

The instigator for the modding bug in my case was a series of unfortunate events. In the Australian summer of January 2002 – less than 1 month of owning my beige interior Passat, I sprayed myself with insect repellent to keep the blowies away. I can only imagine the look on my face when I later realised that the blue t-shirt I was wearing had somehow reacted with the insect repellent and the blue dye had embedded itself in my now off-beige leather. No matter what I tried I couldn’t remove the stains.

I eventually tracked down Bill and Jason at Leather Creations, a local leather specialist workshop, that absolutely amazed me with what they could do with leather restoration and I eventually ended up with a totally new look two tone interior. And thus the modding adventures began!

The first Mod I purchased was the Alientech window controller. Being able to vent and control your windows from the factory remote was pretty cool. The 99 Passats also came with the standard banjo key, so another one of the first mods was getting the swish Flip Key Remote.

There was a bit of work to do on the Passat to get it up to a Sporty car category and the best bang for buck was an ECU upgrade. After much research I concluded the GIAC chip was the best option for me and I started trying to find out how I could source the upgrade. After almost giving up I got an e-mail from Singapore GIAC telling me there’s a rep right here in Melbourne - Lucas! GIAC ECU and Tip Chip done and whoa what a difference!

At the same time I was having some hesitation issues and it was a common issue that the stock diverter valves were a problem. I went with the Forge DV006 to handle the extra power from the ECU upgrade and these two mods eliminated the hesitation problems I was having when taking off.

With the extra power the weakness in the suspension became clearly evident. The front would lift on take off and there was plenty of dip when braking added with a boat ride feel with the stock suspension. The Eibach springs offered the right drop and ride firmness but it was a toss-up between a full Eibach springs & shocks system and the Koni shocks. The Koni shocks were adjustable and available so that’s the way I went. This cured all the above handling issues and gave me that sport ride I was after – not too harsh but nice and controlled.

The next driving improvement was getting some lightweight 17” performance wheels and tyres while at the same time being conscious of adding extra weight to the Passat. After tossing between OZRacing Superleggeros and BBS RKs I went with the latter and wrapped them in the best performance tyre at the time the Bridgestone S03.

The next suspension improvement was fixing the lack of chassis rigidity and reducing the oversteering inherent in front wheel drive Euro cars. A Whiteline rear sway bar was installed making the turns more neutral while a front A6 strut tower bar along with a front lower tie bar (ChasBar) addressed rigidity issues with the chassis.

All these improvements brought the handling of the Passat to another level and it’s true to say that some of the inexpensive modifications made the most rewarding improvements.

To get the most out of the engine without a turbo upgrade and to take advantage of the timing belt replacement being made the ECS Underdrive lightweight crank pulley was installed along with the N75H waste gate control valve, the Autotech Front engine snub mount and the NewSouth Inlet manifold insulator Powergasket. The lightweight crank pulley gives back power that is lost in the effort to crank the stock pulley. The N75H alters the timing of the waste gate closing resulting in keeping boost slightly longer. The engine snub mount reduces the engine torsion on acceleration resulting in better transfer of power. The Powergasket reduces the heat soak/transfer to the manifold resulting in reduced performance loss due to heat soak.

All these mods don’t generate more performance but reduce or fine tune the loss of power resulting in improved performance. They certainly improved take off and made the Passat feel more nimble.

With all these performance upgrades I wanted to also address the brakes because there’s no point in going fast if you can’t stop! The stock Passat brakes aren’t too bad but they do generate way too much dust and do fade with demanding braking. I wasn’t prepared to go all out with the braking so I compromised with the ECS A8 front 2piece 12.3” upgrade along with Stainless steel lines. This utilised the stock calliper with the Audi TT carrier to allow the A8 spec 12.3” rotor.

The ECS kit further improves this by its 2 piece aluminium hat design resulting in reduced unsprung weight. This combined with the Hawk HPS pads all around has resulted in the brake improvements I was after – reduced fade, reduced brake dust with improved braking. Oh yeah and they look great too! With this upgrade the feel of the brakes changed. The Tyrolsports front brass calliper bushings improved the brake modulation and feel by reducing the flex inherent in the rubber bushings the stock callipers use.

While the performance mods were happening the Passat appearance was transforming with a stealthy theme – kinda subtle but not boring. The first thing that had to go was the all beige interior especially after my t-shirt staining experience.

The two tone interior was the most major appearance mod I’ve done and certainly the one that gets most comments. When I originally got the door panels done to see what it would be like I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing – but once the job was completed and I replaced some of the beige trims with black trims it was transformed. Next the Zender rear spoiler gave the rear end a new look and I eventually tracked down the Projektzwo front spoiler from TCCA Motorsports and the Oettinger Rear valence from Muller & Muller. Each of those parts gave the car the overall sporty/classy look I was after. In line with the stealthy look I did the Joey mod on the front headlights and painted black the front chrome VW badge.

The rear lights of the Passat were never a favourite of mine – far too boring and too bright a red color. If they were a cherry color that would’ve been OK and tinting wasn’t worth the potential trouble with local traffic laws.  When I got the FK rear lights I knew they were different and being black they complement the Windsor Blue well. The lights look fantastic as they cast a kaleidoscope effect on the road when they light up.

I never had the urge to spend big on ICE on the Passat and as crappy as the stock Eurovox headset was I was more than happy with the JVC mp3 capable LH2000. It transformed the sound while still using the stock speakers and I could listen to all my favourite mp3s.  

Modding to me has always been about customizing your car to your own individual taste - there are always some compromises involved with any modification. There should never be any expectation or demand that someone’s modification should conform to another person’s idea of what a modification should be. If there’s one lesson to be learnt from such forums it’s that people around the world have very subjective ideas of what is hot and what is not. That doesn’t make a modification good or bad – it just makes it different and we should respect that.

I was absolutely inspired by the work people on ClubB5 were doing and the helpful environment that the forums had created. I’d never had so much knowledge about a car before. All the common faults, pitfalls and successes that people had experienced were all there for you to research and apply to your specific situation. The true value of ClubB5 is the environment where you don’t feel inhibited from posting and sharing information and where the knowledge of people and modifications they have made are absolutely amazing.  Whether it’s meeting at a local GTG or posting from Moscow to Finland to Colorado to Melbourne it’s been a pleasure to be part of this community.  

Congratulations go to Thanasi (The Greek) for starting this community, to the Mods for the great job they do maintaining the environment and of course nominating my ride for COTM and to the many inspiring ClubB5ers over the years (JohnBoy, RiGoR, JayBeeski, AirborneJet, HermanH, BoeserBlick, B5Bel, Maestro – apologies to the many others)

Also thanks to the dedicated VAG enthusiasts from down-under for their support and banter (Wal (amtuning.com.au), Anthony, Mike, Dave, Jimbo, Matt (mdt), Matt, Steve). Thanks also to the team at Euroclass (euroclass.com.au) for their quality work and helping shape KosB5.

 This site is not affiliated with Volkswagen of America or its parent company VW AG.