It’s been a long time since my last feature for Tief & Breit – in fact, now we’re at the end of the season and it’s my first feature this year. I had been wanting to shoot something for the blog, so when my good friend Christian called me and asked me about maybe making use of the nice weather to grab some shots of his car I immediately jumped at the chance and knew this would be perfect for the blog.

We quickly found a nice location for the shoot – high above the streets on the upper lever of a parking garage. I was a bit nervous if the car would make it over the ramps, though. But in the end everything worked out and we immediately began shooting the car in front of the impressive view the parking garage roof offered of the surrounding area.

Christian is not an innocent when it comes to building cars, having built quite a few impressive cars before.  He’s owned a few Volkswagen MKIIIs already, one of which pretty much exploded on social media a few years ago – a clean, red MkIII Golf on air and BBS RS. Another one of his impressive projects was a slammed aircooled T2 pick-up.

Having quite a few years of customization experience, Christian knew what he wanted from his newest project from the start. The Vento would not be another build where being as low as possible was the only goal – this time, he wanted to strike a fince balance out of style and driveability with a bit of grunt under the hood. Thus, the engine was replaced by a 2.8l from a Mk4 Bora sporting 204hp. While he was at it, Christian decided to clean up the bay a bit – the battery was relocated to the trunk while the wiper fluid tank and servo reservoir were hidden away. To complete the six cylinder, the car was equipped with a Friedrich Motorsport exhaust to provide a fitting soundtrack.

In February 2015 the car was repainted in a shade of candy white. Even the front lip and all the mouldings received a few coats of the gleaming paint. Once the body was all done, the car was brought nearer to the ground using a set of KW V2 coilovers with custom springs. Along the way, all the suspension bushings were replaced by polyurethane units.

As Christian is somewhat of a wheel whore himself, a set of exclusive splits wheels soon followed: 3-piece split EtaBeta Turbos in 8.5×17 squared, obviously also painted candy white. Hiding behind the wheels are some 312mm Audi S3 brakes up front and 280mm discs in the rear.

Even the interior has been touched with some high end Recaro A8 sports seats with colour-matched seat backs. Obviously, that was not the only change to the interior and a leather steering wheel and retro-fitting of some options like cruise control, multifunction display and such had to follow. The end result proves that Christion is driven by perfectionism. In my eyes, he created a stunningly timeless example of a Mk3. It was incredibly fun to shoot his Vento and I hope this won’t be the last car we’ll see by this guy!

Some facts about the car:

1995 Volkswagen Vento

Paint: LB9A Candy White (repainted in Feb / 2015)

Engine bay: 2.8 24v VR6 AWP with 204hp (stock it was a 1.8l 75hp AAM), partially cleaned by, custom built intake, wiper fluid tank and servo reservoir hidden, battery relocated to trunk

Transmission: VR6 CCM, modified with 5. gear TDI gears

Brakes: Front – Audi S3 312mm discs with ATE54 calipers. Rear – Bora V6 280mm brakes using Epytec adapters

Suspension: KW V2 coilovers with custom springs, suspension bushings all replaced with polyurethane

Wheels: EtaBeta Turbo Variant C, painted LB9A, 8.5×17 wrapped in 215/35/17, 30mm adapters up front, 40mm adapters in the rear, Porsche 993 Turbo center caps

Blacked out headlights, fogs and turnsignals

Front and rear lip smoothed and color matched

Friedrich Motorsport exhausts 2x60mm

Rolled fenders

Interior: Recaro A8 seats with color matched seat backs, leather steering wheel, Vento rear bench with arm rest, central locking, power windows, power mirrors, cruise control, multifunction display, sunroof

Daten zum Fahrzeug: Model: Volkswagen Vento Baujahr: 1995 Farbe: LB9A – Candyweiss, Neulack 02/2015 Motor/Motorraum: 2.8L 24V 204PS, AQP (original 1.8L 75PS, AAM) Getriebe VR6 CCM, 5. Gang Zahnradpaar vom TDI Getriebe Eigenbau Ansaugrohr mit integrierten LMM K&N Sportluftfilter Wischwassertank verlegt Servoausgleichsbehälter verlegt Bremsen/Fahrwerk: VA 312mm S3 Anlage mit ATE54 Sätteln HA 280mm Bremsanlage Bora V6 mittels Epytec Adaptern Gewindefahrwerk KW V2 mit gekürzten HA Federn Achsen komplett mit PU Lagern neu gelagert Felgen/Bereifung: EtaBeta Turbo Felgen, Stern Variante C, lackiert in Candyweiss, 8,5×17 ET ?, 215/35 17 Falken VA 30mm Adapter, HA 40mm Adapter Nabendeckel vom Porsche 993 Turbo Exterieur: schwarze Scheinwerfer schwarze Nebler/ Blinker/ Blende Vento 4-Rippen Grill mit Emblem Frontlippe geglättet und in Wagenfarbe lackiert Heckansatz geglättet und in Wagenfarbe lackiert Friedrich Motorsport Auspuffanlage mit 2x60mm Endrohren Kotflügel gebördelt Interieur: Lederlenkrad Recaro A8 Sitze, Rückenlehne in Wagenfarbe lackiert Vento Rücksitzbank mit Mittelarmlehne Zentralverriegelung elektrische Fensterheber elektrische Aussenspiegel Tempomat MFA Schiebedach 2x Airbag Batterie im Kofferraum