Rating:

Car: 1997 GTI VR6

Cost: $350 + $75 for ground shipping

From: Best Racing (No longer in business)

Installation Problems / Solutions:

My installation description is kind of vague, but better than the instructions that came with it. The install was fairly straight forward. Remove the rear interior, including the panels on the sides. It took a couple of attempts to find the proper angle at which to manuever it into the car so that it would end up in the right orientation. The rear legs and the cross brace are detachable, so that made things a little easier. After it was all together and positioned where I wanted it and then I drilled one hole on each side and fastened the bolts. This is done so that nothing shifts while the other holes are being drilled. Be VERY careful when drilling the holes as you will come extremely close to brake and fuel lines. If you want to reinstall the side panels, you must put them in place before finally securing the roll bar. Some trimming is required on the panels to make them fit around the mounting points of the rear arms. Insert and tighten all the bolts. Autopower supplies regular hex nuts and suggests that two are used on each bolt to lock them in place; but I opted to use nylock nuts so I made a quick trip to Menards for supplies.

Impressions:

Now it is time to go driving!!! The car feels so much more solid now. The corners feel great with a drastic reduction in body flex. I actually feel a bit safer now, too:) On a scale of 1-10: cool factor is definitely a 10, security and safety is 7.7, handling is an 8, and ease of install gets a 6. This mod is great but if you are afraid to drill in your car and cut up interior parts, this is not for you.

Brendon Schellpfeffer
'97 GTI VR6