Mk2 Jetta 2L 8v GTi trackcar

I promised a few pics of our (brother and me) Mk2 Jetta and a brief rundown of it, so here goes. Apologies if you have seen or read about it on another forum.

The car was bought back in 2006 as a standard and clean Jetta 1.8GL for £100. The sole purpose of the car was to take it to the
Nurburgring on a budget. In doing so we though we could raise awareness for CRY, a charity we have personal experience with.

Here is the car as soon as we got it.

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We set about removing all unnecessary weight

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We sourced cheap parts from forums, ebay and scrap yards. This included bucket seats, up rated shocks & springs, alloys.
The engine was left basically standard, so not too quick! We changed the oil, gearbox oil, up rated the brakes, master cylinder and a made sure it was generally in good condition.

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After stickering it up we where ready to go to the ring. It did take us a lot longer than I've made out.

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Trip went well, Jetta held up well and we had accomplished our goal. Anyone who has been to the Ring will know how addictive it is. We needed to go again but the next time with more power!

The best move was an engine swap.....so we bought a running 8v Golf GTi as a donor. This way we had all the bits needed (fuel pump etc)

Work in progress....

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While it was all apart we replaced the clutch, cam belt, gearbox bushes and anything else we could do. We smoothed the throttle
body, inlet and exhaust manifold.
After a while we got the engine in and had it running.

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As with all things like this the budget rose and we did a number of other improvements.
Changed the alloys for the golf's 15's as the tyres are cheaper
Fitted a g60 front ARB and eibach rear ARB.
Dumped the rear drums for a GTi disc setup
Polybushed everything we could!
Rollcaged it - a must!
Swapped to coilovers as the old shocks had gone.
Removed some more weight from sound deadening, door cards etc.

Most of the stuff we got cheap such as the coilovers, roll cage, ARB's, bushes so it wasn't too bad!

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After a rolling road tune we where ready to go. This was May 2007. The Jetta was a different beast. Quicker and the handling, as you can imagine was far better. Shame the weather prevented many laps

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Again the Jetta held up well But once again we wanted more!!!
A 2L block swap sounded the best bet now!

We sourced a decent looking one for £35 and set about on another mission. To complement the larger block we got hold of a ported and
polished head with Kent cams. We also went for a lightened flywheel and a small oil cooler seemed like a good idea too.

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To help us stop better the 16v 256mm front brake setup was a must

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We moved the battery to the boot. BMW power cable and a 306 battery case from the scrappy.

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After a few months it was done. There where a few minor issues such as the water pump needed changing and the exhaust mani was leaking.
These jobs are far harder when the engine is in the car!

Unfortunately we couldn't fit a trip to the Ring in so a UK trackday was the next best. The Jetta felt great. Much quicker than before. The only problem was an o-ring on the power steering pump that failed. Luckily it was right at the end of the day, still managed to get home though

We're off to Cadwell Park on 10th November and the only thing we've done is fit some Toyo px4's and some Ferodo DS2500 pads. It's gong to hopefully stay like this for a while

That’s it.... The Jetta is an excellent track car, a little different to a Golf, great to drive, easy and cheap to work on.

I've missed a fair bit out of this but I'm sure you get the idea.
Thanks for reading, Rich

Wow, I want one.

Nice job.

Looks a really cool project. The 2l conversion is a good one, plenty of torque.

this is how all good track day drivers start the addiction!! My first track day cost me 500 quid for the car, got the bug and ended up spending almost 15 grand for the next one!!! lol

good work!! tons of fun.

i know this car ,have seen the build,i love it to bits,i love threads like this,good job matey!!

Hey, thanks very much everyone
The VW scene is great and made it so much easier to get the project to this stage.

had followed this in club gti gd to hear your still pushing on with it

Things have calmed down a little now. Going to try and keep it to small jobs and things that don't keep it off the road....or at least thats the plan

at last a jetta with a cage dont suppose you could tell me who made it , where you got it from and how much was it?

would appreciate the help as i have been lookin for ages

lovin the car mate

I would be very surprised if it's different from a golf one tbh, looks to me like it fixes to the front of the rear arches in the same place it could in a golf.

The cage was bought from a club gti member for £100. It's designed for a golf and is not an ideal fit by any means.
It would not fit in even with all the doors off! It needed re-welding once inside. I think this is due to it being from a 3 door golf.
If your near Sussex I might be able to help out with someone that can do a custom one for a desent price.

i live in surrey would it fit with all the door cards off

who actually made the cage originally

2drYetti wrote:looks to me like it fixes to the front of the rear arches in the same place it could in a golf.

Indeed it does. The centre hoop is the problem as I think the golf is slightly different. It means it's a bit lower than it should be, but welding in somethig could well fix this.

The cage is a safety devices copy, not sure who made it.
This one didn't fit with the doors off, however hard we tried!

u said u ccould get a cage made for a reasonable price how much are we talking here and how good job would it be

I wouldn't like to give a price, but I'm sure it would be much cheaper that OMP, Sparco etc. It would be a much better fit than ours. I was pleased by the quality of work for the door bars he fitted for us.

I'll get his number from my brother when I speak to him next.

ok mate thanx

Last weekend before Cadwell so we decided to do a bit of work to ensure we would get the most of of the Jetta.
Nothing too stunning, more maintanence really.

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A set of Toyo Proxes 4. These seemed a good choice, only £29 a piece and they get good feedback.

We needed a new set of pads and the Ferodo DS2500 seemed to fit the bill.

Finally a nice new set of wiper blades.....really hope these won't be needed

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Had a quick test run and the tyres are much better. Still need to bed the pads in but I'm sure they'll be good.

Really looking forward to next Saturday, fingers crossed for a good day.

Would love to see some of you laps bud can you get a vid camera there shes a cracking project

Reaver wrote:Would love to see some of you laps bud can you get a vid camera there shes a cracking project

Thanks. We have a mount in place, it's not perfect but hopefully it will give us something. Thats if they allow it.

where did u get those tires from thats a real good price

Top Gear in Guildford. They where very helpful. Ordered them in for me, called me then they arrived, even loaded into my Girlfields car

Also Bracknell wheel and tyre centre would do the T1-R's for £39 fitted if thats any help.

Cadwell Park was a great day. Started off very wet in the morning (normal for us!) but by the afternoon there was a dryish line.

It is a very tricky track, far removed from the last couple of airfields we've been on. It's much more like the Ring, as people have said.

Here's a couple of photos for the Jetta in action

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and a quick video....

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The Jetta held up to the day really well and managed the 200+ mile journey home fine

We did however experience some unwanted handling characteristics. The rear was very twitchy and did not inspire confidence in the corners at all. After doing some investigation it seems other Golfs where running no rear ARB. Initially this seemed an odd idea but the theory regarding weight transfer to the front and a stiff rear seem to make sense. There is only one way to find out!

We'll also be adjusting the brake bias as we think the rears 'might' have been locking.

If anyone has any input that would be great.

I'll post up results.

I know nige does away with his ARB. It gives the illusion off saggy handling, but infact is much more stable, but Jetta's are less likely to 3 wheel so you may need one on the softest setting poss.....

A good point.
You would expect the Jetta to be a little more stable.
Are you aware of any 'soft' rear ARB's? maybe OEM? or maybe a kit to make the eibach adjustable.