slammed MK3 Cabrio - S3 Magazine

…But who cares.

How long has it been since you loved something… just because? Where have the days gone, when something was super-cool… just because it was. When you didn’t overthink it… and you didn’t have to justify it or rationalize it? When was the last time you just let something make you happy. With no strings attached.

My advice… get back to that.

Follow your own bliss…

Not social media influence.We are living in an age of superficiality & judgement that’s beyond our comprehension. Social media is hammering on our psyche every time we look at it. Spinning us off our axis. Twisting our reality. Dividing us, categorizing us, selling us, and over-exposing us.

How can we stay grounded… when we don’t know where the ground is? Cleanse yourself.

Remember what attracted you to car culture.

Life before likes. We used to PAY for subscriptions & ASK for opinions. Not anymore. Today – the car culture as a whole is underinvested, over-opinionated, and waaaay overexposed. If you wanna recenter yourself, flip that back around. Sometimes you have to break away from all the pages, groups, and hashtags. It doesn’t mean you love it any less… but perhaps more.

This MK3 Volkswagen Cabrio has been well known in the VW circle for years.

It used to belong to a guy named Brian McCauley. When our buddy Autrey McVicker from BMP Tuning heard Brian was selling it… he knew he had to act fast. It’s not really like Autrey to buy ‘already built & e-famous’ cars. Especially an older chassis with not much room for flash tuning compared to newer Volkswagen/Audi models. Buying an older Volkswagen is a little hard to justify as an expense. Especially when you’re a business owner that caters to the newer Euro models.

But there was something about this MK3 Cabrio that struck a chord with the way Autrey had been feeling lately…

Maybe he’d been feeling a bit stagnant. Maybe this was a nostalgia thing. I mean, Autrey has owned a BMW M2, and an Audi RS3. These are fast cars. But there is a soul-connection missing… despite their impressive numbers & specs.

It’s hard to argue with the capabilities of new performance vehicles…

But sometimes, it’s also hard to find the vibes amidst all the electronics. There’s something that’s easily lost when you reach perfection… and everything starts to feel the same. If you guys read this mag at all, you know that’s real. So Autrey jumped on this Cabrio, and drove it home from AZ to TX… reconnecting to a lot of what had faded-out over the last few years.

About this Volkswagen Cabrio…

From the Root Beer Float license plate, to its matching deep copper brown metallic paint, this car commands your attention. And HOLDS it! The VR6 noises are as good as they come! And in my opinion, it’s the correct swap decision on any mk2-mk3 sled. You simply must love the sweet sound of this engine.

Both the intake & exhaust are opened-up for better performance…

But let’s be honest, top-down cruising with the sweet sounds of intake-honk and exhaust-brap is the real goal here.

Bagged and sitting on a tasty set of root beer enhanced Gotti wheels, this MK3 Cabrio is a real treat.

The Mk3 hasn’t gotten much love over the years. But these Cabrios, once somewhat unloved and powered only by the 2-point-slow, have finally started to get proper engine swaps. They’re starting to get real time dedicated to their show-worthy status. From the Jetta (Vento) nose swap, to the Gotti wheel greatness, this car has spent the last decade being refined into something truly great.

Update: This car now belongs to Carl Taylor with Rotiform.

Text by Wooley & Tim Neely Photos by Coleman Baker