02.21
I started my VW adventure nine years ago. At this time, I really didn’t know many people in the scene or understand that the forums were just a place to come and hang out. I treated the forums like they were the gospel of VW’s, boy was I wrong. Over time, I started to gain interest in the local VW scene and hanging out with like minded individuals from my immediate area. I took an interest in their cars, their mods, etc. One person that I remember and I think I will always remember is Steveo. Steveo had one of the first TDI Jolf’s out there, damn that was a while ago.
Steveo was one of the first people to run authentic/oem Porsche twist wheels on a VW. His wheels had crazy offsets, a bit of poke, some stretched tire, but it came out nicely. Over time, Steveo’s jolf went through various phases of builds and rebuilds. At one point, he was going to do a big turbo TDI, one of the first in the United States. Steveo has been at this longer than I have and now he’s pushing papers at a dealership (har har). As the local seen changed over time, I became less enamored with what was going on locally and more interested in what was going on globally. As I built up what I thought was a “vortex approved car”, I lost touch with the locals and started making ‘internet friends’. Fast forward to two weeks ago…I’m in Portland Oregon and I receive a text from a 215 number. It says “Andrew, this is Steveo from Vortex. I blew my bag, I need help. Give me a call.” Seeing as it’s a 215 number, obviously this guy is local. I never really put two and two together to realize that this was white TDI Jolf on Porsche wheels Steveo.
Steveo had put on his brand new benz wheels and made the fatal mistake of not checking his bag/tire clearances. Luckily, when the bag popped he wasn’t far from his work. Steveo and I spent days going back and forth working a solution for him so that he could get his car up and running again. Of course, behind Steveo was his fiance, and like every car guy who has a significant other; steveo promised her “there wouldn’t be any problems with the air ride”. Steveo was in a hurry to fix his problem and me being 3000 miles away really didn’t help the situation much. I made a call over to my dad to see if I had a set of Mk5 struts in stock at the shop. Sure enough, I did! Steveo put a down payment on the bombers and we worked out a deal so that he would be able to run my spare set of Mk5 struts in the meantime. Things were going very well until Steveo hit yet, another snag. The bag up set of struts I gave him were for the earlier Mk5 which has 50mm spindles and not the newer revised 54mm spindles. Steveo was SOL again. The only other set of Mk5 struts that might work were sitting in Maryland at a clients house. I made a few quick phone calls and had them shipped out ASAP.
You know that old saying “when it rains, it pours”? Yeah, well, when it snows in Philadelphia, it snows in Philadelphia. Once again, we hit a snag with getting Steveo back on the road. The weather so kindly held up the FedEx delivery of the struts. I thought for sure it would only be an extra day or two…it was four. Now we’re hitting on week two of this craziness and Steveo needs his car back and I’m trying to find out where these struts are, things are just hitting rock bottom. Luckily, the struts arrive just before the weekend and Steveo was able to meet up with my mom (yes, my mom) and pick up these struts. By Friday at lunchtime, I received a picture message of the struts going into the car and by Saturday afternoon, I received pictures of the car back on the road.
Despite all the snags, the weather, the problems with the diameter of the strut housing, the fitting issues we ran into (there were several), etc. Everything worked out for the better and we have another happy OPEN ROAD TUNING x BAGYARD customer. Steveo is a great guy to work with and very, very patient. It’s funny how you know someone from a sort of previous life and then all of a sudden, they show up in your current life. It’s nice to see people happy with your product and the ability to help someone out in a bind is rewarding. 









