Can’t Hardly Wait

Maybe I have a thing for Jennifer Love Hewitt, I mean who really doesn’t? But that’s not why I went with “Can’t Hardly Wait” for this feature title we have for you here. Rolando wasted no time getting to work on this amazing VW Golf R you see here, that and you know how serious a build is going to be when the car is already bagged while it’s still rocking those paper plates from the dealership.

He is no stranger to building a car that grabs a good amount of attention, you can check out the last car of his we featured here – Le’ MK5 – where one of those photos caused quite a bit of commotion on the online community, we’ll let you guess which one. But this time around a more methodical approach was taken, and of course no time was wasted at all to get things under way. Before the registered plates even came in for the Golf R, Rolando had already done its first mod which really put things in perspective on the seriousness of this build. With the help of Airlift Suspension and Slam Specialties the car was now looking the part of what belonged in Rolandos garage, and things took off from there.

Btw if you don’t believe me about the paper plates bit- Instagram confirms this from a photo that is 70 weeks old, oh the world we live in today- documenting everything we do has its benefits haha. Shortly after the bags were set up and working great, then came time to play the wheel game. He had gone through several sets, including his old CCW’s, followed by a set of wheels from 3SDM in white, to what you now see on the car, one of my personal favorites, Work Meisters. Somewhere along that line of switching up the wheels, and finally having legalized plates on the car, the motor was pulled…let that marinade for a second or two. Sometime in late January, early February pulling a motor out of a new vehicle seemed like a great idea, so why not.

After a few months of building one beastly motor with the help of some go fast parts thanks to CTS, ARP, and several others; it was finally time to get everything installed and back on the road. It typically would have been a stressful process of doing all this, day in and day out, running into issues here and there – but with the help of a great group of friends that had his back along the way – it all came together in the end. Which is one of the perks in being in a car club, the support you give one another to continue builds when things go wrong, share ideas, lend a hand when you’re able to. I am more of a “social butterfly” if you will, I get to hang out with several local car clubs, and although they have their differences in the way they build cars, how they choose to modify what they drive, every car club shares one common thing – comradery and support. Where going into a build alone will really push you to your limits, and sometimes even stress you out and can ultimately lead to you giving up on a build, being involved in the right car club will lighten the load so to speak.

I’ve been able to hang out with these guys every so often, Ricky himself has been close friends with these guys and a part of the club for several years. Now before you go and start assuming that we are biased, and I’ll admit – most of our latest features have been Volkswagens and several other Euros, and guess what? we have another euro feature coming up soon, I’d like to clear the air. We are car enthusiasts, even Ricky and I have different views on how we see cars – I like some things, he likes others – but at the end of the day we are here to bring you cars that have a bit more than your average simple build on the road, the “total package” I guess you could say. I grew up with muscle cars, I switched over to the Honda scene, I got involved with the Truck scene locally somewhere in there…yeah that’s inevitable down here. Although I have a strong passion for the Honda community, we are limited to what is available to us locally. That’s not to say this is a way of saying “Hey you with the Civic, step it up!” – believe me I sometimes cry at night because we have yet to feature a local Honda, maybe I’m kidding…maybe not, hey I’m really committed to this site OK? But this is a invitation to those out there to get in contact with us, talk with us on Facebook about what you have going on with your build, your car club, lets start worrying about the quality of builds vs what the internet is deeming “cool” these days. Rolando set out with a goal in mind, didn’t take any easy routes or shortcuts, it was a long and painful road to get this car running perfectly and looking this way – but the end result my friends, will always be worth it.

Rolando Garza’s 2013 Volkswagen Golf R

Performance :
DO Tuning Custom Tune
INA Engineering Billet Valve Cover
Eurojet Ammo Box Catch Can with Custom Volx Tuning Hose Kit
HEP Billet Coolant Tank
HEP Stage 3 Intake Manifold
1100CC ID Aux Injector
RS4 Primary Injectors
JE Pistons 83mm
DMForged I Beam Connecting Rods
Supertech Valve Train
IE High Pressure Fuel Pump
TTRS Low Pressure Fuel Pump
CTS Turbo Kit with GTX3582R and PTE 39mm Wastegate
Custom 3” Intake
CTS Intercooler
CTS Throttle Body Pipe
Diesel Geek Short Shifter
Solid Shifter Bracket Bushings
Custom Cat-Back
Snow Performance Direct Port Water-Meth Injection
Clutchmasters FX850SS
Flywheel EKgrip
ARP Flywheel Bolts
ARP Head Studs
ARP Main Studs
ARP Cam Tower
ARP Crank Bolt
Tial Q Bov
034 Track Density Mount Set
Fluidampr
Crank Dowel
Neuspeed Race Haldex Module

Cosmetics :
Led Tail lights
Euroimage Wiper Delete

Interior :
Osir Dual Pod Gauge Holder
Dorbitz Design V2 Control Pod
Turbosmart Eboost2 Digital Boost Controller
AEM Wideband
Valentine 1 Hardwired
Dash Cubby

Rollers :
Work Meister’s 18×9 Front and 18×10 Rear
Federal Tires – 215/40/18 Front and 225/40/18 Rear

Stiff Stuff :
Airlift Air Suspension Front
Slam Specialties Rear
Airlift V2 Digital Management

Sounds :
Stock

Special Thanks :
My wife for putting up with so many days of me at the shop haha! CTS turbo, INA Engineering, Juan at Teniente Auto Service, the crew, EuroMotion Car Club, for cheering me up when it didn’t seem like the build would end, Dotuning, Mike at Volx Tuning, and Gear-Trends for the awesome pictures

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Photos courtesy of : Ricardo Reyes
Story courtesy of : Bobby Villarreal