[AtheK]

Being more of a biker then a car person, majority of my KM’s are munched on bikes then cars, I have ridden close to 50K km in last 4 years on my bike compared to only about 28K Km’s on my car. Which is perfectly fine by me, as car is where I have family time, and bike is where I have “me” time. In last 4 years I have ridden Apache RTR 160, Apache RR310 and now I have the Ninja 650 ABS KRT. The three of them have been amazing.

I drive a Vento TSI which is a brilliant car and has taken us places. It has been well maintained and has got its periodic set of service and gets cleaned on alternate days. Except the scratches that no one in Bangalore can escape, car looks in very good and decent shape, and has only clocked 28K Km. It was working well, and I was happy with my setup of driving the car and riding the bike.

Now as luck will have it, the four-year company lease of my car got over in Jan 2020, and time came to take a decision, should I buy a new/pre-owned car or keep the current car for few more years. Downside of keeping the car, I will be second owner as I will need to have it transferred to my name, and when I decide to sell it, person will be 3rd owner. This will probably hit the resale, and this was the only drawback I could think of, as car still drives like a dream, even the mileage put on car was just about 7000 kms a year.

Looking at new cars, i will definitely get more features, namely more power, better drive and refreshed looks. The only car I could think of buying was tata harrier, and I knew AT will be launched soon, thanks to scoops I already knew majority of upcoming features including sunroof. I thought of Seltos, but then it hardly felt an upgrade, except for the gizmos and better GC. I also calculated that Harrier top end AT will be around 24-25 lacs on road (Which indeed came true), and best I can expect to get of my car is 7-8 lacs, or maybe less. So, I am looking at around an expenditure of 17 lacs and restart an EMI which I just got relived of.

I have not showered the same love on the car, as much I did for bike in past couple of years. So, no new upgrades were done on car, except the regular servicing. The list of mods that was carried earlier, and working fine were

1. Updated Head Unit to Touch Screen Android head unit with reverse camera and GPS
2. Auto Light Module.
3. Upgraded Speakers to Morel Ultra all round with Two amplifiers, and two subwoofers.
4. Relatively new battery just 6-month-old.
5. Wireless Charging Mobile pad.
6. Auto Dimming IVRM.
7. Cabin Lights upgraded.
8. Tyres upgraded from stock apollo to 195/60/R15 Pirelli P1 tyres.

Vento already comes with ESP and Cruise Control, so I thought of what exactly I will get with new car, and If I can live without it.

1. Fresh Look (I think I need this)
2. Headlights more powerful with DRL, I love DRL (I need this)
3. Sunroof (I can live without it)
4. Memory Seats (I can live without it)
5. More power (I would prefer this, though Vento is no slouch)
6. Bigger tyres. (I think I need this)
7. Few more gizmos, which if I can’t list, means I don’t necessarily need them.

So, reading back, I decided nope I don’t need a new car, but I need to do something with my current car. I have not done any changes with her, and I decided this will be the year for car modification and bikes will have to wait for next year, and bikes will only get the mandatory required service.

Once this being out of the way, I sat down and decided what I want changed, in preferably the same order.

1. The Looks & new head lights.
2. Different to drive, read more power, better stopping power.
3. New set of tyres, with a wider profile or maybe upsize to 16".

Next Updates
4. New Springs to lower the ride and change the stance and make the ride a little stiffer.
5. Paddle Shifters.

With this set out in my mind I started Project Mark 13 (Also the new name of the car).

[AtheK]

1. The Looks (Satin Red wrap, Black Roof, and Dechromed)

First thing was to get the cars look changed, it had some minor scratches and swirl marks. I could have removed majority of it by polishing, but I was bored of the Toffee Brown color, and wanted a new color. When I was buying the Vento, I wanted the Red color, but at that time they had stopped red color, and I had to get the Brown color.

So I thought why not get the red color now, with that set in my mind I started speaking to few people, I was open to both paint and wrap, though more aligned to wrap, as it is easier to remove later, and will be cheaper.

As luck will have it, Wrapstyle Bengaluru was running a new year offer, I contacted them and we agreed on a price, and the color I chose was Satin Red with Black roof. I did not want to go with glossy red which is close to stock Polo color. This color gives car a different character and helps it to stand out of the crowd. I hate chrome in my car, and this was the best time to remove it from the root, so all the chrome on the car was wrapped. I took out the Badging and it was painted red/black by me at home, and then installed back on the car. While at it, i also got the tail lamps wrapped smoked black to compliment the over all look.

I reapplied Vento badge back as how it is with new superb design, and I took the liberty of badging the car GT, as it got the desired power bump, more on it in next section. TSI was painted red and pasted back on car.

I got a vinyl sticker cut with mark 13 for car, and it was pasted on front and rear door, with also a racing stripe running on bonnet, with mark 13 inscribed there as well. This for me was how I wanted my car to look, and I could not be happier.

Though every story has a twist, when I came home and showed it to my son, he loved everything but was disappointed to see mark 13, he was like my birthday is on 27th, so it should be Mark 27, valid point I must say, so it went back to sticker shop, the 13 on his side was replaced with 27, happy son, happy dad. He is just 6, and wants customizations, i think he will grow up pretty fine.

Next was to get the lights changed, I needed DRL, I needed HID. I saw through YouTube videos, and thanks to the international appeal of Polo, accessories is one thing you are not short of. One design caught my eye, which is an Audi style DRL with a projector, where you can fit HID or LED. Few calls were made to Delhi, checked the availability in Bangalore and got to know that the model is available in JC road, off I went.

The price was close to Delhi price, so they were installed, took less than 5 minutes as it is a plug and play job. Osram HID were ordered and installed in a couple of days, and the itch was itched. Must say this adds a new dimension to the look of the car. The fog lamps were also changed to white LED fog lamps, to compliment the entire look of the car.

Windshield had a minor crack, so that was also replaced along with new wipers from Bosch so that the entire car can look new. This got me to close the first leg of my modification, the car looked nothing like before, and I could not be happier.

I will leave you with the pics of the car, next is to work towards getting more power for the car. You can click on the pictures too open in new window, the embedded pictures look a little grainy.

PS: I know looks are subjective, so few would not like it, which is totally fine with me

The day we got Brownie Home



Dear Brownie, one last Click before she gets new clothes.



The First look before getting the mark 13 Vinyl on the Hood



Side View Near the Pool



Complete Side View in Night, if you zoom in you can see the iron man logo to compliment the mark 13 name.



The complete Front Look with DRL



Closer Look at the Lights



View With all Lights in Action



Back View with GT and Vento Badge Spaced out



What Son Wants, is what Son gets



Finally a view in Sunlight

[AtheK]

2. Different to drive, read more power, better stopping power.


Next Stop was to get more power, better brakes.

I contacted vivek from tune o tronics, and he had a Stage 2 remap that was being run on a Polo GT from quite sometime. He said the map is tested and if i am fine they can install the same map on my car. I had known tune o tronics through a common friend, and have full trust in the work they do, so with that in mind we decided to meet and the ECU map was flashed on the car. The car is now tuned to deliver around 128 bhp on the crank with around 215 nm of Torque, which is a bump of around 20% more power then the stock setup. I was pretty happy with this power bump, though still needed to see how it will perform in open roads.

Vivek also informed me that in the said Polo GT they are running a DSG map which is EU spec firmware tuned by them for even better performance for India. This map per him would also help a lot with DSG failures, as we have anyway bumped up the power. I contemplated for sometime, but then decided i rather spend this money also and have some more peace of mind. Launch control was also enabled for the car with this update. With that said it was also installed, and he gave me a package price which was fair enough. I was told i have been given a discount and they usually charge customers a bit more, and i am thankful to him for that.

Next was to get the stock rotors and brake pads changed. I had ordered the Brembo disc pads and EBC yellow stuff Brake pads from a dealer in chennai. It was installed while the remap was happening and we were ready to go for a test ride.

We went to nice road for a test ride, and the difference was immediately visible. The car pulls much more cleaner from stand still and power delivery is definitely more. The extra torque seems to be helping with car gaining three digit figures bit quicker then before. I pushed it to speeds which can not be mentioned on our forums, and i could see the car running out of breath or struggling a bit. Other then that it was a wish come true to have more power in my current car and i am happy to report that the remap has made wonders to an already amazing engine. This was when i decided that this car is now worthy of a GT badge, and i decided to have that plastered on the back of the car.

Back in Garage we agreed that the car needs a better airfilter and a down pipe. Order for same has been placed and the work should be done in next couple of weeks. The air filter that has been selected is VW racing spec airfilter which is Foam based with a new inlet. This should be installed soon, and i am guessing the struggle car was having at higher speeds should sort out and car should breather much more easy and move much more faster. The new downpipe order has also been placed, and i will be getting both the work done together.

The other gripe i had was that the car when loaded with 5 passengers used to struggle in the stock setup. It was like you could feel the engine straining while accelerating, not a deal breaker, but it always used to make me drive the car in S mode. With the new remap i thought this would be a good time to test it. So off i took the entire family on Kolar highway to have a good dinner at Empire and test the performance of the car at the same time, i am happy to report that car now pulls much better, and i am getting a little better performance then earlier Sports level of performance while still being in Drive mode, since it was a bit late in the evening and i had a 6 year old in the back, i did not push the car too much. A test left for some other day.



The Launch control works well and tyres make some nice noise while spinning, could be addictive. To activate you turn off ESP, slot the car in S mode, floor both brake and accelerator at same time, and wait for RPM to hit 4000. Once RPM is at 4000, you let go off brakes while still flooring the accelerator pedal and car takes off. Nice showoff, but guess takes a toll on the clutch, it is recommended not to do multiple launch controls back to back.

The stopping power with the new setup has considerably improved, and gives me much more confidence while on higher speeds. This upgrade i presume is a must for all vento/Polo owners as the stock setup lacks the bite which you get from these brakes. I am still running them in, but did test them once or twice and must say i am pretty satisfied with the results.

[AtheK]

3. New Tyres

Next was to upgrade the Tyres. I am currently running Pirelli P1 tyres, the stock Apollo tyres were changed the same day car was delivered, and Pirelli's are running 195/60/R15. I had changed the alloys from Stock alloys to Plati Alloys, which are a replica of Momo Revenge.

I read around a lot and the problem i found with 195/60 was that though the ride is very plush, high speed confidence is real bad. The car does not like being pushed and i had been contemplating changing the tyres from sometime. I read around a lot and finally zeroed on to get the Continental 205/55/R15. With that set in mind right after the ECU upgrade was done i headed to Sree Balaji tyres to get the Tyres changed. We decided on a price and he agreed to take my old tyres for a small amount, i was not too keen to haggle, as i had no idea where would i keep those tyres if i took them home. Plus the headache of selling them on OLX is too much, so decided to get peace of mind over a small monetary gain.

As luck would have it, they did not have the Tyres in stock and asked me to come the week after, i told him coming to JC road from whitefield just for tyre change is pretty much not happening, and i thanked him and moved on. Checked with a lot of tyre shops but the price being quoted was pretty high, and that too they did not have the tyre in stock and were asking for a few days to arrange it.

So i decided that will get this done later, and finally stopped at a shop near my house. To my surprise he had the tyres and was quoting about 400 more per tyre, i decided to go ahead with the installation, only to realize two tyres were from 2018 batch. He told me to check back in couple of weeks as distributor himself does not have new tyres, and he will call me once he has them. That was a month back, i am still waiting :P

In the mean time a friend upgraded his stock polo alloys to GTI alloys and put his on sale, they were 16" and that meant i could upgrade my alloys and tyres both. He was quoting a decent amount, and i almost picked them up. Then it struck me that i did not like the stock alloys before, i would not like the stock alloys again, and i told him a polite "No". The damage though had been done, now i started thinking if i should upgrade to bigger tyres and new alloys, the tyre size that i decided was 205/50/R16. Michelin Pilot Sport tyres are available in this size and Suhaas307 says they are pretty much the best tyres in market right now. I trust him, so i went back to the drawing board and redid the numbers. Eventual result that came up is that i will end up spending close to Three times the initial cost of just getting the continental tyres, if i go for a Momo Setup + 16" Tyres. Lot of money, which i don't have right now.

I checked with few dealers for a good alloy design, as unfortunately you don't get good aftermarket designs for Polo, i finally ended up liking one design from Plati itself. Now suhaas307 tells me that Plati alloys aren't great, but then i have had them for four years and they have taken some good abuse and have stood the test of time. So with all due respect to Suhaas307 i will still probably go with Plati alloys. The dealer has given me an option of Hankook Ventus V2 Concept tyres instead of Michelin's. They are relatively cheaper and the above setup is costing me a little over 2 times the cost of just having the 15" Tyre replaced.

I am currently in confused state of mind that if i should keep the 15" tyres and just wait for continental to be available, or should i go with Plati + Hankook combination, any inputs on Hankook ventus tryres would be much appreciated. The plan is to keep the car at least for two years, and maybe stretch it to three years, so if hankook are good tyres to last me two years and about 20k KM of mileage, i would go for hankook. The front tyres sometime spin on hard acceleration due to tyres getting old and more torque on offer, so this upgrade needs to happen sooner rather then later. I plan to get this done the same day i would go for air filter and downpipe installation.

Do share your thoughts and i will post more about how car behaves after the above two installation. The next wishlist once above is complete would be to get a better suspension setup and probably steering wheel with paddle shifters.

Many thanks to @suhaas307 for speaking to me over the upcoming upgrades and discussing the mods he has done on his car. He indeed is a gem of a person.

Thanks for reading this far, and wish you all many happy miles of safe driving/riding.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Modifications Section. Thanks for sharing!

[knp]

Amazing mods and it was a sensible decision to keep Vento. I was in the same dilema last year, and decided to continue with my 2015 TDI for another 5 years and then, go with a better electric.
Would you please share the contact details and pricing that you have spent for some of them like wrapping, headlights please? I am looking for upgrading headlights as the stock headlights are not that great during night drives.

[racer_ash]

Great project. Car looks delicious in Red.

How did you tackle the RTO formalities especially since a colour change is involved?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Looking great, Aman! The car looks so boring in the earlier brown, compared to the new iteration.

Good functional mods to compliment the new look too! Nice way to keep the car fresh for another few years.

But - Do you really need those Vento & GT badges at the rear? Sticking out like a sore thumb IMHO.

[AtheK]

Originally Posted by knp

Amazing mods and it was a sensible decision to keep Vento. I was in the same dilema last year, and decided to continue with my 2015 TDI for another 5 years and then, go with a better electric.
Would you please share the contact details and pricing that you have spent for some of them like wrapping, headlights please? I am looking for upgrading headlights as the stock headlights are not that great during night drives.

Thank you, wrapping was done at Wrapstyle bengaluru, below is the facebook link with the contact. They have done a beautiful job and have one year warranty on the wrap for bubbles or peel off. I got it done while they had a new year offer running and it costed me 50K (Costlier because of satin wrap or offer was for 45K). You can enquire directly with them about current prices.

https://www.facebook.com/wrapstylebengaluru/

Headlights were sourced from JC road from JJ automobiles, it's a shop directly parallel to the parking lot gate. Lights costed around 24K and another 2500 for Fog lamp LED. HID was sourced from a distributor who had posted it in Team BHP classifieds for around 6100.

http://classifieds.team-bhp.com/buy-...-HID-Kit.html/

If you are looking at upgrading, a better idea would be to go for 4200K HID. I got 6000K installed, though they are better then the stock but still white lights can't match the clarity you will get from 4200K light. Attached is one picture from a night ride.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Looking great, Aman! The car looks so boring in the earlier brown, compared to the new iteration.

Good functional mods to compliment the new look too! Nice way to keep the car fresh for another few years.

But - Do you really need those Vento & GT badges at the rear? Sticking out like a sore thumb IMHO.

Thanks Sujai, regarding the badges i did drive around sometime with car debadged. Attached is a pic for your reference.



The debadged was looking boring, but i get what you mean. I do really like Vento but will probably remove GT badge, also have been looking at some other badges that might compliment the look more.

This continues to be a work in progress

[sagarpadaki]

I would suggest, stick to the current tyre/wheel size.

Spend that money on the upgrading the struts to Bilstien B6. Will make a whole world of difference to handling.

[AtheK]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

I would suggest, stick to the current tyre/wheel size.

Spend that money on the upgrading the struts to Bilstien B6. Will make a whole world of difference to handling.

Thanks, what I want to do is probably go for a complete suspension overhaul along with springs. With around 30k almost complete the stock suspension would anyway be breathing it's last days, seeing how other cars have fared.

In discussion with few of the folks, and let's see where that part of the project goes. Once I am done with tyre upgrade that is definitely next on the list and I have already started saving for that.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by AtheK

Thanks, what I want to do is probably go for a complete suspension overhaul along with springs. With around 30k almost complete the stock suspension would anyway be breathing it's last days, seeing how other cars have fared.

In discussion with few of the folks, and let's see where that part of the project goes. Once I am done with tyre upgrade that is definitely next on the list and I have already started saving for that.

30K is pretty less for the whole suspension to go bust.Lower arms/Control arms usually don't go bad so early. Tie rods, definitely not, Link rods, maybe.But you will get to know a bad link rod. The struts might have gotten bit weak. Springs cannot go bad at 30K kms

There is definitely no need for a suspension overhaul. Just replacing the struts with B6 will be good improvement on the ride and handling.

[AtheK]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

30K is pretty less for the whole suspension to go bust.Lower arms/Control arms usually don't go bad so early. Tie rods, definitely not, Link rods, maybe.But you will get to know a bad link rod. The struts might have gotten bit weak. Springs cannot go bad at 30K kms

There is definitely no need for a suspension overhaul. Just replacing the struts with B6 will be good improvement on the ride and handling.

Thanks, I will have it checked by the mechanic when i get the downpipe installed, and then decide the next course of action. Will need to see how much the B6 will cost as well.

[Rajeevraj]

Nice set of modifications. Hoping to do some of it when my car finishes 7 years this year. Been thinking from the 4th year, but since VW kept extending warranty, have held off.

As you mentioned, an upgrade to a Vento TSI is not easy and all reasonable choices are very expensive. Fortunate that the Vento is a modifiable car from all aspects.

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by AtheK

Thanks, what I want to do is probably go for a complete suspension overhaul along with springs. With around 30k almost complete the stock suspension would anyway be breathing it's last days, seeing how other cars have fared..

Those other cars I feel are exceptions. I've spoken to a number of mechanics at VW and outside and most of them claimed that the front shock absorbers are good for atleast a lakh kms and the rear for 1.5 lakh kms! The link rods and bushes would typically last around 70-80k. You can get your suspension checked with a trusted mechanic.

But if you want to upgrade the suspension for better handling, well, there's nobody to stop you
Do share the results as I'm looking forward to spruce up the suspension too!