Audi Tuning | VW Tuning

Jae sends us his latest from Seoul, Korea as he prepares our Achtuning Korea store for the upcoming SAS (Seoul Auto Salon).

“Thanks to help from Achtuning HQ at Redmond, I managed to finish preparing for
SAS (Seoul Auto Salon) 2009.
It’s the largest aftermarket car show in Korea and it’s first for Achtuning Korea to participate
from this year. Here are some stories of past 2 weeks:

One of many things that Achtuning HQ supported was making of crew shirts.
Thanks Bill, Thanks Steve (for doing it twice).

My goal was gathering 5 generations of GTI’s in Korea. Mk3 was the easiest,
as my brother owned one in Korea (shipped from Vancouver a couple of years ago).
He was kind enough to let me use his car for the show as well as my daily in Korea.

But that does not mean his car was 100% trouble-free. Thanks to connection to the
right people back home, getting the correct parts on time is easy for me.

Even if I had the right tool and connection, fixing the same darn thing for my own car
(in Seattle) once again in Korea is not fun, especially on hot summer day in Korea.

I remember getting these from Zeb looooong time ago. They are still good!

Lights on!

One thing fixed… out of several.

This particular R32 has a set of Neez EuroCross wheel, which has lots of memory for me.
It was on my old black R32 when I won 2nd place at Waterwagen 2005. I believe it was
the day I met Bill first time when he noticed the rare set of wheels (why did I take a red
pill then?). Long story short, this set of wheels is still being loved by US spec, APR-tuned,
STaSIS-lowered R32 in Korea, whose owner is very good friend of mine. It’s not the only
parts that I shipped from Korea to USA and back to Korea.

One thing I’ve been meaning to do on the brother’s GTI – Euro Lip. Finally getting it done.

Now I need to paint the badgeless grill. One thing after another… that never ends.
You all know the rule.

One addition to my son’s collection…

This used to be my grand father’s land in Korea, but Korean government bought it from us
as it decided to move the capitol to the new location. It’s kinda like government wants to
move whitehouse to your old parents’ house. I never met my grand father, now I can
never visit where he used to live…

Another place I visit was Daejun VAG. My good friend Sky opened the shop VAG (VW
Audi Garage) in Seoul in 2006, now another shop in Daejun, only this time it is an official
VW Audi repair shop in that area. 5 car paint booth, full access to VAS tools & lots more.
This relationship is going to only help in many things we plan in the future.

Chris Park’s black Mk5 GTI started its life with Wetterauer chip, but recently received the
full APR treatment which includes APR software, Carbonio intake, High Pressure Fuel Pump,
RSC exhaust and lots of (I mean Chris-LOTS-of) OSIR carbon fiber trims. He is one of the
most aggressive yet capable drivers in Korea I know of. Pictured B5.5 Passat Variant was
my wife’s old car, which was shipped to Korea (see the trend here? ) and passed the
stringent Korean emission test with no sweat, thanks to the stock program selected by
APR’s EMCS. With 4-full-exhausts capacity and APR performance software for 1.8T on it,
there’s not much more to ask from the delivery vehicle. Only thing we didn’t realize was
the hidden photocop on the highway.

Chris Park and I thought we outsmarted the system (but I had a mail from it, darn).

Some of you military folks should know many city names I am mentioning. I built one
Mk1 Rabbit VR6 Turbo in Korea for my friend, whose contact has been missing from
everyone I knew. He sold the car to unknown party too. I needed to find out where this
Mk1 was, and I was in complete shock that Jeffrey at Achtuning Korea discovered the
very same car we were looking on the street of Busan. Talking about a chance!!
Passat Variant tried hard but 250hp Rabbit was so quick we had to do some hard chasing.

Finally we met the current owner of the car and he gladly decided to support us by
displaying this car at Achtuning Korea’s booth. Thank him, Thank god!

At Busan, we did some sales & support to local tuning shop.

12 year old GTI key starts to show its age…

Where there’s Achtuning Korea, there’s solution! I remember programming this key was
dead simple when sawing Moe doing his. My memory was right.

I love driving Mk3 GTI VR6, even in the stock form, in Korea without having to look at the
rear view mirror constantly, especially in the tunnel with no one around me. Vrrrroooom…
Perhaps one of the reasons is there’s only about 10 VR6-equipped Mk3 in entire Korea.

I still have to finish the booth design, as well as logo design, t-shirt printing, decal cutting,
and probably 100 other things before the show. Everything in real world tells me that
going to this show is impossible, everything in my mind tells me I should. So we proceed.

One thing I am attempting to do is APR crest on Chris Park’s GTI. Simple sheet of decal
yet hours of labor in making & applying (that we found out way too late).

Another task I plan to finish is Achtuning Korea’s website overhaul. Even though it’s only
2 year old website, it is like 10 year old car without oil change. This time, we completely
redesigned the website with unique Achtuning feel to it, so that it runs its fame as
it should have been from the factory!

One thing even stage3 can’t do anything is the infamous Seoul traffic jam…

I was fortunate to be able to my friend’s office (he is my Jon). As a graphical designer,
he was quick enough to create something like this (it says do not touch). We are about
10 days before the show at this time.

Working in the 2 different time zones require late night work, almost everyday…

I used to look at 154th on my Redmond office from 2nd floor.
Now I do the same stuff only at 29th floor in Seoul.

And there’s a new day’s sun. Dammit!

My 2nd R32 (blue one in the pic) was with me 3 months with me. It was sold to my friend
in Korea, who sold the car to another guy, and repeat that 4 times and here it is again
in front of me. Talking about whoring. I hope the new owner will keep it longer than 3 months.

I managed to perform APR DPP on Mk5 R32 during busiest day of all. I still wanted to
do it because it was my first try on Mk5 R32 in Korea. And it went wrong and I still don’t
know why. I tried burning 6 hour Trial program on this particular car but it failed every
time. Later I found out that this particular car had speed limiter removed by dealership
and perhaps that’s why it failed on me several time. In the end, customer had to go home
and I had to get back to my work in website and show preparation. I talked to customer
that let’s burn it without Trial option and see what happens and BOOM it worked. So I sold
one chip (really, I just told customer to get back to me in 1 month). I was grateful that
he waited 6 hours with me (6 hours of Trial??).

In the mean time, I got the badgeless grill painted and all seems to be fine with
brother’s Mk3 GTI.

But problem never ends. The new owner of Mk1 Rabbit VR6T decided to sell the car.
His car is suddenly not available for my booth and I had only a few days to fill in another
car. There’s no other Mk1 in Korea. Dammit… I decided to show 2 Mk2′s – one with
simple look with single round headlight & one with lots of modification and quad light,
not to lie that one is Mk1, but to at least differentiate the two. Luckily I was able to find
the right Mk2′s.

And the problem resumes… The heck job on the upper coolant hose has popped on me!
I quickly referenced the part number and saw the label “Made in West Germany”. How in
the heck old are you?? I had to get the car running immediately, as I literally had 2 days
before the show.

Thanks to all the tricks I learned about coolant from Moe & Hil from many nights of
working on our cars, I was able to get it on the road again. The professionals at the shop
were quick on the job to further improve the system..

Car wash, Achtuning wind-shield banner, one car done out of 5.

Our nightmare begins here. My decal guy decided that it’s impossible to make APR crest
with one piece. I ask him to just give me whatever he is left off and here it is. We decided
to get our knives out and go at it.

Obama once said, “if Korean can do, we can do it!” (Education)
Chris Park @ VAG said, “if APR can do it, we can do it too!!” (APR Crest)
I asked “Really??”

No, I do not have giant finger. I just received one crazy decal. No, two crazy decal.

About 1 hour spent so far…

Finally Chris & Jeffrey finished it. One of it.

We decided to apply on the car tomorrow… because we need to sleep!

At home, I got my last package from Seattle, which Billy sent me.

Tomorrow, I need to bring Mk3 GTI to the shop VAG, where 4 GTI’s are waiting.
No, I have to go pick up one more driver before I do that.
No, I have to pick up 50″ LCD monitor from my friend before I do that.
No, I have to get hair cut before doing that.
I also have to get hundred other things before doing that…
I really need to get off the computer and get going now!”

We look forward to more updates from Jae and Achtuning Korea’s presence at SAS!  Best wishes from all of us here at HQ!