Back in May this year, I attempted my first night shoot on the Volkswagen Golf. Only recently did I attempt my second shoot. This time it was done within 45 minutes and the location was extremely impromptu. Let's just say that I was driving back from Putrajaya and I made a detour towards an industrial area.

Here are the results of the shoot. Shot completely in natural light mainly because it was an impromptu shoot and I didn't have anyone to help me to carry my speed-lights.

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Update: Had an issue with my theme earlier. Apparently the permission settings for the stylesheets were screwed up (no idea how that happened). I hope everyone can see the blog now :)

So what is a Unibrace? I am sure you might have heard of the brand Ultra Racing especially since locally they have been advertising extremely agressive. Anyway, just like Ultra Racing which sells anti-roll bars as well as many type of other bars (except for chocolate bars), Unibrace is another manufacturer which provides braces for Volkswagen cars.

Bruce Levin, an architect, product designer, and principal of Studiolevin in San Francisco, California, USA, is the designer of UNIbrace products. A long time Volkwagen enthusiast, Bruce has owned two MkII GTI’s, a MkIV GTI 337, and currently drives a MkIV .:R32. UNIbrace was started as an effort to combine the highest quality product design and fabrication, the love of the grassroots VW community, and on and off track spirited driving.

At the moment, there are two braces available for the Volkswagen Golf MkVI, Scirocco and the Golf MkV, the XB rear brace and the UB underbody brace. The XB rear brace is fitted at the boot of the Golf, right behind the back seats while the UB underbody brace, replaces the two stock metal plates as shown below.

Above - XB Rear Brace

See more images of the XB Rear Brace being fitted here.




(Above) The car originally comes with the two metal pieces. Looks rather flimsy and after removing them, they are actually flimsy.

Why I say that these metals look flimsy (I know they are!), look at some of the issues you might encounter with these stock braces.



(Image above obtained from Ryou's Modshop)

The bars above have already rusted! And this was on a less than a year old VW Scirocco. Imagine the horror especially if you take a corner and these braces break out.

This is where the UB underbody brace comes in. It replaces the stock two metal braces with a single large piece of brace (comes in two colours, red or black). Having a single piece to brace your car is a lot better than having two because you get the forces from the front and the rear to be distributed evenly across through the brace.




Also, red is a totally awesome colour! Didn't you know that red parts add additional horsepower to the car? Installation is fairly easy, all you need is to jack your car up and then remove the stock bars and then replace it back again with the Unibrace. I understand that for the Scirocco models, you might need a different set of screws for the Unibrace.

The brace comes in at a total weight of around 3kg and what it does do is to help stiffen up your drive especially when taking corners. So for those of you who are looking for braces to replace your Volkswagen's stock braces, these Unibraces are the right solution for you.

Personally, the Golf Mk6 1.4 TSI cars do come on the softer side compared to its older brother (the GTI) hence having these braces would definitely help improve the handling of your car. Of course the best option would be to use both the cross brace (XB) and the underbody brace (UB) together. Overall, I would recommend this product to those of you who like to take corners at quite fast speeds or if you regularly go for track days.

Also, they are rather rare here in Malaysia but head over to Ryou's Modshop here (or search for Ryou's Modshop in Facebook) to order one. The Unibrace FAQ is also available here about ordering and shipping as well as costs.

Yup, been totally poisoned by this car lately and I have been doing tonnes of research on the car as well as check out some of the cars that have been offered at some of the dealers nearby. I am actually not even sure why I suddenly got hooked on this car but the fact that I keep seeing it more often on the road (perhaps I am just a little more observant nowadays) reminds me that I really like how sporty it looks as well as the amount of horsepower and crazy widgetry it has.

I guess it can be due to the test drive I went for last month at the FA Wagen outlet at Jalan 222 where I drove the Golf GTI Mk6 (just launched in Nov 2009) around and I fell absolutely in love with the car. The smooth handling and drive as well as the super quick DSG gearbox (the salesman kept on emphasising that the DSG gearbox changes gears faster than a Ferrari Enzo), the car totally blew me away. One of my favourite novelties about this new version (compared to the older Mk5), is the variable suspension setting, and by variable I mean the ability to switch from sports mode to comfort mode or set it in auto mode.



One of the key differences between the Mk5 and the Mk6 is the steering wheel, I prefer the newer more sportier look of the Mk6 steering wheel design compared to the Mk5.

Even with this obsession, I decided to go about and check the current prices of the 2nd hand market of the Golf GTI Mk5 and found quite a fair number of them on the market. Prices are still a little steep especially since when Naza Italia sold quite a bunch of Golf GTI Mk5 previously after the Tour De Langkawi at a lower price but price ranges are around in the RM150k-175k range depending on the year of the car (05, 07 and 08 models) and the mileage. I checked out a couple of our local forums and found several members there selling their cars there as well, prices are a lot more competitive compared to car dealers.

Anyway this car will still be a dream for me, still pretty much have other priorities I have to take care off (mainly paying for my wedding this year and buying furniture before moving into my new place) hence this car will not be a priority yet. At the moment, I heard there will be new models coming in soon from Volkswagen so who knows the price might drop even further.

p.s. I also heard that a couple of guys are waiting till end March for their Mk6 to be delivered as well

If you are looking for a 2nd hand Golf GTI Mk5, do contact me as I have a friend who is selling off his Mk5 (2007 model at 51k milleage) at a good and reasonable price.

Image source: Volkswagen Malaysia Website