VW Roots (Baltimore's Finest Jetta Club)

Every once in a while it's good to look back on where you came from, and where you managed to pick up this addiction. I've been into cars my whole life, my favorite Matchbox car was a blue Sachs sponsored Porsche 935, so the post and pic series which is forthcoming isn't necessarily exactly where it all started for me, but it's the first time Josh and I would hang out with other people strictly because they shared a similar passion. That group was Baltimore's Finest Jetta Club. Thanks to Josh's camera always being in hand, he was there to take these pictures.



Back in the day, a certain car or model would tend to get really popular in Baltimore, and for a really long time it was all about the Mk2 Jetta. Back then half the cars weren't really sporting anything more than some chrome Hammers and maybe some kind of body kit or some lowering springs, but it was the car to have, no doubt. The 'it' car went onto the 300Z soon after, and the Acura Legend soon after that, but there were those who stuck with the Volkswagens, and those guys were the Jetta Club.



I'll need to check with Josh if he has any other pics, but this series is of the club president, Billy, and his newly acquired Corrado G60. Keep in mind this car was only 3 years old at most when these pictures were shot...and Billy's black 92 GL with the Momo Quasars and modified Maxima body kit was only a year old. Billy was quite the VW head...he lived and breathed it hardcore, and he had an 87 GTI 16v as a more in depth project as well.



The closest thing to this grip of cars these days would be an R32 parked next to a Mk5 Jetta, with a Mk4 20th Anniversary out back.



This 16v was running a full body kit from Autotech (I think?) and was resprayed in a slightly more flashy version of the OEM maroon paint. There wasn't any internet to jump on, no way to know what the other guys were doing except for what you saw in European Car, or what you saw at Bug Out. There was no Waterfest, no H20, no Dubs anywhere at all. Just your catalogs from Neuspeed, Autotech and Techtonics. There were other shops, like JT Motorsport and Rapid Parts, but they didn't have those same glossy mags, or the cache of the 'Big Three.'



Altogether there were probbaly 10-12 hardcore members of Baltimore's Finest Jetta Club, and maybe another 5-6 that would show up on the odd occasion. Most of these guys were getting out of the whole car phase, with families and real life to deal with, so after that first 6-8 months of hanging out at the Polytechnic parking lot on Sunday afternoons, we lost touch with Billy and the rest of the guys. From there we started hanging out with the younger guys at Loch Raven Reservoir, but that's a story for another time.



Who knows, maybe there's a mint G60 Corrado stuffed into some garage in East Baltimore, parked next to a dusty old 16v project that never quite got finished all those years ago. Probably not, but it wouldn't surprise me...just remember that it's guys like this that helped keep the VW scene alive back in the dark ages of Watercooled tuning. Sure the cars look dated and a little tame by today's standards (however the wheels are all hot!), but they were the way things were back then.

_WRS