No tuna in this basket.....

The Cabrio. Little brother (or sister, depending on who you are talking to) to the Rabbit Cabriolet. Meant for sunny summer open roof cruising and general pleasantry. Equipped with a dependable, fuel efficient 4 cylinder engine and was plauged with the same sins as just about any other manufactures. Crappy cup holders, appalling ride height, not quite enough go when mashing the accelerator, you get the picture. Commonly joked about as a "ladies" car (that has a handle on it), hence the Tuna Basket title, this is one example not to be taken lightly......

Enter Billy Volms Cabrio. Purchased a few years back from a well known local who is a purveyor of just about all new, old, and used VW bits as well as builds of his own, already equipped with a VR6 swapped into it, Billy was off and running to make it his.

Adding bags and 3SDMs really set the car off cosmetically, and as far as making it go, Billy stepped up the VR Cabrio game!
I asked Billy to give me some specs on his Cabby, here they are:

MOTOR:
268 cams
Dual valve springs
ARP head studs
C2 8.5:1 head spacer
185,000 mile stock block

TURBO:
Precision 6262
ATP clone turbo manifold
M20 intake manifold
Forge diverter valve
Tial 38mm wastegate
Auto meter boost gauge
30# c2 stage 1 software
Running 10 psi
Non intercooled

SUSPENSION:
5 lug conversion
3sdm 0.05
Air lift slam series bags
Switch Speed management
VU4 manifold
Dual 444c compressors
4 gallon air lift tank
Zaetech Digigauge

Some build cars and baby them. Treated like spoiled princesses and queens of the garage they sit untill the next show where they get pampered at the spa created by their owners. don't get me wrong, I'm ok with that too. I am not like that personally but I also understand that alot of time, money and effort goes into our cars. I don't judge, cool machinery is cool machinery.

Billy is not one of those guys. The chapter of the cabrio has ended for him and he is on to building another car. The big stuff has been parted and the car is returning to its original form. Sadly, I never got to shoot any engine shots or rollers of it.

When I said Billy drove the thing, I wasn't kidding. I have no local pics of the car. We traveled, hence no rollers as I was always piloting my own car and well, it just doesn't seem safe to me to shoot photos while driving.

What I do have is alot of shots from all over the place as we traveled to many places for shows this last summer. Kentucky and Minnesota are the spots these photos are from. So enjoy, just a little documentation of a pretty cool little car from  my neck of the woods. I know what he is building next, and it is a car that will be dear to my heart for several reasons. I can't wait and I'll make sure the first shots I get are of the motor and some rollers.

Enjoy:

Hand held. I got lucky and had an aperature to use.....

Proof that a Cabby can look ok with the roof up. Although that sentiment is rare with me.

 Till next time.......