Apparel
After seeing Volkswagen’s demo cars at various events throughout the past decade, I’ve grown familiar with the conservative, OEM+ styling that defines their usual approach—but 2016 was different. I think it’s safe to say that the last thing anyone expected to see at the European Experience last May was a slammed Passat R-Line on air suspension and bespoke Vossen Forged wheels tucked neatly away in Volkswagen’s show display, but there it was, attracting all the cameras and eventually making its way to the event’s Top 50 selection on the second day of the event!
Early in 2016 we united forces with Volkswagen of America to outfit two cars in their display with all-new Vossen Forged wheels. After discussing the initial ideas for the 2016 Passat R-Line we agreed that air suspension would be the best choice for the big-body sedan and with the help of a matte metallic blue wrap, would make the car an absolute show-stopper in the VW show display.
Our friends at Accuair (@accuair) supplied the air suspension components and the finely-talented people at Boden Autohaus (@boden_autohaus) handled both the air suspension installation and lowering as well as the blue metallic wrap—extending throughout the door and trunk jams, making the car look as if it were fully resprayed!
With a full calendar of events planned, we decided it’d be fun to keep the Passat R-Line fresh throughout the year, especially considering how many people travel to all of the events throughout the east coast. For its debut at the European Experience in Savannah, Georgia, we outfitted the car with the Vossen Forged LC-106T, measuring 20×9 front and rear and fully polished with gloss clear powdercoat—a perfect accent to the existing polished trim that defines the car’s sleek lines.
A couple months and many thousands of miles later we caught back up with the Passat at Waterfest in Englishtown, New Jersey to swap out the wheels for something new. Given the long-lasting multipiece wheel trends within the European car scene, it only made sense to outfit the car with the new Vossen x Work series, particularly the VWS-2 with a Gloss Gold center and Polished Anodized barrel.
Fast-forward another couple months to H2O International, in Ocean City, Maryland, and we were swapping wheels again—this time for another set of LC Series wheels because the styling just fit so well!
The Vossen Forged LC-109T wheels were a new model for us, formally debuting at SEMA 2016 and following the same lip concept principles of the rest of the LC Series. This time fully polished with a brushed face, the LC-109T was powdercoated with our transparent light smoke option, giving a slightly darker hue than the original gloss clear LC-106T, while still perfectly complimenting the polished trim throughout the car and hard line installation in the trunk.
A year and three sets of wheels later, the 2016 VW Passat R-Line is closing in on the end of its duties, but if you happen to reside in the South Florida region you can still catch it at Eurotripper this weekend!
Many thanks to our friends at Volkswagen, as well as our great and generous partners, Accuair and Boden Autohaus for collaborating with us on the Passat R-Line. Stay tuned for some new Volkswagens sporting Vossen Wheels in 2017!
Volkswagen of America / @vw
Accuair / @accuair
Boden Autohaus / @boden_autohaus
Words & Photos: Sam Dobbins (@sdobbins_vossen)
Video: Anthony Purcell (@halcyonphoto) / Anthony Delapaz (@dela_vossen)
