I’d like to start off by saying that this article has been in the works for nearly a year. As we all know, life has a way of getting extraordinarily busy at times and when it rains, it pours. I’ve known Chobey Badgio for the better part of a decade through the water-cooled Volkswagen scene in the States and when we bumped into one another in Helen, Georgia this past spring the obligatory VAG banter ensued. He had recently finished a massive overhaul on his Mk6 GTI and after a few minutes of chatting I knew I wanted to feature this car for the magazine. Enter this ‘Dubber dad’ and what is sure to be the only all-wheel-drive, manual swapped, four door, 3.6-litre Mk6 GTI on the planet.

As he got older he began to take the car seriously and started to unbugger a lot of the modifications

About ten years prior to us talking shop in the beautiful little Northern Georgia paradise that rivals the aura of Berchtesgaden, Chobey was in the process that all of us as VAG nuts remember so very well; the moment we buy our first car. The Winston Salem native took a ride up the road and found himself in Rural Hall, North Carolina to inquire about a ’10 GTI that he had been looking at for a bit. Unfortunately, for the selling party who was in dire straits due to a costly divorce settlement, Chobey seized the opportunity to snag the Candy White DSG example for only eight thousand bucks. The car was in great shape in its stock form, but like all of us here, the modification snowball started and ultimately hit him like an Alpine avalanche.

Within the first several weeks the car wore its first set of aftermarket rollers and like many of us, it didn’t stop there. For a couple of years the GTI was left well enough alone other than a handful of other cheap wheels and a spritzer of Plastidip in certain areas that seemed to be all the rage with the younger crowd back in those days. As he got older he began to take this car seriously and started to “unbugger” a lot of the modifications and aesthetic changes that he had performed when he first purchased the car. A modest set of monoblocks in the form of VMR V710’s found their way under the arches and a mild drop was achieved using ST coilovers. This little hatch was beginning to take shape, but Chobey knew that it was time to up the ante.

He had been working as a technician at Everything Euro which is based in his hometown of Winston Salem for a while and one of his primary roles for the aforementioned outfit was installing air suspension setups on customer vehicles. Like any skill set, the longer he honed his craft the more proficient he got. That being said, it wasn’t long before a set of Air Lift Performance struts found a new home in his Mk6. I can confidently say that at this point, folks began to take notice of his work and some of the finer tweaks were made to bring the car to a more ‘showable’ standard. Management consisted of Air Lift’s more primitive, yet sufficient V2 system and that remained for a short period of time before he wanted something that was more intuitive and modern.

The Futuras did exactly what they were supposed to do – snap necks like a glow stick

Air Lift 3P became the brains of Chobey’s bags and when that change was made, his wheels followed suit. I’m a diehard BBS and Rotiform guy, but the double-stepped OZ Racing Futura hoops that he chose were absolutely trick. They measured at 10×18” squared with an offset of +32mm. The result was a perfect fender to lip stance which, if you know me, you’ll understand that I will always have a soft spot for extremely aggressive wheel fitment no matter how old I get. The Futuras did exactly what they were supposed to do; snap necks like a glow stick and draw in the folks that couldn’t get enough of the bright and shiny things, but it got to the point where he wanted his GTI’s go to match its show. At this point he decided that the CCTA that the Wolfsburg think tanks engineered a decade and a half ago wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Chobey’s mental wheels started spinning and one evening he had an epiphany; let’s cram a B6 Passat’s 3.6 litre six shooter into the bay. Naturally aspirated power delivery, reliability, but most importantly; the audible report of Chewbacca seeing a scantily clad Twi’lek at the Mos Eisley cantina.

The search for a donor vehicle to source the powerplant from didn’t take long and shortly after the seed was planted, Chobey plucked a lower mileage 3.6-litre VR6 from a wrecked Passat rather quickly at his local yard. There was a slight tinge of apprehensiveness that he felt with taking a perfectly presentable show car and breaking it like a moody stallion in order to fulfil that ever present itch to create Wookie noises. The nut and bolt work wasn’t incredibly difficult, but once the lump was situated in the bay, that was the least of his problems as someone that’s never completed an engine swap in the past.

The following weeks consisted of numerous sleepless nights that were filled with the incessant studying of wiring diagrams until it all began to click. And no, I’m not talking about the starter. Everything began to come together all while taking care of a newborn baby, which in and of itself is a mind numbingly daunting task. I personally will never forget the day that this car fired up for the first time. The elation that Chobey felt was something that nobody could ever take from him. Garage built. Grass roots. Grit. Graft. And the best part is that we’re only three quarters of the way through this incredible story.

The DSG transmission was pulled in favour of a six speed manual gearbox and AWD drivetrain

Most folks would be more than satisfied with the fact that they took on a successful engine swap project in their garage while in the midst (or mist) of changing dirty diapers, but Chobey had one last card up his sleeve; Haldex and another pedal had entered the chat. The final form was what he’d been seeking for years. The DSG transmission was pulled in favour of a six speed manual gearbox and AWD drivetrain that was sourced from a ‘12 Golf R that had unfortunately met an untimely demise. In between stroller sessions he finalised the driveline swap and ultimately debuted the car at Alpine Volks Fair this past year. The baller wheels were gone. The Direct Shift Gearbox flatulence was traded in favour of rev matched down bangs. The silliness that front drive wheel spin cultivated was 86’d and all four of these dogs were fucking barking. The next time you find yourself at a VAG gig on the East Coast, you’re likely to see this unicorn. And if you don’t see it, you will undoubtedly hear it.