500 Words with Derrick Wolthoff
Utah has great skiing, amazing topography, awesome people and the top-rated Miller Motorsports complex. But a premier destination for automotive tuning? You wouldn’t think so but you’d be wrong. The next time you’re near Salt Lake City (and happen to drive a sporty German car), head to Makes and Models. Chances are you’ll leave in a cloud of tire smoke with a lot more power.
“We are VAG specialists” explained MM’s Derrick Wolthoff.
“But we also work with a lot of Porsche, Bentley, BMW and Mercedes cliental. We like German cars and have a lot of experience with making them perform at Utah’s higher altitude and extreme climate.”
“We just finished installing VF-Engineering’s supercharger system on the Audi R8 GT… it’s absolutely incredible. It’s making huge power….monstrous power… but it has remained completely well-mannered and drivable. That is very impressive.”
“A lot of high-performance systems are an “on or off” type thing, you know, the clutch is either in or out, the power is full throttle or nothing…..not a lot of in-between. The VF Engineering system lets us have everything: huge power, great throttle response, excellent street manners and rock-solid reliability. In terms of cost-vs-performance, VFE’s supercharger program is hands-down the best solution we’ve seen so far.”
“Climate-wise, Utah is the epitome of extreme. …we go from freezing cold to very hot. Plus, the altitude is just a killer of engine performance. VFE’s supercharger system has let us get much more performance from this R8 GT than I would have believed. There’s some great design and engineering going on with the VFE system. I think we’ve done 8 or 9 R8s with the VFE kit. Word gets around fast and people want what works.”
“During race season, Makes and Models provides support for Audi Motorsport. We also run several ride-and-drive programs for GT-class cars. People spend a few laps in in a VFE R8 GT and are simply stunned. It’s one of the few vehicles that can successfully meld racecar performance with refined street manners.”
It’s a good bunch of guys at M&M. Give them a happy face/thumbs up or something.
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