DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Nick At The Legion Of Honor

Q: This is such a cool car. Do you have a nickname for it?

A: Like the front license plate reads, "SLOW CAR."

Q: Any specific reason why you call it that?

A: Because it's not. It's a sarcastic sense of humor thing that I thought was kind of funny because this car is kind of like a cult car. All the people who own it are usually really into it. There are a lot of people out there with their own personal things to customize their GTI to make it their own. That's my way of making it my own, among other things.

Q: That's great to hear. So what are some more things that you've done to personalize your own GTI?

A: I went down to San Carlos and went to this vinyl company. The dude's name is Lyle and he has a company called Vinyl Styles. He is an awesome guy. He made my mirrors black, my roof black, my back taillights black. He whited out my side markers--the orange things. He did all that and just did an awesome job! I've seen no GTI with the same little things that I've done, so it makes me really happy.

Q: Wow, that sounds really awesome. I've noticed this is a six-speed. I was wondering how fast have you ever gone in this car?

A: Am I going to get in trouble for answering this? One time, when I was going to Vegas for my birthday, on the road out there, I went about 140 mph with room to go, but I had these stupid little stock tires. They put these terribly stock tires on the car. I threw those things off and I got really nice tires now though.

Q: If you could narrow it down to one thing, what's your favorite thing about your car?

A: Just how fun it is. Every time I get in my car, there's never a time when I'm unhappy when I'm driving. I'm always happy to drive. It's just a pleasure to be in this car at all times. It's fun! That's what my dad would always say when I was younger. He was like, "You got to find a car that you love." Me and my dad are both gear heads. He always talks about his car. He's had Porsches and everything like that. He was like, "I will never ever say no to driving you somewhere just because it's that much fun to me," and that's what this car is like.

Q: You've done quite a bit of work to this car. Are there any major modifications that you still intend to complete?

A: Yes! I plan on putting a whole new suspension on it. I'm going to get a new inner cooler. Then the last thing that I'm going to do is...well my car currently is stage two out of three stages. Stage three means that you have a whole new turbo for your engine, a much, much bigger turbo that gives it about 120 extra horsepower. That is what I plan on doing. That's about $10,000 down the road.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about your car?

A: For me, my car is a little piece of my life. It's almost like a little part of my family. It might sound absurd to other people, but it is like a part of me. It's really cool actually because my girlfriend, she has a 2011 white Volkswagen Jetta, which is awesome, like totally random. I met this girl and she has the same exact car as me, almost. So she is going to bring her car down here and I'm actually going to do the same stuff as I did to my car to her car. She wants to get some new wheels and stuff. That's going to be a lot of fun. But yeah, this car is a big part of my life. I just want to keep doing stuff to it. Make it cooler and cooler and faster and faster.