One thing I always thought was peculiar about the styling of the MK7 GTi was that it has black side skirts and rear valence but the lower front of the bumper is all mostly body-colored. I wanted to complete the black outline look in the front as well so I picked up a textured black plastic Maxton Designs V2 lip.
Maxton V2 Lip Installed - 11/16/19
It doesn't really make the front much lower but it does extend out the sides an inch or two more so I will have to be a little more careful when going up steep inclines. The upside is that this is plastic and relatively cheap so it's mostly a sacrificial lip.
Prepping the lip for install
It came very nicely packaged from ECS Tuning and included a slew of bolts and nuts to secure it to the bumper. I felt that was unnecessarily complex so I grabbed a pack of self-tapping screwed instead and just used the included washers to help spread the force a little. You're supposed to install this with two people but it's a light enough piece that, with the car on the QuickJack, I was able to hold it in place with one hand while getting the first screws in then I went to town putting in around 16 screws to make sure it doesn't fall off at high speed.
It's even TUV certified
bolts securing the lip
The fitment is really good. It follows the various contours of the stock bumper so it's actually easy to align. Overall I'm happy with it and I'm actually glad it's not too rigid so it'll have some give in case I scrape it on something. The car's only lowered an inch so I don't foresee there being too many problems.
deAutoLED brake/tail/turn LED set - 11/16/19
A lot of people retrofit the Euro LED tail lights or the MK7.5 lights but I'm personally quite happy with the rear lights. I do wish they were LED because I hate dealing with burnt-out bulbs and I like that they're brighter and redder. I picked up a set of LED brake/tail/turn bulbs to replace the factory incandescent ones and more importantly, I also replaced the reverse bulbs with very bright LED bulbs so that I have great visibility even when reversing in dimly lit places.
Tail lights removed to swap bulbs - 11/16/19
It's a pretty simple process. Just had to remove the rear lights to access the bulbs and also open up a panel on the hatch to replace the rear bulbs and reverse LED there too.
LEDs swapped in
deAutoKey LEDs installed - 11/16/19
I also spent the better part of the morning enjoying driving the Cayman out one last time through Bear Mountain. With the temps constantly dipping into freezing and salt being laid on the roads, it was time to put her away for the winter. I forgot how amazing this car is to drive. It's just so visceral and it truly is a different driving experience from my other cars.
Final drive for 2019
Getting her clean before being put way
She was also pretty dirty so before putting her away, I got her washed and put the cover on to mark the official end of her 2019 driving season. Lots of fun adventures and looking forward to taking her to track next year.
