Research, research, research. After 8 months of owning mine I feel like I'm now getting a real sense of what should and should not be done with these cars. My advice... take it slow. Most will point you towards the TT build. As long as you don't overdo it and do all the supporting mods, reliability won't be an issue.
There's hundreds of threads to research and most will have the answers you are looking for.
Anyhow, welcome and good luck!