When I was a nipper, the only VW I was really interested in was a b**tle!. One thing lead to another however, and on my 16th birthday I became the proud owner of a 'Morris Minor'. After a couple of years with the moggy, I realised I was actually really fed up with being constantly overtaken by Novas...

::: Volkswagen Golf GTI Mark One :::

The car you see above was the result. Bought for the princely sum of 1075 squid, the car came with absolutely no service history, and suffered from a list of 'technical gremlins' as long as your arm. It did however absolutely fly, and was an ideal project car (or 'learning aid' as it eventually turned out!).

First things first, I realised the car needed some 'money' spent on it. Then followed the realisation that it actually needed new brakes all round, a new exhaust manifold, a new filler neck, new injectors and seals, a new cold start valve, replacement warm-up regulator… the list went on.

Once all this was done, I felt justified treating the car to some 'styling mods'. By far my favourite part of the whole car were the wheels - a rare set of eighties MIM 1800's, found on an old MK1 festering away in the corner of our local scrappie. Simon and I painstakingly refurbished them, and once shod with some tyres and coupled with an Apex suspension kit, I felt they finished the car off a treat.

Other mods were limited to clear indicators - which I made from Yugo Zastava reversing lamps bought from the scrappies for 50p, a manual override for the electric fan - coupled with a lower temp thermoswitch from a Golf C, and red tinted rear lamp clusters.

To cut a potentially rambling story off in its prime, I ragged the car around for a year and then sold it for £1500, which I put towards my next car, my Polo G40.

[Daniel]

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