From Cult Classic 6

Red Mk1 Lysholm, a photo by DUKEDLF on Flickr.

My old Mk1 is looking good this year, and it looks like the current owner has been busy over the winter. Black accents replace the chrome, and the white-walls are gone. Looking very nice indeed.

_WRS

Via Flickr:
Red Mk1 Lysholm

Video Post: The Kamei Golf at the Nurburgring

Mike, Chris and the guys over at Clubgti are a never-ending treasure-trove of rare bits of information on all things VW Motorsport, especially the famous Kamei Golf. Chris just posted this video from 1977, which shows, among other things such as a GELO Porsche 935, a few fleeting seconds of the world's most-famous sporting Golf.

_WRS

Across the pond: Kamei Racer Replica

The Mk1. The original. The Best. And for years, sort of put on the back burner of the scene here in the USA. Sometime in the past couple of years that all changed, and they became the 'scene' thing to have. Unfortunately almost all of these cars or builds are more towards the show than go. Not that there's anything wrong with that per say, but as the most nimble, lightweight and spartan VW, it seems criminal to take a Mk1 and burden it with show queen status.



Not everywhere though, and it seems the tide may be turning. For example, Luis's killer brown supercharged 8v over on VW Vortex, which is sporting the key elements but has dare I say, a ride height and look that can be thrown around a bit? And nary a 'lower it' to be seen. GMP Performance restored their long moth-balled and historically significant racer, and there seems to be a renewed interest in the rich, if somewhat hard to research motorsport history of the VW brand.

Michael Flynn, a reader over the Atlantic and a member Club GTI, sent over word of his own motorsport-themed rebuild. His is of one of the most famous VW race cars of all, the Kamei Golf. The Kamei Golf is one which needs little introduction to the hardcore, but for the uninitiated it was one of the most visible and visually impressive GTIs to put tire to track. It raced in Germany at first, then over in the USA, and in fact is still here.



Not looking quite the same rather obviously, with that Westmoreland front end, but it's the same car.



Mike is going for the classic look naturally, and is nearly there. He's got a very detailed thread of the build, which looks to be quite promising. (and that's all paint! no vinyl wrap)



The car runs a 2.1 TSR-built 8v motor, with a 'Pack C' head and TSR cam. TSR is / was one of the classic tuners of the 90s over in the UK, and their heads are the stuff of legend...and the motor is quite stout, as you can see in this track-day video that Mike sent over a few days back. Sort of makes me a bit teary thinking back to my own Mk1; the sound is quite similar.

So I suppose all is not lost, after all what goes around comes around, and eventually the hard-parking / no fun to drive thing will become passé and we'll swing back the other way. Sometime soon I hope to be back into a Mk1 myself, and you can bet it'll be built for performance. Looks too, but the car has to perform, after all it's like they say: Going fast = looking good.

Pics / info: Thanks to Michael Flynn / Club GTI UK - Check their forums for an amazingly full history of the Kamei Golf.

_WRS

Pic Post: (vintage) Mk1 at the Ring

May, 1977 at the Nurburgring.

_WRS

Pic Post: Bill Scott / Milt Minter Trans Am Scirocco

Years ago, VW ran a pair of Sciroccos in the Trans Am series and, on occasion, in IMSA. They were driven by Bill Scott (42) and Milt Minter (43) and were a really something else, even running in the 12 hours of Sebring in the late 70s. I wonder where they are now? I did a little poking around, and it would seem that one of the cars (42) was written off, perhaps at Sebring as they are listed as not finishing, but the #43 car may still be floating around. Some say it made it's way to a VW museum, but one would assume that there would be at least one picture of it from the recent past, rather than the ancient past.



If it is at a VW museum, it's probably in storage. From what I have read these two cars basically ran Super Vee motors. Pretty much a classic 4-cylinder VW engine, built by Bertils: 1600cc, 8 valves, carb'd, dry sumped, and reving to 10k RPM and making over 180hp (depending on where you're reading the info.) It's a shame these older VWs haven't been preserved as well as some of the more expensive cars of their day....but then I suppose there weren't as many to start with.

Pic Credits: Unknown

_WRS

Save the 8v - My first damn car edition

Damn it. These are the words, among many more colorful and perhaps less appropriate words, which I say to myself when I think about my very first Volkswagen. It was my first car, a Rich Red (not Mars Red) 1984 Rabbit GTI.



It had 137,000 miles, and was still in the hands of the original owner, a guy named Glen who I was put in touch with by a shop owner named Bart Weinberg. Glen told me stories of how he had really wanted a Scirocco all those years ago, but was too tall to fit into one comfortably. The GTI fit the bill however (lucky for me) and so he went home with one. It was $8496 in 1984, and I picked it up for $2000 in 1995.



Seemed like a fair price, as it was in fairly decent shape, but it wasn't perfect. It ran pretty poorly thanks to about 10,000 vacuum leaks in the CIS fuel system, and it had a little rust...a little leak in the windshield, the usual. But it was mine, and it was everything I hoped it was. Back then a Rabbit GTI was pretty end of the todem poll. The VR6 GTI had just been released, and the 16v Mk2s were still pretty quick as far as things on the street.



It wasn't long before I had a host of Autotech parts for the engine, SPAX suspension, Euro bumpers, a Momo steering wheel, and some pretty sweet Borbet Type C copies. From there a little magazine called Performance VW started up and that was pretty much it. It wasn't long before a smoothed out, Euro-style look was what I wanted. If you want to get specific, it was the cover car of the August 1997 issue (Euro Express) that sealed the deal. This was something I could make happen.



By that winter money had been saved, and the car had been dropped off at a guy's home garage (for body work). His name was Toby Kuser, and he was...well I don't know who recommended him, but I'll be damned if it wasn't some of the best paint and body work I've ever seen. I may not have known it at the time, but knowing what I know now?



Well let's just say it's looking pretty good all things considered. After the car was finished in the body shop it ran around for a couple years, still on the 1.8 8v engine, but now with Compomotive MO wheels in 16x7" and a combination of Jamex springs and Bilstein shocks, and finally a set of H&R coilovers. The judges at Waterfest '99 were impressed with that, and ultimately awarded the car 3rd in class.



After that it sat, somewhat neglected, under cover behind my parent's house. The sad results of a halfway completed G60 engine swap.



I had the best of intentions, but least of funds, and only after I sold the swap (with a very nice and VERY expensive charger fresh from Bahn Brenner, in fact, John Betz's own personal charger, since he had now started running something called a Lysholm) to my good buddy Kevin W, was I able to get the car back on the street.







Robert Overholser, now of Lufteknic Porsche, came up for a weekend blitz install of an ABA tall block, complete with a 'By Bernie' head, Schrick 276, and a bunch of Techtonics parts (not to mention the Neuspeed throttle body). This motor was completed with Supersprint exhaust, and some fresh BBS wheels (bought from Ryan Davis, RIP) in 15x6" were thrown on for good measure.



This, was how the car was meant to be. It was loud, it idled like a top fuel dragster (like John Force as my dad James Brown always said) and with super minimal weight (and Corbeau seats) it was quite quick. The 4K gearbox didn't hurt things either. Sure it would top out at about 120mph in 5th, but it got there in a hurry.



I managed a few solid victories and surprised a bunch of much faster cars, including some V8 American Muscle. It placed second at H2O International, 2001. You can see Kevin W's G60 GTI just to the right...



Fast forward 3 more years and it was running even better, thanks to new injectors and some dyno tuning at NGP, but it was killing me (and the car) driving it 80 miles a day to and from work. Not to mention it was a very cold winter and she was a tad drafty...





A Mk3 Jetta VR6 was purchased, debt was incurred, and someone waved $4500 cash under my nose for the car. Jettisoning the car along with some emotional baggage, like an idiot, I sold it.







Within a couple months it had been unceremoniously ripped apart, a 1.8t hacked in (and I do mean hacked) and a clipper kit from a 1993 Cabriolet was shoved onto the car. Seats gone, engine gone. Beetle cluster sitting in the dash, on the bumpstops, you name it. It was heartbreaking. The guy who I sold it to had soon grown tired of it and a friend, Paul Grimes, actually bought the car and it sat at work for a while. I had the chance to buy it back, but my precious motor was gone, the car was not running right, and even if I had the money I probably wouldn't have bought it back. It broke my heart.



From there the car bounced around, Delaware, Arizona, some other places, before ending back east, just slightly north up in Pennsylvania. I knew the car was around, and had spoken with the owner a few times even, but always managed to miss the car at H2O, and never made it to any other shows the car popped up at. Until 2010.



This year I found my car, 15 years since I first bought it (October of 1995 is pretty close anyways), 7.5 since I sold it, and still with that same Toby Kuser respray. I recognized it instantly, from the slightly damaged rear hatch release (which for some reason wasn't shaved when I had the work done) and some other telling marks on the rain gutters, rocker panels, and under hood paintlines of the car. There was no denying it, this was my Mk1.



And it looks good, damn good considering the majority of the body work was done 13 years ago on a serious budget. I'm not a fan of the white walls, but hey, not my car anymore. All that matters to me is that the car is still alive, still looks good (if a little worse for wear) and once again has an 8v(!), now with a Lysholm'd ABA. (remember that G60 that almost went in, with John Betz's old charger? talk about full circle)



So, what now. Well I can't say I don't miss the car, but I am glad the current owner clearly values it for what it is...and has done a lot of work to get it back to a nice respectable condition. If you're reading this, thanks. I hung around as long as I could at H2O hoping you would stop by so I could shake your hand and maybe even sit in the old girl one more time, but it wasn't to be. All I can say is that if you DO ever plan on selling...you know where to come first. Please.



Damn it. I can't believe I sold that car. I still have the original shift knob, in the classic golf-ball dimpled style, and it resides in my current Mk3. Perhaps one day, if I'm very lucky, I can reunite it with the rest of the car. Go to Der Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr Page for the full set of pics...

_WRS

Edition 38 - 2010

My good buddy Scott aka Mr.Rallye sent over a link to some of his most recent travels over in the UK, including a massive set from the UK show, Edition 38.



As usual the Brits have it down when it comes to the older cars...Mk2 in particular. Building up a really nice Mk2-based car seems to be a bit of a lost art over here in the states, with even the Mk1 overtaking the number of truly notable Mk2 cars.



Not a huge fan of air-ride or 4-spoke wheels, but there are always exceptions.



Love this Easter-egg blue Golf, but love the BBS wheels even more.



Check out the full set of almost 300 photos over at Mr.Rallye's Flickr. He's got plenty more from Worthersee as well, so be prepared to spend a few minutes digging through the options!

_WRS

Save the 8v™ (Total commitment Matt from BFI Mk1 edition)

The word is spreading my friends. Matt from fellow east-coast shop extraordinaire, Black Forest Industries, has jumped on the bandwagon with total, complete, 100% commitment. I could never party with this guy, cause if this is what he does with a sticker, I couldn't imagine what he would do if he got his hands on a bottle of Jägermeister.



Matt's Mk1 is pretty much the ultimate Save the 8v candidate. It's an OG Rabbit GTI, and if anything deserves to be preserved (and doesn't need an engine swap) it's a Mk1 GTI. It also has a pretty dangerous looking hood release...



In Matt's own words: "She is an '84 2 seater, stripped out, JH block with 288* cam and a centerforce clutch, no a/c, riding on JOM coils... not much but she is fun as hell around town!"



With my first car being an 84 GTI I can attest to the potency of the basic Mk1 package. Although I could not disagree more on ripping out the CIS injection, which has more than enough capacity for the 1.8 8v, is dead reliable and easy to tune, he's got the spirit of the movement.



Oh yeah, and he spray-painted his f*cking hood before he added the sticker.



There's not much else to say, except that there are 10 bonus points awarded for the beer-in-koozie on the hood during installation of said sticker. So far Matt is officially in the lead of the Save the 8v campaign. Want to top him? Shoot me an email at wolfsburgrs@gmail.com and I'll send you a sticker. Additional swag, including shirts, coming soon...

_WRS

(The coolest) Pic post: Momo 935, Laguna Seca 1981

Image66
Originally uploaded by ehfone2007

You simply cannot get any cooler than this. Momo / Penthouse sponsored Joest Porsche 935 with a matching red / yellow livery on their Rabbit pickup support vehicle. Laguna Seca, 1981. I wonder where that pickup ended up? I've seen it in a video, Mosport 1981, but that's about it. Pure awesome 80s to the fullest.

_WRS

Picture: ehfone2007 via Flickr. Click the pic for larger / original image.

"I will refuse to let you drive this car home, so you MUST bring a trailer."

If you ever see the above statement when you're considering a purchase, I'd seriously start looking elsewhere. This car is everything that is wrong with the 'scene.' I actually quite like the wheels, but the rest of this thing. Well....



eBay listing

Seriously, WTF?

_WRS

Pic post: (Vintage) Mk1 in BW