I shot this car in (I'm pretty sure) early 2000 for PVW. It makes sense because the first thing I shot for a proper feature was Waterfest of 1999, and I didn't get that many cars to shoot right away. This Mk2 was a bit of a star at the shows back then because it was so crazy, so it was a pretty early "car to get" for me. I have literally BOXES of slides from my early car shooting years, and very few of them are scanned. I guess I'm saving that job for retirement or something, because I can barely bring myself to edit current shoots.
This car is really wild looking to 2009 eyes, it was pretty over the top back then, but now (with the euro/subdued/refined OEM exterior/shaved bay/slammed/small wheels look) it looks almost impossible.
VR6 swap, chromed, with chromed core support. Not many people were doing this back then. I'm pretty sure this car had a turbo the following year, and after that? Whereabouts unknown.
"Flip paint" seemed amazing back then... it became quickly passé, but for a hot minute it was the thing to have on the crazy show cars. I can't imagine painting this full 16v trim kit with all the spoilers, plastic parts, diffusers, eyebrows, etc. that it is wearing. Since you can't touch up this paint, you would have to be extremely careful to not flex any of this plastic too much. This is another huge difference in a lot of today's cars, since everything is so low (and if you aren't rubbin' you ain't dubbin'), a lot more cars have the odd scraped front lips, and paint losses. The 18" Racing Hart wheels were also pretty much unheard of on Mk2's at the time in this size... I think there was only one tire that was low enough profile to squeeze these on.
Completely red interior: check.
I think it's pretty interesting to look back at some of these old feature cars, and I will try to do this every so often. As with music, clothes, and pretty much everything considered cool, tastes change quite a bit, but it's fun to look back, get some ideas, and say WTF?!? (and maybe that Project Scirocco would look kinda cool in purple flip with full euro treatment? hmmmmmmmmm)
-J blaksquirrel
