Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Hang on for the ride, folks. I have not one, not two, but six Mk.2 GTis to cover here. Like all good Mk.2 GTis, none of these cars is stock, so you’re going to have to pick you poison. From engine mods to suspension, interior and exterior mods, we’ve got it all here – but don’t judge a book, because I don’t think they’re all bad. Let’s start with the one I think it the strongest example – a neat grey example with a VR6 swap:
About a week ago I posted a 1991 Volkswagen GTi 8V in Montana Green on our Facebook fan page. It wasn’t the best example, but it wasn’t horrible either and as I said finding these Mk. 2 GTis in rare colors such as Montana Green in original condition is really quite hard. For whatever reason, the questionable tastes of the watercooled crowds have claimed many victims who have suffered countless horrendous modifications in lieu of strong maintenance and careful ownership. Consequently, original condition GTis tend to command the strongest money out there, and today is no exception. Sure, you can find a VR6 or 1.8T swapped GTi from this generation for less money just about any day of the week, but if you really want to relive the days of the hot hatch at Volkswagen, the hottest setup you could get was the 1990-1992 GTi 16V 2.0, and today we see one in original configuration and relatively unmolested. Care to play the lottery? You might just need to to afford one of these:
Dan’s recent acquisition and post about the new GCFSB Project GLi got me thinking about GLis again. Truth be told, I’m firmly in “Camp Golf”, but I had a few friends with nice GLis growing up and they were always great looking and fun. One in particular was a very clean black 91 model, correct with the original BBS wheels. One day my friend came to me and asked if I wanted to buy it; I did, but it was pretty far outside of my price range at that point, so I watched it disappear to some distant land and new owner. That seems to be the story with many GLis and German car fans; everyone seems to know someone who had one at some point and now misses it. I have a feeling that today’s owner is someone who will miss this particular GLi very much, as likely will be all of his friends – who probably like me want it very much but can’t swing buying it right now. But unlike my friend’s clean 1991 2.0 GLi, today’s example shares very little in common with most GLis at all. A bunch of runs to the Volkswagen parts bag have yielded a pretty unique GLi – a VR6-swapped, Syncro-swapped sleeper. Yes, please!
If yesterday’s 1987 Jetta GLi didn’t spark your interest, perhaps one of the most sought-after GLis made will. The 1989-only “Helios Edition” Jetta GLi took the already good economy sports sedan from Volkswagen and followed the “more is better” rule, adding better BBS RA color-coded wheels and awesomely striped and hugely supportive Recaro seats. It was the prototype for what would become the standard GLi in 1990, but this car was decidedly the best GLi we had seen to that point. Only 1500 were made and they infrequently come up for sale, so while today’s isn’t in as good of shape as the 1987 from yesterday, it’s still a bit of an event to see one:
Nearly as rare to see as the 1984 Jetta GLi is the model that replaced it, the 1985-1987 8V Jetta GLi. While I’ve lamented several times that we didn’t receive the 4 door GTi until just recently, the reality is that for all intents and purposes, through 1992 the GLi was a 4 door GTi with a trunk. They shared nearly all of their running gear, styling and performance; the only difference was the non-folding seats and the trunk. Despite this the GTi was the more popular option for most, and the GLis that were sold suffered from rust and heavy use. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw a fairly clean early A2 GLi for sale; but here’s a pretty good example today!