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As the original “hot hatch”, it’s not much of a surprise that the Mk.1 GTi is also a popular choice as a race car. Stripped out and stiffened up, these pocket rockets get even more potent around a track and are very entertaining to drive. Best of all, there’s a serious aftermarket community that supports them and they’re quite economical to run compared to some of their other German brethren. While they’re a bit long in the tooth, the GTis are still winning three decades on and still look great. Today I’ve got two different track-oriented GTis to chose from – from mild to wild. Let’s start with the more streetable version:
Over the past 15 years, the original GTi has moved from a forgotten trailblazer into an investment-grade classic. It’s been helped by the countless articles and reports that have fondly remembered this little pocket rocket as one of the best enthusiast cars ever made. We’ve seen the result of this first-hand; I joked about how very Clarkson-esque I was having sold my 1984 GTi for $300 in the late 1990s when we featured the back-to-back $18,000 1983 GTi and $17,000 1984 GTi. If it sounds a bit crazy to pay those prices, for the buyers those cars they were obviously looking for the best example possible. If you can back down your standards a touch and are looking for a solid driver that’s a bit more reasonably priced, this 1984 may be a good opportunity for you:
Okay, call it wishful thinking, but as the “white stuff” descends on New England I think it’s a great opportunity to look at a the perfect winter car – an all-white Volkswagen Cabriolet. By perfect car, of course I mean it’s the perfect car to hide in a snowbank and dream of a warmer climate. Plus, the wheels are affectionately known as “Snowflakes”! In all seriousness, these Cabriolets soldiered on long after their Mk.1 brethren had been replaced by the second generation Golf. It wasn’t necessarily laziness on the part of Volkswagen, but a testament to the lasting appeal of this not-so-cheap but cheery convertible. Of course, if you were “Daddy’s girl” in the 1980s you were probably destined for an automatic version of today’s triple-white “Molly Ringwald” edition Cabriolet, but thankfully this example has an more fun to drive manual:
In lieu of the normal “Tuner Tuesday” posts, today I decided to write up two home-brew specials in the likeness of many tuners. We started with the 1968 BMW 1600 S14 swap, a rare to see model with some really great looking and fun-increasing modifications. But I think the cake might go to this afternoon’s Christmas Eve special, a 1977 Volkswagen Scirocco that has more period modifications than you’ll usually see – but manages to pull it off really well! That can’t always be said for 1980s-era modifications in general, as quite a few were in questionable taste. That’s part of what makes this Scirocco so special and neat to see, if seeing an old Scirocco wasn’t neat enough. We’ve gotten to see two this week, the all original and mint condition 1981 Scirocco and today’s tuned example:
The Volkswagen Scirocco was a clean design when it was originally launched, and in my mind is even cleaner today. The pretty simplicity of the design really sets it apart from the more recent offerings from pretty much every car manufacturer. While the Scirocco was never intended to be a race car or scorch you with light-your-hair-on-fire performance it is a neat package that combined a pretty Italian design with reliable German underpinnings. Three decades on, finding these cars in any state is pretty rare – but especially rare in the state we find this 1981 Scirocco today:
