Apparently there was a life before all this Volkswagen nonsense came about.
Car-less and living in Birmingham, while at "Uni" (I say uni, I'd stopped actually going to lectures by this point.) I met a guy called Adam through my house-mate at the time Amy. Adam used to visit every now and then from their mutual home-town of Derby in his ex Swiss-Army (seriously) '66 splitscreen camper. Neither of us were part of any clubs at the time, just had an inexplicable love for VWs and pretty much talked about them the entire time we were in each other's company!
Adam's sister (also called Amy) had a mk2 golf at the time but fast forward to June 2005 and the car wasn't being used any more. "We're looking to get rid of it" Adam says down the phone "We want you to have first refusal". Awesome! Living in Brum and working in Walsall was killing me in terms of train ticket prices and wasted commuter hours, and knowing the car had 10months of test on it I said "I'd love it!", but I had to get the money together for it, and didn't know how long it would take.
Fast forward a month or so, still no closer to my financial goal, another call from Adam "We really need the car gone. If you do want it, you can have it for nothing"
"I'll get on the case" and I did.
Conveniently for me, my cousin's son was being Christened near Nottingham a week or so before the car needed to be shifted, trains were booked, places and times were organised and Amy arranged to be in Derby that weekend to guide me on the drive home. Tax organised but the current owner and Insurance money organised via the small matter of a parental loan (well... donation) we were ready to rock!
Now, considering I'd not actually driven anything for about 2 years and prior to that probably only covered about 200 miles since passing my test going to a new town and getting in a new car that Sunday summer evening was a bit daunting for me! But all went well, the car behaved itself all the way back to Bham, and then to work in Walsall the next day.
I was working at a performance car parts shop at the time called MPC, and with a bedroom wall covered in posters eagerly ripped form the centre of my religiously bought PVW magazines I started to hit the Vortex hard! Plans were afoot.
Within the first couple of months of ownership came my first VW bodge... the carb flange gasket on the Weber conversion gave up the ghost a mile from the shop. Me being a mechanical 'tard resulted in my calling my boss who came to my rescue with a Gutbuster sandwich and a roll of electrical tape.
Job jobbed. Cheers Spencer!
Decemeber loomed, and with my one modification under my belt, converting the quad lamp grille over to single rounds, the Weitec coilovers on the shelf at work were too much of a temptation!
Unfortunately this was when we discovered the car was a *bit* of a wreck...
Obviously, the above is a result of much stabbing with a flathead screwdriver, but it's certainly less good, and not really a solid enough base for modification.
The coilover idea was canned, and after a December trip back to Derby to see the South Normanton Community Church Nativity play (Adam's Father is the vicar there) the car was suffereing from chronic carb icing (not that I knew what it was at the time) and conveniently cut out on me at a McDonalds on the A38.
Hopped back in the car after stuffing a McBacon roll and hash brown down my throat about to call the recovery service tried the key, fired right up. Onwards!
This was however the beginning of the end for the car. On my way to work to following Monday, leaving the M6 downshifted to 3rd on the sliproad, Bang. Wouldn't go any further . Left the car at the side of the busy motorway junction, got collected by Spence in the Civic Type R with the intention of towing it home with my pal Craig at the end of the day.
Coming back to the car at the end of play, in the dark, glass everywhere, of of the local pikeys had smashed the passenger window and stolen the Sony CD head unit that never worked and was in a shoebox under the passenger seat.
The last straw. Time to move on it was December 19th and I needed a car to get me back to Winchester on Christmas eve... but that's another story.
F389 EWG was then towed to the yard at work, and in the long run raped for parts and left for dead until it finally met it's maker in May 2006.
Gone...
Adam's sister (also called Amy) had a mk2 golf at the time but fast forward to June 2005 and the car wasn't being used any more. "We're looking to get rid of it" Adam says down the phone "We want you to have first refusal". Awesome! Living in Brum and working in Walsall was killing me in terms of train ticket prices and wasted commuter hours, and knowing the car had 10months of test on it I said "I'd love it!", but I had to get the money together for it, and didn't know how long it would take.
Fast forward a month or so, still no closer to my financial goal, another call from Adam "We really need the car gone. If you do want it, you can have it for nothing"
"I'll get on the case" and I did.
Conveniently for me, my cousin's son was being Christened near Nottingham a week or so before the car needed to be shifted, trains were booked, places and times were organised and Amy arranged to be in Derby that weekend to guide me on the drive home. Tax organised but the current owner and Insurance money organised via the small matter of a parental loan (well... donation) we were ready to rock!
Now, considering I'd not actually driven anything for about 2 years and prior to that probably only covered about 200 miles since passing my test going to a new town and getting in a new car that Sunday summer evening was a bit daunting for me! But all went well, the car behaved itself all the way back to Bham, and then to work in Walsall the next day.
I was working at a performance car parts shop at the time called MPC, and with a bedroom wall covered in posters eagerly ripped form the centre of my religiously bought PVW magazines I started to hit the Vortex hard! Plans were afoot.
Within the first couple of months of ownership came my first VW bodge... the carb flange gasket on the Weber conversion gave up the ghost a mile from the shop. Me being a mechanical 'tard resulted in my calling my boss who came to my rescue with a Gutbuster sandwich and a roll of electrical tape.
Job jobbed. Cheers Spencer!
Decemeber loomed, and with my one modification under my belt, converting the quad lamp grille over to single rounds, the Weitec coilovers on the shelf at work were too much of a temptation!
Unfortunately this was when we discovered the car was a *bit* of a wreck...
Obviously, the above is a result of much stabbing with a flathead screwdriver, but it's certainly less good, and not really a solid enough base for modification.
The coilover idea was canned, and after a December trip back to Derby to see the South Normanton Community Church Nativity play (Adam's Father is the vicar there) the car was suffereing from chronic carb icing (not that I knew what it was at the time) and conveniently cut out on me at a McDonalds on the A38.
Hopped back in the car after stuffing a McBacon roll and hash brown down my throat about to call the recovery service tried the key, fired right up. Onwards!
This was however the beginning of the end for the car. On my way to work to following Monday, leaving the M6 downshifted to 3rd on the sliproad, Bang. Wouldn't go any further . Left the car at the side of the busy motorway junction, got collected by Spence in the Civic Type R with the intention of towing it home with my pal Craig at the end of the day.
Coming back to the car at the end of play, in the dark, glass everywhere, of of the local pikeys had smashed the passenger window and stolen the Sony CD head unit that never worked and was in a shoebox under the passenger seat.
The last straw. Time to move on it was December 19th and I needed a car to get me back to Winchester on Christmas eve... but that's another story.
F389 EWG was then towed to the yard at work, and in the long run raped for parts and left for dead until it finally met it's maker in May 2006.
Gone...