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**sports racer** · 2025-07-21T04:15:19

The Golf has a new owner.

Home after a very nervous 3 hour drive.

With my other MK1's

I've lusted after this car since it was built.

Here's how it looks now. Carbon fibre rocker cover has faded with all the heat cycles and oil seepage.

Different Recaro's

Good thing I have another 2 Cupra dashboards as spares. This one is missing heaps and check out the fit of that glovebox lid.

And, it's a 1978 model, not 1975 so no way was this ever a Swallowtail.

**sports racer** · 2025-07-21T04:38:56

They say never meet your idols, you'll be disappointed.

This MK1 is beautiful to look at.

BUT

The ride is rough - fixable. I have a lot of suspension parts for MK1's.
LOUD - no sound system is is going to drown out the very noisy exhaust. I'll take it to an exhaust shop to add another muffler but it might just be a hole in the flexypipe.
Rattles and shakes - expected, it's a MK1.
Doesn't handle to the point of feeling dangerous in corners - not expected, especially considering it has all the good gear. Might be the tyres. I have 11 sets of wheels so easy to swap and see if that's the problem.
Half the dashboard warning lights don't go out - fixable.
No heater - I have one from my Seat Cupra, together with 2 complete dashboards.
Feels slow - maybe because my daily is an AMG Mercedes. I have another ABF motor and I'm picking up a 9A in a few weeks so might modify one of them.
Has a 5 point harness. Pain to get into but it's part of the image so stays. Got to look cool.
Window winder handle on the drivers side is only 5 cm long. What a joke. Impossible to wind window up unless you have some serious muscle. There's no winder handle on the passenger side because there's a storage binnacle attached to the door which gets in the way.

And I've only had the car for 1 day.

Do I love it? You bet.

Cheers

Paul