A whiff of what's cooking in the kitchen - 'Project Carbon'...

[Sharkie]

Snap





How drivable was your car?

Paul

Love your"new" Mk1! I'm always threatening about building another .... probably won't though, might rather do a MK1 Caddy up.

Mine was eventually reasonably driveable at 20-50% of its power (at least 230kw at the front wheels) . The suspension was set up for drag racing (did low 11s quarters consistently with a rare occasional dip into the high 10s), meaning it was super stiff with anti-squat at the rear, so tough on the driver's body on normal roads. On road tyres it would just smoke the tyres anytime you gave it some without much forward movement. Weighed less than 800kg wet and could outrun a Yamaha R1 (in the early 2000s) 40-200, whilst trying its best to kill you in the process. Torque steer was exhausting.

An example of dodgyness visible in the photo ... all the windows were clear perspex to save weight. Good looking M3 style rear mirrors were bolted directly onto that perspex .... RWC? what RWC?

[77aggmk1]

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.

It is indeed a swallowtail a guy in Hobart , I think his name is Edward something was know for fitting later rear clips and other dodgey caper

[sports racer]

That would explain this pic from when Stuart first got the car.

Rear panel definitely off another car to fit the larger rear taillights.

[sports racer]

Torque steer was exhausting.

That's why I'm going to stick with the 16v naturally aspirated. I want a fast road car that won't bite back.

[Sharkie]

That's why I'm going to stick with the 16v naturally aspirated. I want a fast road car that won't bite back.

The guy who bought it from me when I left, pulled the turbo off and fitted dual sidedraft carbies to it. It sounded even better .... with the head flowed when the turbo went on, it made really decent power too (~140kw).

Some of the handling compromises were just too big to overcome and he put it in a ditch a few years later

BTW, to me the Up! is a more modern incarceration of the MK1 .. .similar weight with better suspension. In tight twisties my Red Up! outhandles both the R's and the GTI !!!! It is a very fun car to drive, all it needs is more power.

[sports racer]

Here's a few of the dodgy things I've found and need to be fixed.

Seatbelt mounting bolts extend way too far. Great for catching on anything I run over (rabbits, foxes, small children)



Exhaust hanging low because there are no supports where it kicks to the right.



Which means that this swivel joint had to be screwed tight to stop the rear part of the exhaust rotating down. Bad idea because the exhaust sheared off just next to the clamp on the left. Going to be a pain to fix because the rear beam has to be dropped to get the whole exhaust off, It's one piece.



Next we have the front swaybar, mounted UNDER the control arm! And it's too thick - 21 mm. I'll put a thinner one on, mounted correctly.



Here we have a box attached to the panel that gets in the way of the window winder. Who does this? Winder is in the box, used half a turn taken off, rotated, half a turn. Repeat until window is in required position.

[sports racer]

And here's the best stuff up of them all.

Ball joint extension so the control arm sits horizontally - good idea. Steering arm still in original position above the steering knuckle - bad idea, massive bump steer. No wonder the car handles like a pig.

How the hell haven't any of the previous owners noticed this?

[sports racer]

And I bought another 16v plus 5 speed with a Quafe diff.

9A out of a rally MK1, with all ancillaries.