Bought a MK2 GTI

[sports racer]

Now this is an extension bar!



The next time I get a car for spares I'm not buying it from a VW mechanic. Every single bolt and screw was a fight to get undone to take off the disks and calipers. Took over an hour to do a 10 min job.

[sports racer]

I had a couple of hours to spare so replaced the Hottuning coilovers with Spax gas shocks and springs.

Much, much better.

[sports racer]

The coilovers are for sale for $250, check out the Parts for Sale section.

[golfmeup]

Your teasing me Paul! I still haven't changed my springs.

[sports racer]

Yours is still looking good Locky, those wheels really suit it but a bit more lows would be nice.

Here's mine back on the 15's.



Since I advanced the ignition I've started running 98 octane for the first time which let me advance the timing even more and the Golf has come alive. It pulls like a freight train and revs cleanly and easily to 6000. It's using less petrol too.

The occasional sprint to 180 ks is quite easily now but at that speed, at night, in the fog, the kangaroos and wombats on the road come up really quick. Turns the drive home into an Aussie country version of Mario Cart.

[golfmeup]

I love the white wheels with the white body!
I lost my work space since I moved houses. Went from a 4 car size garage down to a zero car garage!
So haven't had the chance to change the springs. I'll get there! Also need to do the heater matrix before winter hits.

[ryana89]

Since I advanced the ignition I've started running 98 octane for the first time which let me advance the timing even more and the Golf has come alive. It pulls like a freight train and revs cleanly and easily to 6000. It's using less petrol too.

The occasional sprint to 180 ks is quite easily now...:

6000rpm? 180???
Blasphemy!

(wish my 2L was that enthusiastic)

[sports racer]

As far as I know my 2L is pretty standard, even the exhaust is the restrictive single pipe manifold. I've got a Euro manifold and will fit it one day.

The block is a 2E from a MK3 and the head is the Aussie spec MK2 GTI, rated at 95 hp in 1.8 form. I don't have a clue what hp it's running now but the more I advance the timing the better it's getting. It was using 91 octane but now running 98 to get over the pinging.

[golfmeup]

Sounds like you are perfecting the 8v for the daily driver!

As I said before- I'm really missing my garage!!!

[sports racer]

I'm loving this as a daily. I was going to sell it when I've got the MK1 running but it's too good to get rid of.

Last night it started making a grinding noise coming from the left front wheel when I put it in reverse and moved back a couple of metres. I thought it's going to need something replaced $$$ but turned out to be a loose hub nut. 5 min to diagnose and 30 seconds with a 32mm socket and 1.5 metre extension bar to fix. Zero $

Ask me again how much I love this car.

[sports racer]

Autumn in Braidwood

[Mk1@4Motion]

How are things going with the Mk1. Hear you have the motor etc to get it through rego.

I'm still waiting to start my project. Will start a new thread for the 2door with what I am doing.


Only The Good Die Young 45

[sports racer]

I've got a standard 1600 motor to go into the MK1 which should make it easy to pass rego, then put the 2.0 in. That will give me a year to get an engineer to do the paperwork.

You going to the Nationals in Sydney, May 24 for the show'n'shine ?

[sports racer]

Replaced the windscreen yesterday and it would have to be one of the most nerve-wracking jobs you can do on a car. The entire time I was worried we would crack the new screen while pushing the rubber over the edge of the screen to hold it in place. I didn't take any pix because we all know what a car looks like with a screen in place.

Rego is due tomorrow so that's why the screen was replaced and the car washed. I only wash it twice a year, once for rego and again for the VW Nationals.

The Golf passed rego without any problems so I'm legal for another year.

[sports racer]

For those that don't know what else I get up to in my spare time here's a pix of my entry in the Braidwood Billy Cart Derby.



Here's the top cart. Reportedly 800 hours went into making it. The guy owns a door manufacturing business and isn't short of professional tools and jigs.



Last year I won peoples choice for best looking billy cart, this year it was the aptly named Supersonic.

If you look real close you can see it's only just a bit better built than mine. Every single bit was hand machined while all my parts came from the Braidwood tip.



Here's my cart from a few years ago.



As you can see I've grown older and more mature when it comes to building and racing billy carts.

Or so you may think .................

Last Saturday night I finished getting the cart ready for Sunday's big race and took it to the billy cart hill to test it. By the time it had stopped raining and I could have a run it was about 10 PM and the hill was pitch black. There are no streetlights on the road so I steered with one hand and had the other hand out the cart window holding onto a torch so I could see where I was going. A police car went the other way up the hill and a minute later there's a bright blue flashing light behind me.

Yes ............ I got pulled over by the police ............ in a billy cart.

Normally my instinct is to put the foot down and get away but there's no motor in the cart and it's really hard getting away whilst pushing a billy cart. By now I was at the bottom of the hill so I pulled over and got out. The policeman said it was a bit dangerous out on the open road with no rear light. He also told me to be sensible and go home.

The next day at the races someone told me one of the policemen helping with the event pulled over someone in a billy cart the previous night. The policeman told him he was expecting a kid to be in the cart and instead this old man got out. The policeman didn't know what to do so he told the old guy to go home!