The Original one & only Gulf Golf 22 years of ownership

The MK1 is still living!!!

Nice to have you back

welcome back martin

just done some quick maths, 249bhp/tonne!

love this car  :wink:

Those arches look sweet….  :y:

yummy looks great!!!

Welcome back mate… Missed ya

Looks like we were both away for about the same time… shame mine is nowhere near as nice as yours tho….

Hi thanks for all the comments and interest,thought you might like a bit of history on the build
Having owned a Mk2 16v for nearly 5 years, it was time to let it go when our daughter Isabella(Izzy) was born back in 1998, I got by for the next six years with a collection of Rent-a-wrecks and Motorcycles. After our son Sebastien(she still has not picked up on the fact I named him after the WRC Champion!!)was born in Jan 2005, she who must be obeyed put her foot down and stated that ?There would be no more motorcycles in this house!!!?.
A compromise was agreed on where the oldest child in the house(me!) would find and build himself a Mk1 project car as long as the cost would not exceed a ?1000(That came and went a long time ago!!)
So using the latest technology known to man (or Ebay!!) I set about finding a project. Then I got a call from a good friend of mine Dan at VW Spares, Wrotham in Kent, he just happened to have a bare Mk1 small rear light bodyshell with welded in roll cage that was cluttering up his workshops, would I be interested? I think he was somewhat shocked to find me at his door within 20mins of his call, I had a quick look and we settled on a price of ?290 and use of his flatbed to take it oop north to my Dad's workshop in Derby. Then as if fate was smiling on me I happened across a copy of Auto trader and in the spares section was the following Mk1 Cabrio fitted with 16v engine spares or repairs ?300,yet again I was off .The cabby to be fair was very worse for wear, rotten sills ,A pillars and badly repaired on O/s rear quarter panel, but had rear disc conversion,Eibach A/R/B,s front and rear and a 1.8 16v which surprisingly was very sweet, fitted with tubular manifold, 50mm intake manifold and Piper Cams ,a little bit of haggling ensued and the sum of ?250 changed hands with free delivery chucked in .
As you are all aware that there are a awful lot of differences between the Convertible/Hatchback Models, so to be on the safe side I purchased a rather tired and yet again rotten Mk1 Gti in Lhasa green from Northgate Fiat in Canterbury(Trade in originally from the Hythe area)anyone know it?,successfully bodged it through a MoT and ran around in her for 6 mths constantly selling parts of it on Ebay.
Now for the fun part of the project, it took my Father(retired panel beater) and myself 8 months to sort the body shell ready for painting ,along the way we had some pleasant shocks like the o/s engine mount was actually nowhere near where the engine would be, so we decided to use the complete inner chassis leg from the convertible as mine had been bent at some time or otherll!. My Dad then used his considerable skill to perfect the four steel wheel arches to sit over my wheel of choice. Finally the big day came to apply my chosen colours(fans of the film Le Mans will recognise these!!) we used Ford Olympic Blue and Hillman Sunset Orange.
Then it was time for the loose assembly of all the new/used bargains acquired on Ebay like the new lowered and adjustable K&W coilover suspension kit from Germany ?320 including postage, or the two Magnum carbon race seats with harnesses from Southern Ireland for ?100 the pair. But perhaps the biggest headache was the wiring looms I think the previous owner had shares in scotchlock,I filled a coffee mug with ones removed from the engine bay alone, I spent two complete days repairing the loom with soldered joints.
As you can see it?s a constantly evolving project, this year I have already converted to twin 48 Weber?s, fitted rear brake bias valves and re-located the battery to the rear boot area. I have had it tuned at B D Engineering on their rolling road and after starting with a rather piffling 112BHP @the wheels with a adjustment to the ignition settings and the main jets changed we came away with 134.2@the wheels which coupled with the fact that the car only weighs 820Kg gives great performance. Last year I pulled the engine apart and replaced the stock head and cams with a TSR pack ! head and Piper Ultimate Cams this resulted in yet another trip to the rolling road where power increased from 134.2 to 164.1@ 6500rpm.Insurance was a amazing ?197.50 including European breakdown cover from Heritage
Finally I would like to thank my wife Rowena for putting up with the almost daily trip to the Post Office to dispatch more items sold on Ebay.
Mick, Angelo and Dave at E & S Commercials,Northfleet,Kent for providing transport to move vehicle around the country and infinite patience for putting up with me!!
My Dad for all his efforts and fantastic spraying (not bad for a Oap in his seventies!!)
Specification List
Engine
1.8 16v
TSR Pack A cylinder head
Piper ultimate road Inlet and Exhaust cams
Piper Vernier Pulley
Lightened Flywheel
Black Diamond Clutch assy
4-1 TSR Tubular Manifold
Custom made Stainless steel Exhaust(Great item ?320)
02J mk4 Gti Gearbox
New fuel lines
Schrick Aluminium Sump and Baffle plate
Lower ball joint extenders
K&W Coilover Suspension Kit
Solid Alloy Top Mounts with negative camber
Poly bushed through-out
Custom Frt A/R/B rose jointed ends
Eibach  rear A/R/B
Omp rear strut brace
Stainless Steel top brace
285mm Frt discs/Green stuff pads
239mmX-drilled rear discs/Omp pads
Autocavan Super Brake bar and bias pedal box
New track rod ends
New steering rack gaiters
New frt and rear stainless brake hoses
Compomotive TH2 7x16 with Yokohama 195/45x16 Parada tyres
Magum Carbon fibre race seats x2
TRS 4-point and 3-point race harness
OMP Alloy pedals
Custom Rollcage
Alloy Foot plates
Carbon Door Trims
Alloy Passenger Foot Rest
Audi Quattro Gauges X3
Momo Steering Wheel
Sparco Gearknob
Alloy Handbrake cover
Alloy Battery Carrier
Rolling road set up came in at 144.2BHP at the wheels which was pleasing as whole car only weighs 823kg

__________________

collo16v said

Thanks its good to be back wheres wooders?

Think he lost it after you went, he posted up a thread and everything went crazy

then he even said a few nice things to peeps…

A good spec track car!!! I like it…  

I was just looking at your pics and wondered how you mounted the bucket seats? Did you take the cross member out and weld in some box section? I am trying to work out the best way to get bucket seats in with sidemounts.

Cheers

:y: Good to see you back

that gulf 'job looks awesome, suits the car.. although id be peeved at the overspray on the front panel and scuttle

must have cost more than ?1000!

Dom123 said

must have cost more than ?1000!

Yes it has now but intial costs were under a grand its probably nearer to ?3500-?4000 now!!

X said

that gulf 'job looks awesome, suits the car.. although id be peeved at the overspray on the front panel and scuttle

 :dontknow:

welcome back.

lovely motor :mrgreen:

X said

that gulf 'job looks awesome, suits the car.. although id be peeved at the overspray on the front panel and scuttle

why do you always find fault with everything…

Lawsy said

X said

that gulf 'job looks awesome, suits the car.. although id be peeved at the overspray on the front panel and scuttle

why do you always find fault with everything…

Ahhh naivety of youth

so whens the next track day for you then Martin?

i need to get back on my racing photography so if I'm free one weekend might pop along and get some pics in…

:dontknow: