What started your Mk1 love affair?

Mine was an impulse buy, I was looking for a Mk2 GTi  8O My mate had a nice one on a D which I liked the drive of so thought I'd get one  
Anyway, I was working in Wilmslow and saw mine for sale, when I saw it it was like an Ashes to Ashes moment and memories of 1990 came flooding back  
Italia '90 and the pain of losing to Germany, Madchester music, the lovely summer, I could go on . . . . Worked for a bloke back then who had a new White GTi cabby and I occassionaly got to drive it   I had to buy it, would've been rude not to  

at 18 i had a golf driver with the reg no A60 FLP which i placed close to look like a A GOLF P.

the things we do when we are young….i spent hours modding that car…put a gti interior in…modded the rear lights…sprayed the bonnet etc etc.

it all started from there then i had a mk2 and still now i have mk1 in the garage…and recently sold my mk1 1.8t.

i have a lot of for the mk1 and love seeing any of them on the road..

I really had my heart set on a Mini as my first car and with only about ?400 in my pocket I thought thats the only car I could afford (with any sort of character).  Then, one cold, damp January evening my sisters boyfriend took me to see a Mk1 he'd seen for sale. I can remember seeing it for the first time even now, 10 years on, and I just had to have it and ?340 changed hands that evening. Never looked back.

What do they say about buying a car in the dark??

This pic was the next morning. Thats a 16 year old me sporting a very 90's bubble jacket to date the pic!!

Dubface that's a brilliant old photo bud  :wink:

That mk1 looks quick even sitting still  8O

My brothers mate was in the forces in Germany and when he came home he had a LHD red 1.6 Gti on german squaddy plates (totally untraceable) i was 15 /16 and remember sitting on the wrong side of the car and assisting in overtaking manouvres. 8).

It was'nt until i finnished Uni that i bought a Mk2 gti16v at 21. 1st mk1 at 24 and still have it today (although a little different now).

Mrs Ant5 however had a Gambia red 5door formel E as he first car at 17. and had VW's  ever since (wont mention the Chavalier)  8O

Ant5 Jr first ride in a Mk1 was Dubboy's Oetinger  8)

well managed to get some pics of my Dads old cars that started the sickness for me and this thread!

Check these out, my Dad used to do the Blackpool orphans outing years ago and they dressed they're cars for the occasion.
I think he won top prize for it!!

I think this was around 1982 with a little me in there too!



And one the mega early rear lights, and my mum sure she'l appreciate this one!



And another with an old cortina all dressed up…



And the black cl, Again with a little me in there, I reckon about 84 this was taken. My apologies for the offensive shorts! It was acceptable in the 80's!!



Sorry about poor quality picture I'l try to replace them with some scans.
Hope you like them!

Mt dad owned a VW garage in Southampton and used to rally a golf in the 70's, and i spectacularly rolled and wrote off his immaculate GX when i passed my test !!  ops:   ops:  Thankfully i owned up to it 15 years later when he had calmed down a bit !!    Pictures of rallying and a bit of background will be going on over the weekend. Not enough real old school pics etc around. Watch this space.  

Join the club! I too wrote off my Dad's Formel E shortly after passing my test. A couple of barrel rolls into a ditch but got out with hardly a scratch. That is what drew me to them - they were well built for the time.

After a '75 Beetle, my first Mk1 was a '83 GX in Atlas Grey. Pictured here at Inters in the TRL days.



A few modifications including Kamei grille spoiler, sill extensions (never seen these since), side rub strips, 14" Silverstones, single 40 DCOE and GTi cam. Always remember how mint the body was on her, despite my neighbour reversing into it on a Christmas Day.

Sold it to some dodgy looking geezers where I think it got into trouble. Sadly no longer with us :cry:

I crept into my parents room one day and flicked through a copy my Dad's Playboy Magazine. Saw a pic of the Mk1 Golf in there and this started my car porn fascination!!

Took me a long time to get my first MK1 Golf now waiting for mine to be finished and cannot wait!!!

Sat in a Formulae E in 1984… Loved it…
Bought my 1st MK in 2001… Never looked back since…

Love them…. 8)

Family had VW cars for a lot of years, all bugs and friends all seemed to get VW cars.

Then one summer got a ride in a cabrio, absolutly froze in the back, but you couldnt wipe the smile of my face. Obviously decided to get one myself and havent looked back since. Still got the smile on my face when I drive it, just a tad bit warmer up front.

8O    8O   I REMEMBER THAT ONE!!

   I thought the music was different though?i was about 12 at the time but i could of sworn the music had saxophones and in more of a 'sleak' rock style,like Bryan Ferry?,,,Yeah..That WOULD of been better.
   
      Paul. il be the sound man when they make the next one…..not two :cry:

The Missus!!

This is boring but i heard they where fast when i was young and i was a passenger in a XR3I and thought this is a pocket Rocket!

I had heard it was not a patch on the GTI and thought 'Maybe one day'

After marriage , kids now left home it's freedom time again. So it was at last my chance for a affordable GTI.
And so the story began…………

This was my first Mk1. 1982 Lemon Yellow 1.3LS.



Paid ?400 for it in 1992 ran it for 3 years put 60K on the clock and sold it for………….?400 8)  

Never let me down - once I got rid of the filter in the fuel tank!

It prompted my mate to leave his Fords behind and by a MK1 GTI.

We both have had nothing but VW's since!

I'm not in love, so don't forget it
It's just a silly phase I'm going through….

I'm not in love, so don't forget it
It's just a silly phase I'm going through….

Fantastic bud! laughed a lot at that one!!

I for one am really enjoying hearing how it all started for everyone.

Ok so I'm not old (24) and I was never driven about in a mk1 as a kid (my mk1 shares the same birthday as me!), now being that I am younger than most on the site you might ask why didnt he just get a corsa or a fiesta or anything else that the chavs are driving these days? Well for me back in 2006 I went on ebay just looking at the different cars that where about and came across a y reg gti and it just looked like a beast and had to have it.
I didnt have alot of money being a student at the time so I got a happy rider bus from gloucester to heathrow for ?1 (no joke) then flew to aberdeen for ?14 with BMI then drove it all the way back to Gloucester, in a day! Crazy I know as all I had seen were pictures but I just had one of them moments where nothing else mattered I had to have that car! Beleive it or not I wrote it off 2 weeks later in cardiff! Anyway to cut a long story short(er) I bought one locally not so long ago which I'm doing up, after the first one there was no going back, I'm hooked for life and when people say why do you keep getting mk1s they are old and nasty?

I say "If you have to ask, you will never understand"

had no money needed a ?100 diesel  8O  found one on the bus route,jumped off and brought it for ?150,he just replaced the battery and starter motor as it wouldnt start,that came to more than the price i paid for the car  8O that started the craze,i loved that car,went everywhere in it,a ambulance pulled out into the side    got scrapped when mot run out,the BX TZD estate was mine,sold it to pops to buy the house,that was a good car for french  
seem to buy mk1 diesels with towbars too  :wink:

number 1 derv






number 2 derv

This was a good motor,had to put a heater matrix and water pump on it 3 days after buying it,335,000 miles when i scrapped it,ace car,engine run away on the m5 coming from scotland,oil in air intake,never seen so much smoke  8O  wouldny start off the key after that,had to use easy start every day  






now






Bert

As a kid inalways had a model of a gti,mars red and from then i always wanted one, ok,so i did'nt get drivwn abot ina mk1 as a kid, i got driven about ina 1985 mk2 polo sport coupe in lemon yellow, my mum and dad boght it second hand whne it was 6 months old and i was new born!, loved that little vw, we had it til 2003. i passed my test in 2004 and bought a mk3 golf 1.4(boo!) wrote that off and bought a nissan sunny 1.3(BOO!!!!) Then wrote that off and bought and bought a mk4 polo1.0L, which was'nt bad.

The i worte that off in a fight between a boulder in scotland, the boulder won and i got banned for 1 month so gave driving a rest til late 2006,then i thoght i won't something good, that i cvan work on that most importantly reminds me of the old polo mm and dad used to have, so i found anice 1983 1.1 3 dorr c on ebay, the guy lived 2 minutes round the coner and that was that, its still the bezst car i ever owned, despite the watewr pmp packing p after a week of bying it!

took that off the road for a ill fated resto and ended p selling the sheel(still regret that to this day!) boght a daim ond silver 1983 gx a few months later as missed my mk1 much, the engine was kack so replaced it with a 1.5, sold that 10months in to ownership as i had spotted a car i had always wa\nted, a tired bt usable mk1 gti in mars red! its just waiting to do some b road bashing and i love all the vw's i've owned, but the mk1's ho,d a very special place in my heart,

thanks for reafing my essay! and sorry for the spelling mistakes, i'm a bit merry! :mrgreen:

Tom :wink: