What made you do it?

Just wondering really why we all have mk1's?
Were u born into a family into their dubs, or was it just because?

My dad and brother are into Triumphs, so when I got the money to get a fresh car I decided I wanted something old school, but cool, and fast! Thought of Dolomite Sprints, Vitesse convertibles, Toyota Corolla AE86, Corrado's etc, but drove a mk1 gti and loved it, and I've always loved their looks, so I did it!


My Car and My Brothers tweeked Gt6



My car and my dads car!

I was born in '76 so feel i've always had some special connection to the GTI  ops: ? As well as that growing up in the eighties the GTI was king, they were the car to have if you were doing well and wanted to be a bit flashy etc, I can remember when I was five ish I had a go-kart and I made some wheel trims out of cardboard from a cereal packet and drew them to look like the ones from a GTI and stuck them over the wheels :roll: It took another 13 years before I had my first GTI (mk2 though) and have never looked back since. I've owned well over 20 GTIs -mk1s,2s and a 3. Although i've had other cars as well from most other marques i've always had a real fondness for the mk1, I think its the overall package, styling, affordable, fun, involving you all know what what I mean. Although other cars may come and go in my household I will always have a mk1 tucked away somewhere.

There was never any other car for me.  (Except maybe's a Lancia Delta - but I was once asked by a previous partner of mine to choose "You can keep your Delta OR your Golf" - looking back I should have kept both and got rid of her - lol).

My gran had a Mk1 Golf Silver 5-door, my uncle had three Mk1 Golf 1.5 GL/GLS's, my dad had a yellow 1100 metal bumper series one, a pale blue 1100 plastic bumper and a Mars Red 1300 Driver, his mate had a very early black GTI 1.6 small tail light model.

VW is in my blood, there is no car that looks quite like the Mk1 Golf.  They handle well, they are reliable, they are pure simplicity to work on and the parts are super cheap.

When it came to choosing my first car it simply had to be a Mk1 Golf, I searched high and low and turned up a very nice Mars Red 3-door 1100, 1979 small tail light model.  I fitted the GTI arch trims, grey stripe GTI seats and Pirelli P-slot wheels.  All of my mates had Mk1 Golfs too (except Neil with his Nova fetish but that's another story).

At the moment me and my girlfriend have a Mars Red 1.3 Driver on a Polo GT engine running twin DCOE 40 Webers and a Black Campaign BRM GTI.  We also have a 1977 Mk1 Polo.  Between me and my girlfriend, we've had nine Mk1 Golfs.

Here are our current cars…


BRM Campaign GTI


Driver on Twin DCOE 40 Webers


1977 Mk1 Polo 895cc

…and here is a small collage of a few of our previous cars…



Mk1 Golfs - they are in the blood!

Good thread!

I have always been into dubs and Herbie and where I love the round sexiness of the Beetles I also adore the sexy square flatness of the Mk1's.

Simple feelings from a simple person  :cheer:

Got my cabby because it was sitting on the in-laws driveway not doing a lot. I thought that it would be a cheap easy restoration (T-cut and polish  :roll: ) but it turned out to be more than that!!!!

During a 'heated discussion' Mrs Dano told me that her brother thought that I was mad to pay him the ?650 that I did, I told her he was mad to accept so little!!!!

Who won????  :dontknow:

Dan

Pretty much all my friends bought a Mk1 when we all passed our driving tests during 1988/9. We were mad for them. There must have been at least 5 of us all with GTI's running TSR heads, cherry bombs and other goodies. I then went on a 15 year run of mostly VAG cars before getting another Mk1. Never thought it would take so long.

My 1st car was a Lido green 3dr Mk1 1.1c.
I stuck a GTI interior and 9 spokes on it.
I loved the way it handled but hated how gutless it was. 8 years later I bought the GTI, and absolutely love driving it.
I wish I hadn't sold the 1.1 though    It was really solid and it had series one GTI seats with black and white cheque pattern on the seats (I haven't seen any like them since).

I never used to pay much attention to VW's  ops:

wasn't until I saw the back end of my Mk1 I knew I had to bring it back to life, it was missing the front panel and there was loads of rust looking really sorry for itself!

but the back end sold it for me, so a year down the line, countless hours grinding, welding and swearing at the cold wet weather, I finally managed to drive a Mk1 for the first time and was chuffed to bits with it! it was completely worth the effort

and now, I want more  :twisted: one Mk1 isn't enough

Being born in 1987, i can't really say I noticed many mk1 golfs on the road when I was young, but my mother did have a mk2 polo.  My parents then had a series of golfs, mk3 driver  ops:, mk3 Gti  8v, mk4 2.8 v6 4motion.  My elder brother always had a mk1 gti from as long as I can remember (he is 16 years older than I am) and still has one to this day. (although it only does 24 miles a year to the MOT centre and back beause of his new AC Cobra   .)

When i was 17 (only last year) I got myself a mk4 facelift polo 1.0l 50bhp.  It was a brilliant car to be honest, but everything seemed to work so well, and driving was so easy. After visiting my brother a few times I fell in love with his mk1 Gti, and here I am today with my very own one.  :mrgreen:


My old Polo with my brothers cobra.



My new 1982 Gti just out the snow.



Regards, Andrew

As I was approaching the "Learning to drive" age, I had a couple of older friends who happened to have Mk1 Gti's. One had an absolutley mint Black Campaign lowered on nice BBS rims and the other a Lhasa one which must have been plyed with a little as it went really well. They introduced me to their friend, a local mechanic with his own VW specialist (who is now one of my best mates) and from there on I was hooked on Mk1's!

I bought my first car for ?800 - a Mk1 Driver which I still have (almost 12 years later I think…), only it now looks a bit different and has the Gti lump etc as you might have seen from this very forum!…

Stunning Cobra by the way! Been talking about those this week with My bro. Would love to build one one day! Hopefully Charlie will be into cars when he is older and I'll have an excuse then! :twisted:

My dad always had Beetles so the Veedub bug (get it)       was in my genes from an early age. I had the chance to own my dads last one when I learnt to drive but wanted to cut my teeth on something with a bit more power. I opted, rather badly, for a 2litre Opel Ascona (flat fronted Cavalier and saloon brother of the Manta B series). It turned out to be my first and worst ever car. During its long and frequent spells in the garage a friend loaned me his German import (LHD) 1.6LS Golf and I loved it so much I bought it. It was quick but also fast corroding. I fitted GTI arch trims and Kamei spoiler in an attempt to hide the raggy edges.

Sadly the tin worm had taken a liking to the rear suspension mounts and ate away at them so much that one side broke free from the floor pan. This car was only 9 years old ! It just goes to show how feeble the rust-proofing was on early cars. I find it remarkable how some are still on the road today.

SO, that's where it all started.

I progressed on to a MK1 Scirocco before finally getting my first MK1 GTI at 21. Two more MK1's were owned before I delved into MK2 GTI ownership and then a gorgeous G60 Corrado. That eventually made way  for another MK1, which is affectionately called Charlie and I think I'll be keeping him.        :wink:

Always liked the MK2s when I was about 13-14 and then when I was about 15 an older mate took me out in his MK1 1900cc conversion. The power, looks, handling sold it for me and since the I swore i would own one when I was 18 so I bought a mars red GTi and havent looked back since. Another Mk1 came and went and so have a couple of Land Rovers but my first MK1 is still holding in.

I love older cars, the golf is positively new for me but has the old look  :wink:  I have had in the past a Austin 1300, Mk1 Cooper S, VW Camper 1983, Hillman IMP 1976 MG Midget 1970. Golf MK1 Cab 1990. I think tin top MK1 Next.

I love older cars remeber seeing a MK1 when I was younger, Black GTI with the wider arches, lovely…..as if it was yesterday  

Ultimate car…Caterham/Lotus seven :mrgreen: (I want to build the kit!!)

All the above interest sparked by my Dad being a mecahnic and having a line of cars on the drive being fixed when I was a small boy :wink:


Rob  

i got mine because me bein 21 the only hot hatch i liked when i was small were things like xr poo i's and 205s etc but luckily 1 warm summers day at my nannys house changed everything       forget the ferraris and the lotuses  the next door neighbour pulled up in a shiney red golf gti and from that day on i wanted one . and now i got one   . jus need to pull my finger out and get it sorted so i can enjoy it

Always liked older cars. And I've always had a thing for Square cars strangely enough??

Anyway it was the MK2 that got me into the MK1. Had a serious 'crush' on the MK2 in the mid 90's, but could never afford a decent one. Used to buy all the VW magazines and slowly the mk1 started taking over my attention……Never looked back since.

I love so many old cars but I grew up wanting a MK1 Gti - aside from any supercar dreams I knew one day at least this would be affordable.

Had a 1.5GL when I was 19 - didn't own another MK1 though until I was about 32.

They drive so well for their age and are cracking fun to drive - defo in the blood!

With you on the 'square' cars balti!!

Andy

when i was younger always wanted a cabby but{ A} could not afford one   and {B} and could not insure one   but now we got 2 that we keep and about 40 others for parts….will have to stop one day before the missus kicks me out to live in the garage…

Well my first car was a 1983 golf CL, which I brought mainly because it was cheap and had a year MOT. Scapped it after a year because it was going to cost a lot of money to get through an MOT.  

I've owned a sucession of cars since, including 2 metros, a peugeot 309, vauxhall astra, cavalier but I'd always promiced myself when I could afford it I'd get another MK1 golf and have it as a second car, as I'd never driven another car quite like it. So 2 years ago when I had some spare cash, I brought my 1983 Convertible GTi which I love to bits!!

And here she is . .

I first remember back in the early eightys my uncle had a brand spanking new GTI and liked it so much i wanted one but could never afford the insurance- not at 5/6 anyway! so just waited and thought last year " i want a hot hatch - no a convertible" after several hours on the blower to insurance companies i gave up! until i seen a Tatty Cabby by me. Hey Presto A Hot Hatch Cabriolet with cheap insurance! The rest they say is history, and i dont think ill change back.