Isabel was named by the previous owners... so I stuck with it. She's had three owners before me (although it says four on the V5C because it moved from wife to husband shortly before I bought it). The mileage is just over 100k and she's a 1.8 GT... the last of the bunch before GTIIs took over. The history is that she's seen very intermittent use and spent quite a lot of time in a barn, not being used. She drove very well on my test drive from Devises station to the owner's house several miles away with possibly the best standard brakes I've experienced in a Scirocco.
On the way home she started stuttering every now and then, losing speed, and then picking up again. I assumed it was the traditional rust in the fuel lines problem. Eventually she stopped completely on the M5 near Bromsgrove.
Here I am, waiting for a tow back to Birmingham:
The first RAC chap diagnosed it as a faulty coil, so I ordered one from GSF and fitted it. The car started... "Great!" I thought. Then the next time I went to use the car it refused to start and it was back to square one. I replaced everything I could think of in the ignition system including spark plugs and leads, distributor and distributor cap, earth leads, but still no joy.
I gave up and called the RAC out again. The very helpful chap put the distributor roughly where it ought to be, and we had it running. He didn't bugger off straight away and, surprise, surprise, it stalled again. And then wouldn't start. There was no spark. Mr RAC diagnosed a faulty ignition amplifier. Euro car parts sent me the wrong part, but markh saved the day and sent me the correct one. I finally had the car operational and went out for a victory lap of Birmingham (M42, M5, M6, M42).
Here it is, sat on the drive:
Just as I've got it running, I've bought myself an even more splendid GTII. I prefer Helios Blue to Flash Red, but the GTII has a splendid history, more toys, is newer and possibly slightly better (there's not a lot in it though). I can't really justify keeping both as they essentially fill the same hole in my life, so one of them needs to go. But which one? There's only one way to find out...