At the time we had just decided to begin working towards getting our own Mk2 Scirocco (Project Poppy) back on the road after 6 years in storage. My wife and I came away from the show enthused by our encounter and feeling that if we’d not been committed to Poppy, it had been for sale and we’d had the cash then we might just have been tempted to try and buy E48 GRE.
Fast forward a few weeks and I’d decided to sell our 2009 Mazda3 Sport to help fund the work we needed to do on Poppy. Around then I heard about a “near concours condition” Scirocco up for sale and, when it turned out to be the same one we’d seen at Harewood, I got in touch with Anthony, the owner, to see if we could help him find it a good home. He’d advertised it online at £4,995, which I pointed out, was probably way over what someone would pay for a GT no matter how clean she was and suggested he try promoting it through the Scirocco Register.
He even took it along to the national meet at Cosford, but still no buyer came forward - probably because even there he was looking for too much. Then Jan and I had what you might call an epiphany. With the Mazda gone and Poppy now not scheduled to be back on the road until next year we needed a second street legal car for me to use … so why not make it another Scirocco! I blame Mazellan myself as he was the first to introduce me to the concept of multiple ownership!
So, we got in touch with Anthony and after some careful negotiating we reached a price we were prepared to pay and which he was willing to let the car go for. Within a few days we went down to Sandbach to check the car over and make sure she was still as good as we remembered. She was indeed and so a few hours later she was back home with us in Harrogate.
Since we got her home we’ve had to make a few adjustments to keep her in the style to which she’d become accustomed - lol.
The lovely floral display Jan had created on the drive over the summer (as she does every year) has been unceremoniously relocated to the back patio to give access to the garage; the garage was subject to a late Spring clean; and the various parts we’d accumulated for Poppy’s restoration (including a pair of new wings and front bonnet) were relocated into our neighbour’s garage!
A few days after we bought her we took Lily as she’s now called (Poppy Red .. Lily White - get it?) up to Sedgefield to sit with the other Sciroccos on the Register stand at the Durham Dubs event.
So, what do we have planned for her? Well not an awful lot is my first thought. She’s in superb condition and so we’d really like to keep her standard … more a case of preservation than restoration.
Having said that there’s always room for improvement and as the guys at Sedgefield pointed out there are certainly a few non-standard touches on her, which we’d probably like to remove e.g. the silver tape lines on the lights and the bumper.
Other than that it’ll just be bits and pieces …
