This sorry tale started ages ago. Way longer than I care to remember, probably mid 2001.
Anyway, 1989 Scala i, 89,000'ish miles. Totally standard and well looked after with a big pile of receipts. Only thing wrong with it was the mismatched tyres on the front, and the alloys needed a serious refurb.
It looked like this:
The plan was to keep it standard and all my fun would be had on a beetle I was trying to get back on the road. The beetle project soon ended when I discovered that a previous owner had welded up the body squint. Modification started with a set of alloy door lock pins and sill covers, and I set out on the slippery slope.
First thing to change was the wheels and suspension. A set of Rials, and a Koni Sport kit, and an eyebrow spoiler...I know, sorry!
Then sometime later, the exhaust went, so rather than get another standard one on, I got a custom full stainless job made up, I still love how the tail pipe fits with the rest of the car, and this was way before it was common on Saxo's
After using it for hacking up and down the M8 every day, there were a few bubbles of the dreaded car cancer forming, so it was off for a full respray and removal of the side mouldings. Can't find any pictures of that stage...I'm sure there are some somewhere.
Couple of weeks after that, I took it on a track day...great fun, and the BMW guys really didn't have a clue what was going on when this noisy VW just wouldn't get off their tales. That went well, it became clear more was needed. More everything!
So the brakes were first to change, discs on the back and these on the front:
280mm discs & Wilwood midilites, braided hoses all round. Now it stops.
There was however the age old dilema...bigger brakes don't fit under the old wheels, although 15's the Rials didn't clear the calipers, not enough back space.
Bit of ebay trawling and I found these beauties:
BMW 4 stud, ET25 or something, they cleared the brakes alright, but badly fouled the arches. Only one thing for it, a phone call to the nice people at Compomotive and a couple of days later it was sitting on these:
So now its sporting big brakes, its time to go terrorize the BMW's on track again:
Headlights taped up, worth at least another 10bhp
M3's don't like it when you out brake them, although once round the corner they were off again. The 323's were better game.
A trip to VW Action, and after a lot of beer, I decided it'd be a great idea to buy a set of 911 seats for the car. At that point I had no idea if they'd fit or how, but they were £100 and I was drunk. Got them home and after some playing, decided they'd fit so the new fronts and the backs got sent to the local upholsterer, and they came back like this:
and had to get a new steering wheel just because really...
The car stayed in this state for a while, maybe the best part of a year. Then I bought the G60...
After far too long assembling parts and getting a brand new (as in factory fresh - not refurbed) charger since the nice man who sold me the engine did have the charger rebuilt like he said, but didn't tell me that when it was stripped, the guys doing the rebuild had to weld the scroll back together. So it only had a life of about 10k miles left :( Combine that with the getting the intercooler made, and waiting for the toothed charger belt system, it took a while to get going.
I finally got all the stuff togeher and went for one last drive with the GTi engine in there. Got Home and heaved the engine out.
One of the last pics with the engine still in:
Oddly I can't find a load of pictures of the install, but heres a few I found.
Intercooler in position:
New Rad & slim line fan. Can also see the cogged pulleys for the toothed charger belt.
Mocking up Boost pipes:
Proper boost pipes with sensor bosses (13mm nuts) welded in:
Bit of an accident with the alternator at one point :(
and once it was all done, it did this to its timing belt on the way home from its first MOT with the new engine:
Oddly I don't have any pictures of the new engine in place...there must be some somewhere. I'll look / take some if theres any interest.
Anyway, a few shots from it out in the open:
Its as fast as the car infront :)
Loads of other bits went onto the car in the process of putting the engine in, coilovers, 16v servo and M/C, lower cross frame strut brace, ARB's, Guages, 2.5" exhaust..the list goes on and on. Its putting out roughly 200bhp - got 195 but that was after a lot of power runs, so 200bhp is the best guess of its real power.
Theres more to go on, got a very nice cam sitting in the garage for it, and I'm still resisting a CNC'd head.
Anyways, I think thats enough for now, good work if you made it this far!
that should give it enough protection.