Hi I´m Christian from Mahlow, that´s in the southern part of Berlin, actually already Brandenburg though. I´m here with my 1983 Golf I GTI. It all started with that I always wanted an old car, something that´s not random. Something special. Then I got a chassis from my friends a few years ago, they knew that I would love that. They all saved money for that and bought it for me. I´d like to thank them for that again. Then the whole customizing started. For example I wanted to keep it original. It was suppose to get an historic vehicle. But after the few first rides I thought that´s not what I wanted actually.
Small engine, thats´s nothing for me at all. Always wanted a fast car. Then we started to make plans to find out what we are going to do. I mean engine-related I wanted something new. I said maybe a G60, that´s classy. But everybody said such an Oldtimer-engine shouldn´t work. We needed something „fresh“. So Alternative we took a 1.8 T. In the beginning we still drove with the serial set-up but after we hit the 230 hp we started to customize massive.
With larger turbochargers and then we overhauled the engine. More power means you´ll need parts that more stable. For example connecting rods, crankshaft or at least balancing it. Changing the head and get different pistons. Everybody who´s trying to customize the engine should know what that means. Then everything went on. Somehow I also wanted the race look. I mean with a cage and only 2 frontseats and belts. Nothing more than you actually need for driving the car. For pure driving you don´t need more than that and a steering wheel and a gear knob. Well and maybe some instruments that´ll show you the car is doing fine.
Then it all started. More power means the control unit has to be modified or changed. Wasn´t that easy at all. We needed to build a new harness. That´s where my friend Benny came in. He sat there for hours with me. We built the first stage but with the serial control unit couldn´t be modified on the test stand. Then we decided to take a freely programmable injection. New harnes had to be build again. He helped me again. I actually can´t make this up, because he really invested a lot of time for that. So did Daniel who build my quarter bends and my charge air duct´s. He spended hours on welding. For a clammy handshake. But that´s how it goes with best friends. That´s what they are for and I would also do such things fort hem, always. We got finished and went to KKS on the test stand to find out what the engines holds up. There I met Chris from Snake Performance. He offered me to co-ordinate a little bit. What he did and actually still does. It´s not fixed in advance thus unlimited.
Then I started to think about body paint. So again we took the whole car apart. I always wanted a yellow car. I went to a friend a few weeks later and all of a sudden he told me that he did build a Golf I as well. I looked at it and it was yellow. Dream shattered! Black Porsche Rims. Well a new plan had to come up because I don´t like it when 2 identical cars drive around in the same town. I mean I wanted something special. After some time I saw a red Golf GTI driving around with BBS Rims. Such a beautiful car. Not fast but truly beautiful. I said to myself, red would do it too. I asked a friend who works in a paint shop if he would do that. I left it there, picked it up and what can I tell you. It´s wonderful. Like I wanted it. Red with a lot of black parts. Simple and neat. Like it was back in time. Black rims/black cage and black decorations. So simple it is.
If you´d take a look you´ll exactly know what I mean. Everything in black and red. Like I envisioned it always. From the outside What can I say. Simple 79er GTI look, small back-lights cause I didn´t like the other ones. Unfortunately the rear panel was broken so we had to fix that anyway. Black thin bumpers and the long GTI lip. So from the outside the car is pretty simple.
The naked truth from the inside. Well now we are looking at the centrepiece and I´m so proud of that. I always had cars that did run but now I wanted one that´s simply beautiful. Andi t got really beautiful. I wanted the engine compartment like it is from the outside black, red and simple. In contrast to the outside I wanted here shiny black paint. Engine like I said 1.8 T with slight optimisations. Garrett turbocharger self-made bend, suction and charge air pipes. Actually there is not much what you can buy anywhere. We are in the large 3 digit-area performance-wise. I´m quiet happy with that though. That´s how it looks here in the front. I hope you liked the video and my car. If so just leave a thumb or even a comment. We like to thank you on the occasion of 20.000 likes on our youtube channel and will celebrate that with a little competition. If you happen to know how much horsepower this car has, just leave it here in the comments till August 15th 2017 and you might win a 50 € Voucher for the online shop at www.sourkrauts.de.
Take care!.