Give it back

They stole its soul. VW, that is. The Golf GTi of 1976 and the GTI of 2004 are two quite different beasts. The original 1976 heir to the Leyland Mini Cooper S was a nimble little cracker that was a tonic to drive. It had the body integrity of a shoebox and a rather mean streak for throttle-off oversteer. But it made one smile. As things got more sophisticated and the manners moved upmarket, so the act became cumbersome and rather souless. It put on flab and it lost focus. Everyone who cared wanted them to give it back its soul.

This weekend, I put it back. It was mostly in the suspension that the recipy went south for the GTi. The thing just could not be driven with enthusiam anywhere off smooth freeways. The US version was worse than the European one. At least in Europe they kept to a sensible ride height and damping setup. Here, for reasons only lawyers and ill-informed officials will understand, the car was perched on top of an underdamped, oversprung suspension halfway between a sensible ride height and an SUV monstrosity. It didn't handle curves and it didn't handle bad roads. It was not a GTi.

But all of that has changed this weekend. With a little help from the Internet - mostly VWVortex.com, The Tirerack and a chap in Natick, I got it all back on track. Well, almost - I am still finalising the damping setup. Most grateful to Msrs Koni for their adjustable Sport dampers, I must say. And my compliments to the Eibach team for their excellent set of ProKit springs.

The car is back to a decent GTi ride height; it doesn't haunch menacingly like something out of Madmax either. Better so, because I have neither the wrong-way-round baseball cap to match, nor the come-suck-me-look. The damping is decidedly agressive at maximum stiffness - not recommended around Boston. After many test miles and a few stops to adjust the front damping on the car - very nifty, thanks Koni - it is now close to a proper engineering compromise. The rear I had to preset and there things turned out rather stiffer than I expected, but not too jarring.

The GTi now corners more like a go-kart and less like a Buick- not quite a Mini Cooper S, but at least with its honour restored. Who knows, I might just keep it at the end of the lease.

Here is the car before the conversion. Notice the ugly big gaps between wheel and wheel arch...



Here is car after the conversion. Gone are those ugly gaps between wheel and wheel arch.