20 years ago when I learned to drive (and was a teenager), I had Mk1 Golfs in the UK. Five of them. My brother had one and all my friends had them. They were really fairly awesome back in the day and we had a lot of fun thrashing them. They were all on fire at one point or another too come to think of it.
The euro GTi came with a 1.6 (110hp 8v) from about 78 to 81, and then a 1.8 (112hp 8v) for 82 and 83. Then the Mk2 came. With a few mods you could get torque up to about 120 ft/lbs from about 2000rpm onwards, which because the car was so light, made for a fun nimble package.
It was enough power to keep up with a lot of quick cars in the late 90's and early 2000's. It was a lot of fun to surprise much newer cars on the road by keeping up with them when they expected to leave you behind.
When I was 22 I moved to Canada, and a couple of years ago I decided I wanted another Mk1. It took a very long time to find a hard top that wasn't; a diesel; rotten; equipped with a horrible velour interior made by Buick. Sorry to any north american gti fans, but the Pennsylvania built A1 Rabbits with the square head lights, red / blue interiors, and the loss of 20 hp really killed the car for me. It just seems like the euro interior was so much nicer and the DX engine gave that little extra power that you wouldnt want to loose. I prefer the round lights too.
In the end I bought a bit of a mongrel this time around. Its a Canadian car from 77 and its had 40 years of people modifying it. Its not rotten and its complete at least, but that's about the best points! The engine is a two liter with a 288 cam, a chip and an exhaust. Its got rock hard coil overs too and the thing is a lot more fun to drive at autocross than on the road. On the road its borderline unpleasant to be in! But it isn't rotten, and its the closest I can get to a euro gti without bringing one over.
I cant figure out if this car is just a lot harder ride / lot louder / lot more rattly / breezy than all the ones I remember. Or perhaps I'm just old now, or perhaps cars have just moved on so much that we expect much more now than what we tolerated 20 years ago. Perhaps its all the above.
At this time, the shipping to bring a euro gti to North America doesn't work when you look at the values, but good gti's in the UK and in Germany are on the way up. Soon it may make sense. But then who are you going to sell it to here when you are done having fun?
Anyway, that's my babble about mk1 Gti's. I love them still. Oh, and the new one already had a small engine fire, but that was my fault. Par for the course it seems.
Here is a photo of the current one. Its on the road now after a year of electrical work.
