A long story involving an underloved VW Coupe
Discussion
Love the Normandy pics.
My first company car on joining Volkswagen was meant to be a Mk1 GTI, but customer demand was so great that all production was diverted to customer cars (quite rightly). So, I ended up with one of the test build 1.8 GTI Sciroccos. Mine had gone to Thatcham where it had been used for insurance rating and then it was over to me.
What a car...early injection system gave vivid performance that seemed to be lacking in later injected Sciroccos I had (7 in all) and the single wiper which I thought worked brilliantly. The economy always amazed me - much better than either Mk1 or Mk2 Golf GTI and as has been said, you could fit an incredible amount of stuff in them.
This was it as used for a Volkswagen photo shoot in early 1983.
I remember travelling up the M6 one evening and someone else in a Mk2 Scirocco GTI came up behind me and started flashing me to get out of the way, even though the inner two lanes were filled with trucks overtaking each other so there was nowhere to go. I could tell from the headlights that he had a 1.6GTI, so as we cleared the gaggle of trucks I moved over and simultaneously took off. For me it was an interesting exercise to see how the extra torque of the 1.8 manifested itself, if at all. The result was a little unexpected - a huge cloud of white smoke from the other Scirocco. Quite what had happened I'll never know, but obviously his determination to keep up knew no bounds!
The only thing that was dreadful was the orange main beam warning. In the early days of LEDs Volkswagen couldn't source blue ones! When we finally moved to blue ones a couple of years later it was announced to rapturous applause at the dealer conference as they had to handle all the customer complaints from people who had taken day time test drives, bought the car and only then discovered the stupid orange light!
Those were the days!
Many years later I was walking across a car park and saw the car parked up. It was great to see it still going and looking good.
My first company car on joining Volkswagen was meant to be a Mk1 GTI, but customer demand was so great that all production was diverted to customer cars (quite rightly). So, I ended up with one of the test build 1.8 GTI Sciroccos. Mine had gone to Thatcham where it had been used for insurance rating and then it was over to me.
What a car...early injection system gave vivid performance that seemed to be lacking in later injected Sciroccos I had (7 in all) and the single wiper which I thought worked brilliantly. The economy always amazed me - much better than either Mk1 or Mk2 Golf GTI and as has been said, you could fit an incredible amount of stuff in them.
This was it as used for a Volkswagen photo shoot in early 1983.
I remember travelling up the M6 one evening and someone else in a Mk2 Scirocco GTI came up behind me and started flashing me to get out of the way, even though the inner two lanes were filled with trucks overtaking each other so there was nowhere to go. I could tell from the headlights that he had a 1.6GTI, so as we cleared the gaggle of trucks I moved over and simultaneously took off. For me it was an interesting exercise to see how the extra torque of the 1.8 manifested itself, if at all. The result was a little unexpected - a huge cloud of white smoke from the other Scirocco. Quite what had happened I'll never know, but obviously his determination to keep up knew no bounds!
The only thing that was dreadful was the orange main beam warning. In the early days of LEDs Volkswagen couldn't source blue ones! When we finally moved to blue ones a couple of years later it was announced to rapturous applause at the dealer conference as they had to handle all the customer complaints from people who had taken day time test drives, bought the car and only then discovered the stupid orange light!
Those were the days!
Many years later I was walking across a car park and saw the car parked up. It was great to see it still going and looking good.
Blimey It has been too long since I updated this thread! Sorry!
Thanks for all the replies and comments, nice to see some other Scirocco fans out there!
Unfortunately this one is going to be a bit text heavy as I have little photo's from this period.
Where were we?.... Normandy!
Yes I remember now....
The car continued to be my daily driver for quite some while
Leaving it parked at work Mon-Fri whilst I whizzed around the country in various work vans kept the mileage down, but also left it sitting in a car park for several days. Despite CCTV and several audible warning systems in place around the building, the car was broken into twice.
Firstly just the stereo nicked, second time they tried to start the car and steal it. Luckily both attempts were thwarted but it did leave me with annoying repairs to carry out on the vehicle (Both time I billed my workplace!)
Around 2009 work was becoming a ball ache, I was travelling 30-40,000 miles per year and doing 60-70+ hours a week. Living in hotels Mon-Fri, then bed early Sunday ready to be up early for work Monday morning again....
Needless to say this put pressure on my relationship at the time, until breaking point and we went our seperate ways (albeit still to this day on good terms)
This left me in a quandary, I moved back to shared accommodation (Privately rented house with 3 others) which I'd lived in before and luckily some of my old housemates were still there!
Dah Dah Dah! Enter symbolic music and life changing event......
After a night out on the town with a few friends we found a restaurant that would serve booze past closing time, so off we trotted and were ushered in to a back room of this place.
Sat around we had some more beers and were having a good time, pretty much ready to go home.
Then a whoosh noise and my friend sat at the end of the table saying "Ow F*kin ell!"
Someone had thrown a bottle of beer across the room at the owner as he was walking round saying they were closing up and no more beer etc.
As you can imagine the bottle had missed the owner but cleaned smacked my friend in the back of the head!
Well the usual ensued... Knob heads decided to start some trouble and unfortunately my friend ended up worse off, luckily I stepped in and broke it up when I did (despite getting a few punches in the face) as he was quite badly injured. Still limited movement in one hand where he used it to protect his head whilst someone smashed a pint glass into his head repeatedly until it was just the base left.....
Any way long story and you are wondering why this is important?!
Well long and short of it is that my friend got some compensation money from this ordeal due to victim support and time off work.
So he used it to pack up and move to Oz....
Now i was recently single, no prospects as my job was bloody awful, no girlfriend, cheap rent, no commitments basically
I guess you can see where this is going?
I sold everything i owned.
The car; my guitars; my TV; Xbox; basically anything i could lay my hands on (that i legally owned)
I quit my job and moved back to the profession I was in before as it was short term contract work and easy to leave if and when I wanted.
Set myself up some contacts in Oz for work from previous mates that had moved there
The plan was to run around in the cheapest car i could find (A £150 Ford escort) just needed to last until I had enough to pack up and go off to Australia.
Said escort, bought from grandson of the owner who was selling due to stopping driving
Sadly the Scirocco of my childhood (mis-informed) dreams was sold :-(
I posted up on various websites & forums and eventually sold it to a nice chap in Reading
He know his stuff about them and seemed like a genuine guy, so a price of £899 was agreed.
4 and a bit years ownership and £200 up on the selling price from when I started! My man maths will discount the bills in between!
And there we have it, 2009(ish, it's all a bit vague in my head!) - Single, no Scirocco and plans to move to Australia
But then.................
Thanks for all the replies and comments, nice to see some other Scirocco fans out there!
Unfortunately this one is going to be a bit text heavy as I have little photo's from this period.
Where were we?.... Normandy!
Yes I remember now....
The car continued to be my daily driver for quite some while
Leaving it parked at work Mon-Fri whilst I whizzed around the country in various work vans kept the mileage down, but also left it sitting in a car park for several days. Despite CCTV and several audible warning systems in place around the building, the car was broken into twice.
Firstly just the stereo nicked, second time they tried to start the car and steal it. Luckily both attempts were thwarted but it did leave me with annoying repairs to carry out on the vehicle (Both time I billed my workplace!)
Around 2009 work was becoming a ball ache, I was travelling 30-40,000 miles per year and doing 60-70+ hours a week. Living in hotels Mon-Fri, then bed early Sunday ready to be up early for work Monday morning again....
Needless to say this put pressure on my relationship at the time, until breaking point and we went our seperate ways (albeit still to this day on good terms)
This left me in a quandary, I moved back to shared accommodation (Privately rented house with 3 others) which I'd lived in before and luckily some of my old housemates were still there!
Dah Dah Dah! Enter symbolic music and life changing event......
After a night out on the town with a few friends we found a restaurant that would serve booze past closing time, so off we trotted and were ushered in to a back room of this place.
Sat around we had some more beers and were having a good time, pretty much ready to go home.
Then a whoosh noise and my friend sat at the end of the table saying "Ow F*kin ell!"
Someone had thrown a bottle of beer across the room at the owner as he was walking round saying they were closing up and no more beer etc.
As you can imagine the bottle had missed the owner but cleaned smacked my friend in the back of the head!
Well the usual ensued... Knob heads decided to start some trouble and unfortunately my friend ended up worse off, luckily I stepped in and broke it up when I did (despite getting a few punches in the face) as he was quite badly injured. Still limited movement in one hand where he used it to protect his head whilst someone smashed a pint glass into his head repeatedly until it was just the base left.....
Any way long story and you are wondering why this is important?!
Well long and short of it is that my friend got some compensation money from this ordeal due to victim support and time off work.
So he used it to pack up and move to Oz....
Now i was recently single, no prospects as my job was bloody awful, no girlfriend, cheap rent, no commitments basically
I guess you can see where this is going?
I sold everything i owned.
The car; my guitars; my TV; Xbox; basically anything i could lay my hands on (that i legally owned)
I quit my job and moved back to the profession I was in before as it was short term contract work and easy to leave if and when I wanted.
Set myself up some contacts in Oz for work from previous mates that had moved there
The plan was to run around in the cheapest car i could find (A £150 Ford escort) just needed to last until I had enough to pack up and go off to Australia.
Said escort, bought from grandson of the owner who was selling due to stopping driving
Sadly the Scirocco of my childhood (mis-informed) dreams was sold :-(
I posted up on various websites & forums and eventually sold it to a nice chap in Reading
He know his stuff about them and seemed like a genuine guy, so a price of £899 was agreed.
4 and a bit years ownership and £200 up on the selling price from when I started! My man maths will discount the bills in between!
And there we have it, 2009(ish, it's all a bit vague in my head!) - Single, no Scirocco and plans to move to Australia
But then.................
Edited by Haddock82 on Thursday 7th June 00:29
Edited by Haddock82 on Thursday 7th June 00:31
Edited by Haddock82 on Thursday 7th June 00:34
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