Acquired last year is my '83 GTi in Mars Red. Bought new on 6th April 1983 by a Mr Armatage from Gordon Lamb VW dealer in Chesterfield. He specified a sunroof and tinted windows as options, so the total new price on the invoice was £7,579.53 with tax, delivery, plates, petrol and road tax. In March 1985 the second owner went to town on it. It was sent to GTi Engineering at Silverstone (run by Richard Lloyd RIP) for an Oettinger 2 litre 16V engine conversion. This 2000E/16 conversion was similar to the original 1600E/16 from the 16S but this time based around the original DX. It has the same watercooled manifold and 2 piece baffled sump. Bore was increased by 0.5mm to 81.5mm and stroke increased from 86.4mm to 94.5mm with a long throw crank. Power is 170bhp at 6200rpm, torque 200Nm at 5000rpm. GTi Engineering also put in a 3.42 final drive, Bilstein suspension kit, top and bottom braces, brake upgrade and VDO gauges. The total bill before discount was £5175 - a hell of a lot of money in 1985!!
The car was owned by John Jones of AudiGolfHits fame - you may remember he built the 16V turbo engine in Mark Elliot's monster that cleaned up on the 1/4 mile sprint at GTI International in the TRL days. Sadly John died of cancer around 6 years ago and the car was passed on to his son Neil from whom I bought the car. I have a lot of history with the car and am gradually putting the car back to as it was the day it left GTi Engineering.
Work so far:
- complete service with G63 plugs
- new cambelt and tensioner
- refurbish instrument cluster (working MFA, fuel consumption indicator)
- refurbish gear linkage, new rods, fit Hurst shifter with reverse lock out
- fit new aerial
- refurbish front grille
- fit new front spoiler
- remove single wiper conversion, refit original linkage with Mk2 Scirocco motor upgrade
- fit Zender Sports 7"x15"
A few pics
