So here’s a car that’s dividing opinion wherever it’s seen, the Scirocco owners club haven’t been it’s biggest fans, but it’s mix of old skool Germanic cool, and hints of Bosuzuku styling certainly set it apart from the crowd.
Owned by our mate Nick, who will be know to a lot of you for his fine coffee as served at E38, Players and so on, it’s been a testing project for everyone involved so far!
One of those “barn finds” the car came from a 66 year old bloke, who had this car, another Mk1 Rocco parts car, 2 Corrados (again 1 good, 1 for parts) amongst a stash of spares that’d make the most ardent Scirocco spotter go weak at the knees.
Having not been run for the best part of a year and a half, the car started up more or less on the button, and then promptly overheated, a sign from the gods? Probably, but we’ll come to more of that later…
If you’re even slightly up on your Scirocco’s you’ll have probably spotted the tan leather interior, identifying Nick’s motor as being a Storm model, however, you might also have spotted the fact that the engine bay is a more familiar shade of Noisette brown metallic L89P, not the Schwarz hue that adorns the rest of the body, but no matter, it’s a tidy enough job, and the rest of car wasn’t going to be staying too original anyway!
Safely tucked up in Nick’s unit next to the Porsche rimmed trailer, a plan was slowly starting to come together on what would happen next, first on the list was an MOT, which the car almost sailed through, a couple of minor issues showed up, but nothing too tricky, a few hits with the sparky stick later saw the Rocco in possession of the hallowed green ticket, got to love the ghetto jacking procedure used (though obviously, we could never condone such a method!)
Whilst it was up in the air, the car was treated to a set of the tried and tested TA Technix coilovers, in preparation for the first of many sets of wheels that were going to adorn the car, brake shoes and rear wheel bearings were swapped out at the same time.
A set of SSP Chromed 5.5×15″ Fuchs were the first choice, running on a set of FK 4×100-5×130 adaptors, though these didn’t last too long with Nick’s fetish for Stuttgart derived wheels seeing a set of polished 928 Teledials finding their way onto the car, after being hit with coat or two of cream to tie in with that interior
Beginning to feel slightly happier about the way the car was going, a trip to UD’s was on the cards, the cars first official outing, and it was going to take up pride of place on our stand, after all we’d been fairly involved in sourcing parts for it, not the easiest of tasks when it comes to a genuinely rare beasty like this! In a tale that was going to see itself repeated time and again, the Rocco spat it’s dummy out on the M42, promptly deciding that the bottom end of the engine had had enough, and chucked it’s toys out the pram leaving Nick stranded on the M42, so near yet so far! The stricken Scirocco was put on a flatbed and hauled back down South to it’s Brighton residence.
So following the well tested mantra of if it breaks, then improve it, the original 1600cc engine was given the heave ho, with a 2.0 2E from a Mk3 filling the hole, and the original K-jet fueling being tweaked to deliver a bit more juice, in turn this was connected to a Jetex 2.5″ stainless steel system to deal with the smokey bits.
The new engine was happy enough to get the car up to GTI International where it spent the weekend soaking up the sun and admiring glances from various show goers, but in a way that seems somewhat inevitable with this car, trouble wasn’t far away…
The weekends show had gone pretty much without a hitch, other than the exhaust ripping itself off on one of Bruntingthorpes many speedhumps, however assistance from a couple of friends who happened to be leaving at the same time saw the Rocco back on the road in fairly quick time, and Brighton bound once more.
Once the car was back down South, the next thing on the agenda was another new set of wheels, in a departure from the previous Porsche offerings this new set was something a little bit more special!
A set of ultra rare OZ Executives were sourced, stripped and the barrels shipped off for a coat of Tornado Red, over the next few days Nick and yours truly set about polishing up the new dishes, sealing them up and getting them ready for new rubber. All ably assisted and overseen by my trusty dog Kai.
Measuring in at 7×15″ at the front, and 8×15″ at the back, and shod in a set of rather skinny 165/50’s and 185/45’s respectively, the new rims gave the car a totally different look.
As I’d hinted earlier, things were again going to take a turn for the worse, whilst it had been running reasonably well on the 2.0 8v with K-jet set up, the fueling had always been a bit hit and miss, so the decision was made to swap the car over to Digifant management/injection, as seen on the later Mk2 8v Golf’s, the conversion being undertaken in a day by Ben (another friend and very competent mechanic) and Nick, with the car up and running well, things were looking up, until that is, Nick decided to move the car from one end of the unit to the other, however the car had other ideas.
The car’s previous bottom end gremlins reared their ugly head, and the main pulley slipped on the crank, taking most of the valves with it, upon stripping the engine unbelievably the car had been running for quite a while (including the 400+ mile trip to Inters and back) with no woodruff key in the crank, just relying on the inference fit and the bolt. Another Nick (the guy who is building my ITB’d 2.0 16v lump) swiftly did a headjob and fitted new valves, Ben and Nick bolted the head back on, and the Scirocco was once again mobile.
One of the biggest opinion splitters about this car has been its “Bozu” style oil cooler, using a Bugpack 24 row oil cooler kit with the pipework routed through the now missing offside inner headlamp, it’s certainly a conversation starter, and whilst it might not be to everyone’s taste, personally I think it looks pretty cool, it does actually work too! Interior wise, a woodrim Nardi wheel has been fitted, but other than that it’s pretty much as VW intended, after all if it ain’t broke…
So that takes us pretty much up to date with Nick’s Rocco, future plans include a smattering of audio, a job for Nick and I this weekend, and there is talk of more lowering, with the associated surgery that that entails, but other than that, he just wants to have it running long enough to enjoy driving it…
Cheers for reading,
James V