The Salford Van Hire Golf
Not long ago I did my first track day at Rockingham in my MkV 2.0 TDI. Was a great day and the car was fantastic. Especially as I use the car everyday and managed to drive 150 miles to the track, do just under 100 miles on the track, and then drive back on one tank.
But whilst there I was inspired by the uk-mkivs track project: http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/t/330392.aspx
So after not so much thought and an evaluation of my small amount of funds I thought I'd take a leap and buy a project car myself. My MkV has just under 200bhp and 350ft/lbs of torque which is the most I wanted to go up to on front wheels and every driver in order to keep it controlable and reliable. This lead me to think 4 wheel drive.
Looked at a few options, starting with a Mitsubishi GTO; 3.0 V6 twin turbo, 4 wheel steer and fast. But extremely expensive to run, and if anything goes wrong I'd be screwed. This then lead me to think about an Impreza or Evo, but what I was looking at didn't really do anything for me. The MkIV R32 obviously popped into my head, but there was no chance I could afford one. So i thought of the next step down, the 2.8 v6 4motion. Bit of research was done and I realised I could pick one up for around ÂŁ3000, which was the top end of what I wanted to pay. Carried on having a look around and found a year 2000 MkIV Golf v6 4motion on autotrader. Had a fair bit of exterior damage but low mileage. Drove the 4 hours down to Chelmsford yesterday and came back up in a red 4motion with 76000 on the clock, having parted with ÂŁ2000.
I then thought about funding for the next stages of going all out on the car, already knowing it's going to cost a little bit I thought of how to ease the cost, and I managed to get where I work onboard. The car will be used as an advertisement for the company in return for using certain contacts and getting certain parts through them.
First impressions are definitely good. Rides very well, not too harsh but definitely not too soft and wobbly. The steering feels a bit light when turning gently but does seem to weight up under harsher movement and there is less body roll than I was expecting. Going from a diesel to a V6 petrol is amazing to hear. How I missed the petrol soundtrack. At low revs there is a nice deep exhaust note as the car purrs away. Then from mid to high range the engine has a great growl that you could listen to all day. The car is quick and smooth, however I would not say there is a great leap in speed between my MkV and the 4motion, there is a gap, a good gap, but not a leap. However, the 4motion shifts instantly from putting the foot down which is fantastic. And again, the sound it makes!!!
Just the modifying to start at now when funds allow. I will be weighing the car and getting it on a Rolling Road before doing anything to give an interesting comparison of before and after.
Any comments/criticisms welcome.
Not long ago I did my first track day at Rockingham in my MkV 2.0 TDI. Was a great day and the car was fantastic. Especially as I use the car everyday and managed to drive 150 miles to the track, do just under 100 miles on the track, and then drive back on one tank.
But whilst there I was inspired by the uk-mkivs track project: http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/t/330392.aspx
So after not so much thought and an evaluation of my small amount of funds I thought I'd take a leap and buy a project car myself. My MkV has just under 200bhp and 350ft/lbs of torque which is the most I wanted to go up to on front wheels and every driver in order to keep it controlable and reliable. This lead me to think 4 wheel drive.
Looked at a few options, starting with a Mitsubishi GTO; 3.0 V6 twin turbo, 4 wheel steer and fast. But extremely expensive to run, and if anything goes wrong I'd be screwed. This then lead me to think about an Impreza or Evo, but what I was looking at didn't really do anything for me. The MkIV R32 obviously popped into my head, but there was no chance I could afford one. So i thought of the next step down, the 2.8 v6 4motion. Bit of research was done and I realised I could pick one up for around ÂŁ3000, which was the top end of what I wanted to pay. Carried on having a look around and found a year 2000 MkIV Golf v6 4motion on autotrader. Had a fair bit of exterior damage but low mileage. Drove the 4 hours down to Chelmsford yesterday and came back up in a red 4motion with 76000 on the clock, having parted with ÂŁ2000.
I then thought about funding for the next stages of going all out on the car, already knowing it's going to cost a little bit I thought of how to ease the cost, and I managed to get where I work onboard. The car will be used as an advertisement for the company in return for using certain contacts and getting certain parts through them.
First impressions are definitely good. Rides very well, not too harsh but definitely not too soft and wobbly. The steering feels a bit light when turning gently but does seem to weight up under harsher movement and there is less body roll than I was expecting. Going from a diesel to a V6 petrol is amazing to hear. How I missed the petrol soundtrack. At low revs there is a nice deep exhaust note as the car purrs away. Then from mid to high range the engine has a great growl that you could listen to all day. The car is quick and smooth, however I would not say there is a great leap in speed between my MkV and the 4motion, there is a gap, a good gap, but not a leap. However, the 4motion shifts instantly from putting the foot down which is fantastic. And again, the sound it makes!!!
Just the modifying to start at now when funds allow. I will be weighing the car and getting it on a Rolling Road before doing anything to give an interesting comparison of before and after.
Any comments/criticisms welcome.