Performance VWの Autumn 2021 の目次

Rebellion and the counterculture have symbolised all that’s aspirational for disaffected youths since the dawn of time itself. Twentieth century history shows Teddy Boys preening as fuming dads look on in distaste, mods and rockers pounding the hell out of each other while teachers despair, punks waving two fingers at the late-seventies establishment. Go far enough back through the swirling mists of time and you’ll find troglodytes painting their caves with ram’s blood in defiance of the contemporary enthusiasm for slathering everything in horse dung. Wherever there is conformity, there must surely be rebellion. It’s how humans operate. You’ll have spotted this behaviour in the car modifying scene, naturally. Here we see it flickering through a fast-paced shutter, fashions blow in at gale-force pace. As soon as Rocket Bunny or…

BRIEF HISTORY The Volkswagen Golf is such an everyday sight in 2021 that it’s hard to imagine a society without it. But 1974 was a very different place to the world of today, and the launch of the Golf was a staggering departure from what people thought they knew about the Volkswagen brand; replacing the air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive Beetle with a crisply angular hatchback that featured a front-mounted, water-cooled engine and front-wheel-drive was a frankly astounding manoeuvre. And when the GTI concept was announced at the 1975 Frankfurt Motor Show, all bets were off. This was a new era of performance city cars. Brilliantly, the secret ‘Sport Golf’ started as a skunkworks project among the engineers; presenting it to top brass in 1975, the idea was met with widespread approval…

All good project cars have to start somewhere. It seems fitting that the demo car for HP Tuners, one of the world’s biggest tuning brands, started its life with a firecracking software upgrade and remap. The car boasts considerably more power than it left the factory with – and with a range of great components in the pipeline, from the likes of Racing Line and Milltek, you can expect to see even more down the road. But all of that means nothing if your car looks like something that the average Joe could buy off the lot. In the US, HP Tuners demo cars are known for their modded appearance and lairy graphics, which meant that the European car would need to follow suit. A great place for any project…

RCARS As you will all know the Golf GTI made its debut back in 1976, it made its mark on the world of motoring and fast forwards 45 years, it’s still doing the same, whether it’s the standard GTI, 45 Edition Clubsport or the ultimate daily, the 4WD R version. My history with VW’s Golf started in the late 80s when my Dad had purchased a ten year old Mk1 three-door L model in Chrome yellow (look it up). Now it would be seen as retro back then and it was certainly an acquired taste for the choice of paintwork for your first car. I have fond memories of CKO 316T. It was economical, was a VW, had the Blaupunkt stereo with Dolby noise reduction but its small engine hated…

We’re pleased to announce Air Lift Performance has joined us as official sponsor of the Performance VW Magazine paddock at TRAX in October. We’ve had a close relationship with Air Lift for many years now, so it’s great to think we can fly their flags high and proud while celebrating the magazine’s 25th anniversary at Silverstone. Want to be part of the 25th anniversary display? Well, if you own a past or present feature car, then we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line (pvw.ed@kelsey.co.uk) with details of your car and we’ll be in touch. Alternatively, we’re hoping to have an additional PVW Readers’ Rides display, too. So, if you’re proud of your car, have taken inspiration from the modified VWs within this magazine and you’d like to…

It’s funny how things change given a few years isn’t it? It doesn’t seem so long ago that collecting stuff wasn’t considered all that cool, be it stamps, comics, magazines… or those cards that they used to give away in bubble-gum packets and boxes of tea bags…actually those were so long ago we’re positive that no one aside from a few of the grey-haired crew remembers, even though those actually bordered on passable collectable credibility. On the whole though, having a pile of pre-war coins or heaps of diecast toys was reserved for nerdy trainspotting types with a steam locomotive fetish and a compulsion for wearing anoraks. Accumulating old stuff and hoarding it in dark corners was the preserve of the past, not really what the current demographic of Generation…

It’s a lardy, boring, ugly beast. The worst Golf GTi that VW ever made. Possibly the most pointless Golf of them all. Don’t know why you’re bothering with that - should have bought a Mk2 instead. Just some of the insults we’ve seen thrown at Mk3 Golf owners over the years on various interweb forums and social media channels. Yet for 26-year-old Jack Jones that sort of ‘banter’ only spurred him on to build a track car that many of the haters would struggle to keep pace with nowadays. He’s the first to admit that it’s still fairly mellow in terms of what could be done, but as a full package that’s dialled in perfectly this is a focused, balanced and exceptionally well put together machine. You know that thing…

Car detailing has become massive business over the past decade. Gone are the days of grabbing a bucket, sponge, and your mum’s bottle of washing up liquid (whatever you do, don’t do that, it’ll cause more harm than good) and giving your car a quick wipe down. Detailing your car is an art form, but with so many products on the market like clay bars, iron removers, snow foams and ceramic coatings it’s become overwhelming to the everyday enthusiast. That’s why we’ve sat down with industry expert Tom Clarke from Meguiar’s UK, to answers all those frequently asked questions you never knew the answers to… REGULAR CAR WASHES Q) I often use my local car wash, is this detrimental to my paint finish? A) It can be, yes. Typically, the…

Us petrolheads are a numbers obsessed bunch. Often it starts in childhood, memorising the performance figures in brochures and magazines of our favourite models. Some of us have been around the scene so long that we talk in a language of chassis and engine codes, measurements, ETs and diameters. Most car tribes typically favour certain variants. “Two doors too many” is a phrase we’ve heard being used about Golfs, yanks, old Fords…you name it, there exists a more door snobbery that probably dates back to favoured hot rod shells. Are we collectively missing a trick though? If this Mk1 is anything to go by, we would happily bet that many of you will be hitting the classifieds after reading this with renewed gusto for the less obvious, more practical five-door…

I don’t know about you, but at the tender age of 18 I was not driving a Mk7 Golf R or anything near as cool. Anyway, we’re not jealous in the slightest that Ad Manager Sarah’s 18 year-old son, Kai, recently bought a Lapiz blue Mk7 Golf R. We are, however, more than a little envious that he just got to spend the day up at the Auto Finesse Academy recently giving the slightly tired-looking car a full going over to make it look as good as new. Branded as ‘Detail What You Bring’ this service from AF allows you to learn the art of detailing as the AF team and vehicle owner tackle said car together. For just £395.00, this course gives you the chance to dive in and…