Hey,
This is my daily driver, I've already put my weekend toy (Mini Clubman), but thought I'd show off my work in progress VW Polo as well!
I've owned a couple of Polo's before, my first one being a daily when the Mini was first off the road for its rebuild, and the second becoming a daily when I decided the Mini was too nice to use everyday! For various reasons I went away from VW's and dabbled with a Ford Focus for a bit, but despite the modern handling etc I still found I didn't like it, so sold it and came back to Polo's again! This was bought in September 2006:
A completely standard 1991 VW Polo GT Coupe, in a pretty rare colour - LA9V metallic black, with 117k on the clock. While it looked nice on the outside it had been subjected to an awful amount of bodgery by previous owners, so the first couple of months were spent troubleshooting and fixing various problems to get it running properly.
I ran it through the winter and then in spring 2007 decided that I needed to upgrade the brakes. The GT has a 239mm non-vented set-up, which is reasonable but not much good if you want to do any hard work with the brakes! However the G40 (supercharged variant of the Mk3 Polo) has 239mm vented brakes, and they fit straight on. After a quick re-furb on they went, along with rebuilt rear drums:
I also fitted some G40 13x5.5" BBS wheels I had, along with some OEM front fog lights, which improved it no end:
.
As usual, the 75bhp generated by the GT's 1272cc MPi lump was becoming pretty boring, although they're a fairly nippy car they're by no means fast. I started looking around as to what was going on in terms of engine conversions. The Mk3 Polo (along with the Mk1 and 2) has quite a low bonnet, so engine conversions in terms of the 1.8T or VR6 lumps aren't straightforward, the engines are just too tall!
I considered a PD diesel engine, but realised that with it being a daily car I really shouldn't go for anything daft, as I have to insure it and also make sure whatever I do can be done in a weekend etc.
The early Mk3 Golfs came fitted with a 1391cc 8V lump, engine code ABD. In the Golf they only generated a measly 55bhp, being SPi, although the capacity meant a potential for more torque.
It turned out the block is identical to the GT's lump, along with the head, so all that was required was to take the GT's inlet manifold and management, along with the GT cam, bolt it onto and into the ABD lump and you've got a 1391cc GT engine! The only slight downside was the ABD's 9.5:1 CR as opposed to the GT's 10:1, but the increase in torque would more than make up for it!
A quick scout through the classifieds later, and I found a Mk3 Golf with rear end accident damage. It had the correct 1.4 ABD engine and 5-speed box. £75 and the running gear was mine!
I also found how how much you can get in the back of a GT!:
I bought the engine home, got it partially stripped and up in the stand, ready to work on:
Then, two weeks ago (9th February 2008), this happened:
Long story, but basically I was stationary and a bloke in an XJS drove into the back of me at 35mph. I managed to drive the car home, but after inspection, the insurance have declared it a cat-B so it's salvage only.
So I needed another car! I'd done too much to the GT to see it all thrown away, and I still hadn't got the ABD lump in, so I found this lurking on eBay:
A completely standard 1992 1043cc Polo Coupe, in an even rarer colour - Indian Red. The plan is to completely strip the GT and transfer all of the components over, including doing the ABD conversion at the same time! So far I've managed to swap a few things over (still suffering with whiplash at present), including the front bumper and fogs, and also I've managed to get some decent rubber (A539's) on some steelies to replace the scary ditchfinders fitted originally.
So this is as it stands at present:
I'll keep this bit updated as I carry out work on it!
Thanks for reading
Tom
This is my daily driver, I've already put my weekend toy (Mini Clubman), but thought I'd show off my work in progress VW Polo as well!
I've owned a couple of Polo's before, my first one being a daily when the Mini was first off the road for its rebuild, and the second becoming a daily when I decided the Mini was too nice to use everyday! For various reasons I went away from VW's and dabbled with a Ford Focus for a bit, but despite the modern handling etc I still found I didn't like it, so sold it and came back to Polo's again! This was bought in September 2006:
A completely standard 1991 VW Polo GT Coupe, in a pretty rare colour - LA9V metallic black, with 117k on the clock. While it looked nice on the outside it had been subjected to an awful amount of bodgery by previous owners, so the first couple of months were spent troubleshooting and fixing various problems to get it running properly.
I ran it through the winter and then in spring 2007 decided that I needed to upgrade the brakes. The GT has a 239mm non-vented set-up, which is reasonable but not much good if you want to do any hard work with the brakes! However the G40 (supercharged variant of the Mk3 Polo) has 239mm vented brakes, and they fit straight on. After a quick re-furb on they went, along with rebuilt rear drums:
I also fitted some G40 13x5.5" BBS wheels I had, along with some OEM front fog lights, which improved it no end:
.As usual, the 75bhp generated by the GT's 1272cc MPi lump was becoming pretty boring, although they're a fairly nippy car they're by no means fast. I started looking around as to what was going on in terms of engine conversions. The Mk3 Polo (along with the Mk1 and 2) has quite a low bonnet, so engine conversions in terms of the 1.8T or VR6 lumps aren't straightforward, the engines are just too tall!
I considered a PD diesel engine, but realised that with it being a daily car I really shouldn't go for anything daft, as I have to insure it and also make sure whatever I do can be done in a weekend etc.
The early Mk3 Golfs came fitted with a 1391cc 8V lump, engine code ABD. In the Golf they only generated a measly 55bhp, being SPi, although the capacity meant a potential for more torque.
It turned out the block is identical to the GT's lump, along with the head, so all that was required was to take the GT's inlet manifold and management, along with the GT cam, bolt it onto and into the ABD lump and you've got a 1391cc GT engine! The only slight downside was the ABD's 9.5:1 CR as opposed to the GT's 10:1, but the increase in torque would more than make up for it!
A quick scout through the classifieds later, and I found a Mk3 Golf with rear end accident damage. It had the correct 1.4 ABD engine and 5-speed box. £75 and the running gear was mine!
I also found how how much you can get in the back of a GT!:
I bought the engine home, got it partially stripped and up in the stand, ready to work on:
Then, two weeks ago (9th February 2008), this happened:
Long story, but basically I was stationary and a bloke in an XJS drove into the back of me at 35mph. I managed to drive the car home, but after inspection, the insurance have declared it a cat-B so it's salvage only.
So I needed another car! I'd done too much to the GT to see it all thrown away, and I still hadn't got the ABD lump in, so I found this lurking on eBay:
A completely standard 1992 1043cc Polo Coupe, in an even rarer colour - Indian Red. The plan is to completely strip the GT and transfer all of the components over, including doing the ABD conversion at the same time! So far I've managed to swap a few things over (still suffering with whiplash at present), including the front bumper and fogs, and also I've managed to get some decent rubber (A539's) on some steelies to replace the scary ditchfinders fitted originally.
So this is as it stands at present:
I'll keep this bit updated as I carry out work on it!
Thanks for reading
Tom
