• Recently recommissioned • Long MOT – passed with no advisories • Excellent electric roof • Good runner, ready for summer fun!
The Background
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 aircooled, 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. While the Golf GTI isn’t technically the first hot hatch, many would argue that it’s the best.
Upon an already interesting base, the creation of the cabriolet version in 1980 proved to be a truly fascinating thing. For while the Mk1 range was replaced by the Mk2 in 1983, the Mk1 cabriolet was so popular that it remained in production and on sale alongside the newer model right until 1994, by which time the Mk3 Golf had been on the market for a couple of years.
Truly a triumph of consumer desire over product planning, the Mk1 Golf GTI cabriolet was the car they had to keep making because it wouldn’t stop selling – and they’re just as popular today as they ever were.
The Golf we have here is a 1990 model - and it’s not just any old GTI, but a Wolfsburg Edition.
There have been many special-edition Golfs over the generations, and the specific touchpoints of this particular one are a little loose: for the North American market, a Wolfsburg Edition was a mainstream option featuring either a triple-white colour scheme or Star Blue Metallic paint, colour-coded bumpers and mirrors, optional power steering, alloy wheels in the Avus, Tarantula, Silverstone or Le Castellet design, height-adjustable sports seats, a leather steering wheel, optional cruise control, and optional air-conditioning.
In the European market, a Wolfsburg Edition may have some or all of these features depending on year and options, but what they all have is a smattering of tasteful ‘Wolfsburg Edition’ emblems throughout the car. (It’s worth noting that these cars weren’t actually built in Wolfsburg, the name is a tribute to the company’s hometown; they were built alongside all the other drop-top Golfs at Osnabrück.)
When the current owner bought this Golf in February 2019, it was being dry-stored in a warehouse where it had been stood since 2008. It’s his understanding (although without documented proof) that it had received a full respray and a new roof prior to being laid up.
There was no paperwork with the car, and it was very dirty as it stood, but appeared to be a pretty easy restoration; however, as is so often the case, there was rather more work required than first assumed [see ‘Mechanicals’ section].
With some time and money invested, he got it to a standard whereby it could easily pass its MOT – although now, with a number of other projects vying for attention, the Golf finds itself SORN’ed and enjoying little use. So it’s time for it to go to a new keeper who can give it a fresh lease of life.
When the current owner exhumed the car from its decade-or-so in storage, it unfortunately came with no paperwork to tell tales of its past.
However, having carried out a number of tasks to get the Golf roadworthy, there’s now a sizable sheaf of receipts for the work that’s been done over the last couple of years. We know that the car was first registered on April 20th 1990.
Checking the MOT history, we can see that the owner took it for an exploratory test in 2019 to see what was needed; rectifying all the issues, it passed with no advisories in January 2020, and did the same again in January of this year.
The interior of an early Golf is a pleasant place to be, with well laid-out controls and nice supportive seats. In this car it’s finished in a tasteful pale blue, and is very tidy considering the extensive period of inactivity.
There are a couple of minor issues to note: there are two small burn holes in the base of one of the seats, along with a few dirty marks to the fabric which should hopefully shampoo out pretty easily, and an aftermarket head unit has been fitted which doesn’t appear to work – but aside from that it’s all original-spec with everything functioning as it should.
Old-school modders will also appreciate the presence of the Ripspeed aluminium pedals!
For a car that spent so much time lying in stasis and hasn’t had a body resto since, this Golf is in remarkably tidy condition.
There are a few paint scuffs here and there from its time in storage, most notably on the driver’s door and across the front bumper, but on the whole the 2008 respray has held up well and polishes up nicely.
There’s a small patch of surface corrosion bubbling up just by the hood on the nearside, but otherwise all appears solid; underneath the car there’s some of the surface corrosion you’d expect, but no holes. One of the headlights is misted, but still works well.
The soft-top roof is in very good condition, and its electrical operation works correctly.
Mechanically speaking, this is an impressive car that’s had a lot of elbow grease applied to get it humming as it should.
With the owner expecting an easy restoration, he then rapidly found himself heavily investing in the brakes and suspension among much else; the brakes have been fully gone through with new calipers, discs and pads, and the suspension struts are all new.
The Golf has also received a full new exhaust system, new tyres, cambelt, water pump and hoses, plus assorted odds and ends including wiper blades, ignition switch and keys, door locks and keys, indicator switch, and a boot liner.
Following this recommissioning, everything mechanical is working nicely - it starts, runs, pulls, steers and stops as it should.
The Mk1 Golf has become such a legend over the decades that we’ve seen pretty much everything done to them: engine swaps, race builds, twin-engine conversions, gullwing doors, you name it. So it’s really quite endearing that this late cabrio hasn’t succumbed to the inevitable, and has instead had its purity and originality largely preserved.
It would make an excellent project base for someone who was planning a custom build, but perhaps more appropriate would be to polish up the details and enjoy it for what it is – all the right bits are in place, it’s a complete and usable GTI. It’s a desirable colour scheme, all the right bits have been done to get it ship-shape and legal, and it’s ready to roll.
With the way values of these Mk1 drop-tops are going, this could well prove to be both a bargain and an investment…
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