Well in my current situation, this isn't a GTi, it's the model before a GTi, I asked for a quote on a GTi with the same mods and it came back £2K, I'm paying £650 for this with everything declared etc. So yeah insurance is a lot nicer on non-GTis, and too be honest, this still has a fair poke to it, this particular model has a 90bhp engine, the 8v GTi is 115bhp, so not 'that' much in it.
I'm after looks more than anything atm anyway, insurance is too high for me right now so make it look good and then get something more powerful when my insurance comes down.