Back again? Or New Member

[Rozzer]

Hey,

Just in the process of buying my latest foray into Golf GTis, after a 25 year break!
I originally had a Mk3 8v as my company car in Scotland in the late 90's early 2000's; then left that employer, and bought a BBS Mk2 - lovely car, wish I had kept it.
But I moved to Australia. I'm still here (Sydney) but increasingly have to be in the UK (aging parents) so, as noted, needed some wheels.
Previously had various silly cars in the UK, but thought a Mk3 16v ABF would be a solid idea for local trips and onto the continent - a friend is organising a run to the 'Ring in April, so I have a few months to get the car sorted ahead of that trip. Wish me luck!

[Exonian]

Welcome and welcome back Rozzer 

A mk3 is an interesting choice as they tend to rot! Oh, and they handle badly. The latter can be fixed at a bit of expense but would be essential for a ring trip. I guess there are decent ones out there.

What have you been driving in Oz?
My step brother lives in Melbourne and has a T-Roc R

[Rozzer]

Fair calls on choice of car - it was a budget option instead of renting some nasty cheap thing from Heathrow every time I am over And I wanted but couldn't justify buying a Mk2
My choice of car appears to have been largely squared away on the rot front, although there are always going to be surprises. Given it will only be driven occasionally, I can afford for it to be off the road getting some love to solve the dissolving problem, and upgrade the running gear as needed. Maybe my memory is rose tinted, but I always rather enjoyed the handling of my last Mk3 - it required care, but could be tipped in and made to power-off oversteer and slide reasonably easily. Perhaps I need to relearn carefully
I don't have a VW in Australia - but I do have a few other things on the go, but the road car is a R53 Mini (currently  also rebuilding a Pug 205 GTI, have a small clutch of Lotuses for road and race, a 1958 Landy, rebuilding a Classic RR, and have a Healey 100 as my endurance rally car)
Much looking forward to the learning (and evidently relearning) of Mk3 ownership

[Exonian]

What a rather nice selection of cars you have! You must have plenty of space to keep them all too which would be a luxury in itself in the UK. I’m envious! Although not envious of the amount of work required to keep them all running, although I’d imagine rust was less of an enemy in Oz?
I’ve owned an R53 MINI and a 205 GTI 1.9 in the past myself and know what fun they are to drive.
Presumably going from your current stable of vehicles you’re not shy of getting your hands dirty so maybe a mk3 wouldn’t be such a bad idea if you have a rot free chassis. Handling is easily sorted with some decent gas dampers and new bushes. In fact the handling was never that bad on them, especially the plus axle models, but the dampers had too much wobble! I had two VR6’s a few decades ago (not at the same time) and replaced the dampers on both with gas pressurised sports shocks and the car drove so much better and didn’t nose dive under braking unlike the standard fit OEM’s. The 205 GTI will do the sideways stuff much better though! The mk3 liked to understeer. It’s a bit of a rarity to see a mk3 Golf on the roads in the UK these days but you see quite a few in Southern Europe still.
Incidentally if you’ve not already bought a car then the mk2 SEAT Ibiza GTI/Cupra models from that era (1996-2000) are really good buys and more sporty than the mk3 Golf. They have the 2.0 engine and some front suspension parts of a mk3 Golf and Polo rear suspension (with SEAT’s own settings) and are lighter and more dynamic than their VW siblings, possibly slightly cheaper too and have a good enthusiast following. An old friend of mine has at least 3 tucked away. I ran one as a second car for some years with the intention of doing some trackdays but alas it ended up as a commuter car and learner car for my two sons. 

[Rozzer]

Keeping cars in Sydney is just as much of a headache as anywhere I suspect I manage to squeeze three into a one car garage by having a hoist, an downing small cars! The rest live off-site in various locations. And yes, I am happy getting into the work myself
Thanks for the heads up on the SEAT, but I've committed and done the deed already 1995 N-plated, green, no sunroof, ABF-variant.
Having gone over it on the phone with my brother, I think it is pretty good chassis-wise, and unmolested, so I have a reasonable starting point I hope. Interested to drive it and see how the handling needs adjustment/upgrade, and I'll have a poke around here for suggestions but if you have any immediate recommendations (or ones to avoid!) let me know.
Owning and running old cars is indeed much easier here as they don't rot anything like as fast; the Pug had a hard life (it belonged to a lovely endurance rally friend who sadly died) and had been tarmac rallied, but even so, only needed a few minor bits welding and a fresh coat of paint to get it back to driveable - it'll never be concours, but you probably gather I don't worry too much about the looks

[Exonian]

I had visions of a big suburban Neighbours style house with huge driveway!
Being an N reg I’ll presume it’s the classic Dragon Green? There was a lighter green the pre-facelifted mk3’s came in.
I’ve not been in a mk3 for well over 20 years so I’d be the last person to give up to date advice on the model. I fitted Koni suspension to my first VR6 which was a bit hard for UK roads, then my second (Dragon Green N reg!) was fitted with standard springs and I upgraded the shocks to Boge turbo gas as they were half the price of the Bilsteins I actually had planned on fitting!

[Rozzer]

  As the expression goes here, yeah nah 😀
Apologies for the silence - went off grid for ten days (you can still do that here within 2 hours of Sydney!)

Yes, Dragon Green (same as my original P plated one back in 97)

Thanks for the heads up on shocks vs coil overs. I’ll get it looked over by a friend who preps rally cars there and work it out from there I suspect! I’m not looking to rag it too hard so something predictable and reasonably priced will be the go. Once all the other stuff is ticked off (rubbers, caliper rebuild etc).