Looking to buy a Mk1 Golf

[codral]

Hello, i've signed up to your UK forums because of a seemingly total lack of interest in Golf's in Australia.. I mean people drive them but i cant seem to find a dedicated forum.

Anyway my first car was a Mk1 1600 Golf "sport" GLS.  This car was absolutely awesome. (apart from the lack of guts and the horrible condition) Everything about it was fun.

I drove a R32 Nissan Skyline until about a week ago when i gave up on it.  Australian police hate them and i get defected once or twice a week for utter bullcrap.  Anyway so i thought i'd go back to a mk1 golf but this time i'd get something with slightly more guts.

Now from what i've seen the GTI's are FWD as well (i wanted AWD, like the newer models) and run a 2.0 litre(?? or is it 1.6) fuel injected engine, putting through 108bhp, i'm assuming its still 8V like my old one as well.  Can anyone give me some other stats.  You see the thing is after driving the skyline i think i won't have much fun driving a slower car again..
What do these things do 0-100 in?  1/4 mile?  (sorry but that's how i judge acceleration on cars, it's the only way i easily understand)

I'm not keen on an engine transplant, but what kind of gains are you looking at with (and i'm assuming theres no point upgrading the fuel injection system) a lumpy-ish cam, a decent exhaust (2.5"?) and maybe a ported head or something?  What are other power relevant mods? 

I don't want some really fast car, and (mk1 gti's are cheap here) for the price don't expect one.  But i don't want a horribly slow one either!

Anyway any help would be appreciated, thanks 

[gibby]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I'll try to answer a few of your questions, yup the GTI's are fwd, depending on how old they are and presuming they are the same down under as they were in Europe then they will be either 1.6 (110bhp) up to about year 1981 or 1.8 (112bhp), up to 1984. Both 8vs and k-jet (mechanical fuel injection system) so no ECU.

As for stats, I don't know about the 0 - 100 times, but I did the 1/4 mile in 17.2 in my mk1 cab but that's a lot heavier than a mk1 tintop and I raced one that did it in 15.7, so you're probably looking at 15.5 - 16.5 for a 1/4 mile, so not as quick as your Skyline.

With the mods you mention I reckon you'd be looking to get up to about 120 - 130bhp at a guess. Not sure what else you could do other than a panel filter.

I think you'll be surprised at how quick they are from the lights over a short distance as they only weighed about 840kg.

Have a look around the site and do some searches in this section and you will find some more answers. Anything else, just ask and I'm sure someone will be able to help you out.

[codral]

Ah so i'd be looking to get the 1981 model i suppose (although i guess the 81 model was the one with the molded front bumper instead of the steel one, which i preferred) FWD is not really much fun, but i want a mk1 so i guess theres not much to be done about that.

Didn't occur to me that it would be mechanical fuel injection.. I wonder if there is room for improvement in that.

Anyways, i'll have a read around, see if i can find some answers to a few other things im wondering about

Cheers

[gibby]

Just to confirm, you'll be after an early model if you want a 1.6 engine with 110bhp. If you want 1.8 & 112 then you need a later model.

Chrome bumpers on a mk1 are very popular over this side of the planet, but they cost a fortune and that's if you can find them.