There’s nothing quite like being offered an ex-feature car shell halfway through a build, but it’s all turned out ok for Dave Dickinson who, with the help from his dad, has created this Mk1 gem from the confines of a lock-up...

At GOLF+ we’re often asked what happens to all the cars we feature a few years down the line. The majority would appear to stay on the show circuit for only a couple of seasons then just vanish completely. Gone. It seems a crying shame that a show winner from 2007 that had everyone’s jaw dropping to the floor at the time would just disappear off the face of the earth.

So what happens to all these amazing show cars that once took everyone’s breath away? A few would seem to survive with minor upgrades such as a change of rims or even an engine transplant, but sadly the majority get broken for their highly sought after parts never to be seen again. After all, who wouldn’t want those retrimmed Lambo seats that once rested in that trophy winning Mk4 Golf?

It may behave been born in the 1980s, but Chris Keeton’s stunning Mk2 GTi continues to defy its years...

Words & Pics: Steve McCann

You know that saying about ‘dog years’? The one that reckons that roughly for every one of our calendar years, a dog will age seven. In other words, if your faithful foul-breathed chum makes it to the age of ten, in dog years, he’d actually be 70. Well, what if the same principle was applied to cars? There has to be many other considerations though. For example, some old dear’s Polo that’s been to the shops once a week since 1987 could theoretically be younger than some hard-pressed rep’s 100,000-mile three year old Passat. Taking into account mileage, replacement parts and overall condition it should be possible – with the aid of science or at least someone with a mathematical brain – to create a formula to tell you your car’s age in ‘human years’. But there could still possibly be flaws in the calculations; take a look at Chris Keeton’s Mk2 Golf GTi. In the ten years he’s owned it, his trusted automotive companion isn’t getting older, it just gets better and fresher. Here’s a car that’s remained forever young (which is also a song title by Bob Dylan – or Jay-Z if you prefer – depending on your age).

When you’re known as carbon man and you run a mobile ICE company, guess what your Mk3 Golf VR6 ends up looking like? Yep – you’ve got it

Words & Pics: James Wallace

When you’re as laid back as Paul Simms’ about your creation, it’s difficult to expect people to know how much hard graft has gone in it. “Keep it simple,” goes the modified mantra that all serious petrolheads have adhered to since the very dawn of car fettling, and when you stick to that hallowed principle certain clued up onlookers are bound to notice. Take the judges from the MIVW show for example. When they afford you a coveted Best Mk3 gong at what was arguably 2011’s most hotly contested event you know you’ve done things right.

Yes, you read that right. Amongst a sea of very high class opposition Mr Simms’ was called up on stage to collect his trophy but he was a no show. Turns out the Edition 38 crew were already hot footing it back across Europe to make their ferry home, so Paul missed the honour of collecting his prize, in turn cementing our love for a car that we’ve ogled ever since the Players show at the tail end of 2010.

Meeting Paul properly for the first time at the UK’s spiritual home of all things water-cooled, the popular bodyshop belonging to Sir Steve of Denton, otherwise known as Stylehaus in Northampton, we were expecting a bit of a hard time due to the formidable reputation that surrounds the place. Steve was bolting together feature-worthy cars since before some of us were in the womb (sorry Steve – ED) at a time when the Mk3 VR6 was effectively VW’s flagship model, and Paul was driving around in a Mk1 GTi.

For those who remember the Dutch watercooled Treffen’s of yesteryear the quarter-mile was always king, and one name sticks out a country mile – JD Engineering and its amazing supercharged G60 creations

Words & Pics: James Wallace

If you’ve been kicking around the VW scene for as long as many of the old timers you’ll no doubt remember heading over to many a Dutch VW Treffen in the early noughties to check out the quarter-mile antics and the crazy creations of a certain Jeroen Dik. Since the late nineties, alongside UK based firms like Jabbasport and G-Werks, JD Engineering has been considered ‘THE’ G60 pioneers. Thanks to his 300+bhp, 11-second quarter-mile Mk1 Golf G60 16v, Jeroen Dik was seen as a world leader when it came to extracting maximum go from VW’s cobbled together PG, 1H and 3G engines. Yet his reputation seems to have been somewhat forgotten over the interluding years as he’s kept his head down and beavered away with 1.8T, 2.0T FSI, V6 and even V8 engine development. Hell, if you didn’t spot the twin charged (turbo and super) Mk4 Golf GTI that came out of the JD premises a couple of years back you must have been living on
another planet.