Not a week passes where a new part isn’t fitted or something radical happens to Paul Harding’s car. He’s a die-hard car nut and his two-door Mk1 Jetta reflects a classic car passion that really doesn’t follow the herd

Words & Pics: James Wallace

Rare is the most overused word in the car spares dictionary. It’s a bloated, lazy word that’s generally attached to everything when people are either charging too much for the goods, or simply don’t know what they’ve got. But for Paul Harding’s Mk1 Jetta two-door the term is definitely relevant, even though we’d still prefer to say ‘sought after’. Never officially imported into the UK in a right-hand drive configuration, the Mk1 Jetta Coupe remains a very sought after commodity and never more so than when there’s a well-sorted 20v turbo shoehorned in there along with a comprehensive conversion to right-hand drive. The fact that he’s taken a very different skew with the style of his vehicle points to his retro petrolhead roots.

Despite entering the UK from Germany as a non-runner that was fitted with a fully polished 1800 8v on carbs, Paul actually bought this car from his mate, Mike, after a fella had imported it before going to the trouble of quickly chucking in the engine and RHD conversion. “Mike bought it from another mate called Alex at the tailend of 2009 and I encouraged him to get it because he’d always wanted a 20v Mk1. It needed a bit of love and seemed to be an easy project for him to spring clean, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. He bought a few parts for it, but never really drove it. In fact I drove it more than he did.”

Pass the porker on
At the time Paul was driving a 996 Porsche but when he sold that he started looking for an early ‘80s 911 before things got really interesting, “He mentioned he was thinking of selling the Jetta and would I be interested? I got it for a great price but only because he knew I’d look after it and he could still ride shotgun and borrow it when ever he wanted,” Paul explained. The rate of change since his taking ownership is rather impressive to say the least. When you consider he’s got a 1977 Citroën GS Estate, ’59 low light Ghia, E30 BMW with a V8 in it, ’78 Merc SL and an E36 M3 for drifting, it’s a wonder he had any time to concentrate on this project at all.

Fundamentally the car was in rust-free condition, but the engine hadn’t been fitted that well and there were a number of niggly little jobs that still needed sorting. “It was just a mis-matched track car that needed that final push to make it complete, although I never realised how far I’d go. It ended up being practically a bare ‘shell.” Paul’s certainly not afraid of getting stuck in that’s for sure. “I really enjoy working on any car, but I’m not particularly brilliant at any one thing in particular.” Oh how we beg to differ, Paul.

OWNER PROFILE

Name:
Paul Harding
Age:
34
Location:
Basingstoke
Occupation:
Plumber
Dream car:
Pre A 356 split screen speedster
Fave mod on car:
Interior
Top Choonz:
Anything but heavy metal

THE KNOWLEDGE

Engine:
Fully rebuilt 1781cc 20v turbo engine swap, Mk4 Golf drilled airbox with air feeds, K04 turbo swap, TT injectors, Forge re-circ valve, custom silicone boost hoses, QPENG ECU with switchable maps, TT turbo manifold, VHT wrinkle black painted engine ancillaries and inlet manifold, DIY Audi downpipe with flexi into custom 21⁄4in stainless exhaust system, E36 rad cover section, in-tank lift pump, in line Bosch pump, boot mounted swirl pot, custom intercooler spray setup, custom raised engine mounts, shallow steel Brazil sump, 180bhp/270bhp, all standard Mk4 engine covers and trim
Transmission:
02a gearbox on custom mounts, VR6 clutch, G60 flywheel, Mk2 Golf 1300 clutch cable, 100mm driveshafts, VW cable clutch conversion, Quaife LSD
Chassis:
H&R Ultra low Twin tube coilovers with custom camber adjustment, RHD drive conversion, lower strut brace, upper strut brace, Floflex poly bushes throughout, camber shims on rear, 4x114 to 4x100 custom adapters 10mm front, 35mm back, reverse mounted BBS RS wheels rebuilt to 6.6x16in, 165/40 x 16 Nankang tyres, chassis notch, 280mm G60 front brakes with Girling calipers and drilled discs, rebuilt and detailed rear drums, lower and upper strut braces, rear brace
Styling:
Home finishing in Mars Red on certain areas, genuine Jetta front bumper with chrome trim and optional washer jets, original rear bumper and chrome trim, black flag mirrors, refurbed headlights, NOS orange indicators, black Porsche 944 handles
Interior:
Lotus Mota-Lita steering wheel and wooden gearknob, custom made Kirkey race seats in grey tweed (passenger seat 3in wider), Newton Commercial carpet set, grey tweed rear shelf, custom made rear bench seat, Schroth inertia reel seat belts, RHD sunvisors, new RHD dash, 1.1 clocks with hidden boost, oil pressure and rev counter
ICE:
270bhp in around 900kg.
Becker head unit with 4 hidden speakers
 

Thanks:
Massive thank you to Roy from Autobarn (01256 398828), Kay my wife to be for putting up with my car addiction. My parents for also putting up with my car addiction and still storing three of them. Father-in-law Phil from smithsupholstery.co.uk. Mike for the car, Jon for a few late nights to get it ready for shows and Darren for storing another one of my cars. Mike C and the KwikFit lads for looking after my wheel and tyre fetish. Tylney Hall for letting us use the grounds (01256 764881)

To read the rest of this feature see the August 2011 issue of Golf+.
Back issues available here.