It wasn’t a mid-life crisis as such that lead 22 year-old William Smith to fall in love with this American heartbreaker. More a fatal mid-project gawp at the Vortex forum...

Words: Ian Cushway & Pics: Chris Wallbank

You know what it’s like. After a hard day’s graft welding floorpans you grab a mug of tea, switch on the computer and spend a wistful half hour scanning the forums. What you don’t bargain for is a complete change in direction that will lead you to abandon what you’re up to, flog all the bits and embark on a four-month venture involving ships, lots of paperwork and a barely run in Westmoreland Mk1.

Well, that’s precisely what happened to 22 year-old Tesco employee William Smith from Yorkshire one fateful evening having just downed tools on his two year labour of love Mk2 build.

“I’d bought a three-door Nevada Beige shell that turned out to be totally rotten, and had spent the last two years buying bits, welding up the panels and working out how I was going to graft everything on to a syncro floorpan,” explained Will, who admits that he’s picked up skills here and there and benefited from having a handyman dad. “I’d seen the car on the Vortex forum previously, but when I spotted that it had come up for sale that fateful night I knew I just had to have it.”

The story goes that the beautiful, barely run in Tabasco Red 1980 1.6 C model with K-Jectronic, was purchased new, fresh from the Pennsylvanian VW of America factory, by a lady called Denise who lived on top of a hill in Mercer Island, Washington. She moved to China shortly afterwards, leaving the car in the custody of her parents who had never driven a manual – so they didn’t use it. When the intrepid Denise had presumably had enough of the noodles, she returned but only used the car occasionally to drive to the grocery store, which was in walking distance anyway, just to keep some juice in the battery. Hence, when she came to sell, it had spent the majority of the last few decades in a garage – and had covered just 12,261 miles!

A guy called Erik snapped it up and imported it to Canada, but decided that he couldn’t afford to keep it and went put the advert on the Vortex forum to notify potential interested parties of its availability.

OWNER PROFILE

Name:
William Smith
Age:
22
Location:
Yorkshire
Occupation:
Plumber
Dream car:
Changes a lot. Today I want a 964
Fave mod on car:
Rollers
Top Choonz:
Jonsi

THE KNOWLEDGE

Engine:
8v 1.6l fuel Injection 15,000 original miles
Suspension:
FK Konigsports, shortened driveshafts, notched rail, Ronal Racing Magnesium Motorsport three-piece wheels (15x7.5)
Brakes:
Standard
Interior:
Red on red on red goodness
Exterior:
All original features including Westmoreland front end, original Le3a Tabasco Red paint
Thanks to:
JESUS. My wife, hatta, for putting up with this tomfool. Jon Byles, Matt Beige, dad and Andy! Joe@Fresh Reflections for polishing

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