2007 VW GOLF GTI
NAME: IMRAN KHAN // AGE: 41 LOCATION: AUCKLAND // OCCUPATION: SELF-EMPLOYED
NZ Performance Car: Hi, Imran. That’s a sweet GTI — how did you get into cars?
Imran: Hey, guys. My dad was a new-car salesman when I was growing up, and I was fortunate enough to get rides to school in all sorts of new cars. So you could say that I’ve loved cars since I was five years old, really. My first car was a 1974 Datsun 120Y, which I loved every bit of. There was nothing it couldn’t do, and it never gave up on me.
Old battler, no doubt. How’d you end up with the GTI?
[Laughs] well … I actually bought it for my wife as a surprise, but she wasn’t that into it — so fussy! But that was fine, and I was left with a surplus toy that I ended up getting bored with, so I started doing things with it. Everything you can see now happened within a couple of years of owning it. It’s a lot of fun to drive, especially now with the power upgrade.
Good excuse to build it up then. Not many people are doing sound systems anymore — was this always going to be a big part of the build?
Funny you ask that, as it was never meant to be. I always thought of turning this into a track car instead. I have two other cars that have sounds upgraded, and this was the lonely one that didn’t have that feature at all. So, to make it fair, I did this one as well.
And would you like to thank anyone?
Yes, I am blown away by the help and input I have received from the following people who have helped me bring this car to where it is today. Hennie Sadie from HSP Tuning (known as HS Performance and Tuning), Camz Wong from Camz Autosound and Security, Rich Addis from Zeroflex, Matthew Holt from Autostance, Nick Campbell from Autotintz for the wrap and tints, German Projects, and the Just Dubs crew.