Life Cycle
The life and times of a MKI Volkswagen Golf GTI, from original to bodykitted and colour-coded, and back as a cherished classic
Fiona Sherling buys it for £6949.25 in September 1983 Fiona Sherling of Watford bought her new Volkswagen Golf GTI for all the right reasons. ‘I wanted a good, reliable, sturdy and safe car, and I wanted something that really moved,’ she says. ‘I won’t have a car that doesn’t move.’
Bought in September 1983 from Contim Motors in Harrow for the advertised price of £6949.25 and subsequently registered as A31 GLE, it was a GTI Campaign – the UK version of the several limitededitions offered across major European markets to promote the final production year for Volkswagen’s groundbreaking original Golf. It was one of just 1000 such units offered on these shores.
A true enthusiast – ‘weren’t they called Rabbits in the States?’ she reminds this American-born journo – Fiona well remembers the excitement and responsiveness of the car. ‘I used to leave the 205 boys standing at the traffic lights. My turn doing the shared neighbourhood school-run was memorable too – I managed to get ten kids in the back seat. Of course, the seat belt laws were a bit different back then!
That later formed part of her reasoning for moving on to a larger vehicle in October of 1987, but not before putting 35,000-odd miles beneath the Campaign GTI’S signature Pirelli P-slot wheels.
Fiona has subsequently owned a number of wellconsidered performance cars, in a variety of engine and bodywork configurations, but still speaks very fondly of her time owning Volkswagen’s definitive hot-hatch.
‘Of all the cars I’ve had and driven, that Golf was one of my absolute favourites,’ she says. Late 1987: New owner; new scenery Following the stewardship of Fiona Sherling, A31 GLE was taken in by the original selling dealer as a trade-in for a larger model. The next owner remains untraceable despite our best efforts, but we do know he dressed his new car in Amg-style mono-colour – with white bumpers, grille and miscellaneous exterior fittings – and relocated the car to Hampshire. He evidently didn’t bond with car despite the periodtypical modifications, however, because the Golf was up for sale again after seven months... The Colleys buy it in July 1988 for £4500 If Tenure Number Two was but a brief interlude, the third owners enjoyed the car’s longest spell of ownership so far – almost 14 years. Newlyweds Valerie and Chris Colley bought A31 GLE from Martins VW of Andover for £4500 in July 1988. ‘We loved that car from the beginning,’ remembers Valerie. ‘It was a financial stretch for us back then, and I’d never done anything like that before, but I ended up test-driving the car and knew immediately I wanted it.’
Adds Chris, ‘While it was actually bought as Val’s daily-driver, I was the one who spotted it at Martins and called Val, who went straight down to view it.’
Despite that, Chris has fond memories of the GTI’S exhilarating performance. ‘My brother owned a Renault 5 GT Turbo at the time, so we had a lot of fun on the A303! Val and I also brought our babies home for the first time in that car.’
Valerie drove the car constantly for many years. ‘I only really used it in and around Andover, so it didn’t clock up a
lot of miles. I did around 50,000 in the total during the 14 years. But the years alone took their toll, and while Martins did all their mechanical upkeep and repairs, more of it was constantly required with time, including corrosion fixes, sunroof leaks and general decline. Sadly, garaging the car simply wasn’t an option. Despite me fighting the good fight – I had the knack of starting it and knew exactly where to spray the WD-40 in the cold and wet months – the Golf’s needs finally escalated from ordinary repairs to genuine restoration, which wasn’t a practical alternative for our young family.’
Reluctantly, the Colleys put a For Sale sign in the window in November 2002 and soon agreed with a local trader upon a quick transaction, better to abbreviate the pain, for £500. Of the popular-brand saloon that replaced it all they remember is, ‘it was pretty boring after the GTI.’ Kevin Howard rescues it for £500 in December 2002 Kevin Howard had an eye on the Colley’s GTI long before it came his way, ‘As a senior tech at Martins VW, I’d seen it in the shop many times. I tried to buy it in 1998 but they weren’t quite ready to sell yet.’
But he didn’t know it was available in 2002 until a friend, another of the Andover VW fraternity, called that December. ‘He’d heard the car was about to be scrapped, and if I wanted it, I’d better jump.’ Apparently, the trader who’d just paid £500 discovered more troubles than he was prepared to tackle; Kevin was able to nab A31 GLE for a few paltry quid over scrap metal value.
But it was no picnic, even for a veteran VW restorer. ‘I examined the car and found it really was rough, with a heavily corroded driver’s door, slam panel and front panel; the roof was also pitted and the sunroof had rust around the aperture. I also had to replace both front wings and clean up various rot-spots, give it a full respray, and finally change the AMG white-out look for regular factory-spec bumpers and trims.’
Val Colley had spent wisely on the mechanicals, though, and little was necessary there; over his five years, Kev turned 13,000 largely trouble-free miles, on weekend cruises and attending VW activities.
Indeed, Kevin believes he would have kept it far longer, had he not suffered that affliction many of us have experienced – having too many projects on the go and not enough cash to fund them all simultaneously. ‘In March 2007, I found myself needing money for an air-cooled Volkswagen that I was pushing hard to finish, so I asked my boss at the time, Eddie Calcott, who’d owned a lot of Golfs before, if he’d consider buying this one.’ A deal was struck, which Kevin thinks it was in the £3500 range, and A31 GLE said goodbye to the man who had saved it from oblivion. Edward Calcott pays £3500 in March 2007 For the first time in 20 years, A31 GLE in 2007 left Andover, moving with the next keeper, Edward Calcott, to a small Hampshire community eight miles from the Andover centre, although Edward does have a business in Andover so it remained a regular visitor. This was a quiet but beneficial period for the GTI; it was constantly garaged, driven only on the proverbial high days and holidays, and treated to a good deal of interior and detail sprucing to complement the body work done by Kevin Howard. Edward also personally rebuilt and resealed the entire sunroof assembly, a fiddly job if ever there was one.
Mechanically, the GTI continued to perform commendably, although Eddie admits he and the car never truly gelled. ‘I bought it to help Kev out and for a sense of nostalgia, really. I’d owned several Golfs over the years but modern performance cars were more my thing so it accumulated fewer than 400 miles in my custody. Eventually I realised it was in the car’s best interests to move it on. A mate of my son John kept asking me if I’d sell it to him and in April 2009 I did, for £3500. He was keen and I knew he would drive it and enjoy it.’ Sold for £3500 again in April 2009 to Simon Quin That mate of John Calcott was Simon Quin from, you guessed it, Andover. He was also a friend of Kevin Howard and yet another faithful VW lover. In his hands it was more than safe, it was cosseted; after moving back into town, the GTI did roughly 1600 miles over the ensuing five years, the majority of it going to VW events. ‘Bug Jam at Santa Pod was an annual favourite,’ says Simon.
The car’s low annual mileage was further influenced by extended spells off the road for other restoration or upkeep chores. ‘I fitted new brakes, numerous appearance items and a complete Vw-sourced exhaust
system. I also refinished the original alloys, which cost a bomb because of their unusual design.’
Much like Eddie, though, Simon in due course came to question the utility of a vehicle he was increasingly driving less and less, and put the Golf on the market in 2014. ‘I only sold the car because I basically just used it on one weekend a year, for Bug Jam, and then it just sat there. I regretted it as soon as it drove off, if I’m honest, but that’s life. I’ve tried to buy it back since, but the new owner says it’s a keeper!’ James Bullen pays £5500 in February 2014 Says the car’s next and current owner James Bullen, ‘I wanted one even as a youngster in the early Nineties when I’d just passed my driving test, but there was no way then I could possibly afford the insurance – the annual premium would have cost more than the car! So instead of the GTI, I settled for a less exotic, and slower Golf MKI variant. While I’ve had many VWS since, along with Porsches, Alfas and the occasional Lotus – nearly 30 cars total – that single, just-right, dream-fulfilling, first-series GTI always eluded me.’
That was, until a few years ago when James was living abroad and asked family friend Phil Wight, a long-time VW racer and independent dealer, to keep an ear to the ground. In 2014, Phil found A31 GLE for sale in Andover – solid, documented, and with matching numbers. James bought it for £5500, and has now gone through the car nose to tail, including a full glass-out respray, an engine rebuild – which mainly amounted to new gaskets – and a complete mechanical and cosmetic overhaul, down to the last fuel pipe bracket and seat cover. ‘My aim was to return it to factory-standard throughout. It’s now the most responsive and rewarding MKI I’ve driven, and I think it’s one of the best out there. It wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless assistance of Pete and Stuart at Langley Autocraft, of Huke Upholstery in Hemel Hempstead, and of VW Heritage.
Equally as rewarding, according to James, has been his background research, which proved vital to this account. ‘I went through the MKI Owners’ Club and the DVLA, found most of the previous owners and visited many of them with the car while the improvements came along. I was surprised at how emotional it was, how much the car had meant to so many people, and that has honestly been the best part. It made me think, too, when I realised the first owner bought it not ten miles from where I live now; it’s as though after all this, the car has finally come full circle.’
‘I’d wanted one as a youngster in the Nineties, but back then I couldn’t afford the insurance’