A few weeks ago, we revisited a Mk3 Volkswagen Golf, featuring all-wheel-drive and a Precision 6266 turbocharged VR6 engine, pushing over 550whp. True to the spirit of Gatebil, this Golf was engineered for all-out performance.
For this week’s throwback post, we’re revisiting a special style of Golf construct. In truth, on the earth of custom Golfs, we’ve never encountered anything quite like Pipey McGraw‘s Mk1 GTI – an slammed-to-the-ground creation with VW Beetle underpinnings and a pulsating Mazda rotary engine.
2014 Feature
If there’s one sound I even have a really tuned ear for, it’s the heart beat of a Mazda rotary; there’s just nothing else quite prefer it. As many readers might know, my home country of Latest Zealand is a wankel enthusiast’s mecca and I even have grown up with the idle of ported rotary engines ringing in my ears.
While in England recently attending the 2014 Players Show at North Weald Airfield, that familiar rhythmic pulse was the very last thing I expected to listen to, but there it was, ebbing towards me as soon as I opened the door of my rental automotive. Just like the smell of an ex’s perfume or a specific song out of your teenage years, the brap brap brap sound immediately brought back memories for me: the normal Kiwi summer spent cruising the beach spots as RX-2s, RX-3s, RX-7s and all the remaining rolled past. Hearing this sound in the midst of an airfield within the UK, with a biting blustery wind cutting all through my jumper, I felt nostalgic – patriotic even – and I needed to know more.
The faint pulse had disappeared before I’d even finished getting my camera gear out, and with only a rough direction wherein to begin hunting, I started my seek for the elusive Mazda. As you’ve little question already guessed by taking a look at these images, it could prove that I used to be in search of entirely the fallacious automotive. After loads of aimless wandering and head scratching, I finally saw the tell-tale distributor and upwards-sweeping IDA carburettor manifold – protruding the boot of a Mk1 Volkswagen Golf GTI. Well, that’s a primary…
What exactly was I taking a look at and why? More information was needed, and I ultimately found the owner, Pipey McGraw, who was capable of fill me in on the small print. It seems this is admittedly only partially a Golf. In reality, it’s probably more of a 1970 VW Beetle, though it’s registered as an ‘SMT ULC’. It’s also completely street legal.
Pipey kicked off his project back in early 2012 after finding this GTI body, which had had the underside cut out and placed excessive of a scrap Beetle pan with just a few tack welds to carry it in place. What he first thought could be a fast weekend fix-up for amusing has became a life-consuming labour of affection for the Bournemouth local and his mates. Besides the Golf shell itself, nothing else now stays from the project he originally purchased.
The primary Beetle chassis was scrapped and replaced with a virtually all-new pan, which uses a spine from a 1970 Beetle and brand recent floor pans, front frame head panel and rear spring plates. British MOT rules dictate that the ground pan of a automotive can’t be modified, so all of the work went into the body, fabricating strengthened mounting points that aligned with the Beetle’s stock points. Pipey also used the chance to sit down the mounts up higher, leading to a 4-inch body drop. This permits the GTI portion of the automotive to sit down extremely low to the bottom while the Beetle chassis stays at a more reasonable height, which also allows the automotive to retain some reasonable suspension geometry.
Although the body itself is clearly slightly beaten up, that’s exactly how Pipey wanted it. He says that although he appreciates all of the work that goes into immaculate show builds, it just isn’t him – there’s something to be said for battle scars and character. Although nothing has been repaired as such, originally this body looked prefer it had been sitting within the sun for 30 years; it had turned shades of pink and white, and was completely rough to the touch. Pipey spent countless hours sanding back the drained paint and polishing it up, leading to an odd high-sheen, yet ratty look.
One other Beetle has been raided for its bulkhead, which was then welded into the Golf body. In a rush to get the VW done for the summer of 2013, the automotive ran a stock Beetle air-cooled flat 4 that Pipey had lying around behind that bulkhead. The automotive travelled so well, performing faultlessly on big trips to the massive RadikalBugz and European Bug In meets in Belgium, that Pipey decided to persist with the motor for the remaining of the 12 months. As you possibly can now see though, he soon grew bored: Pipey needed something with more power. Although the simple option would have been to construct a monster VW mill, it wasn’t going to be weird and different enough for Pipey. It was time to look farther abroad.
With only very limited space available, Pipey needed a motor that will be sufficiently small to suit, yet still provide an enormous upgrade in power over the stock flat 4 (that’s probably not the toughest of asks, mind you). Loads of time was spent researching the matter, but eventually it was the countless videos of indignant rotary-powered machines pulsing away that could be found online, and a subsequent search that turned up off the shelf Mazda-to-VW gearbox adapters, that convinced Pipey to go along with a Hiroshima screamer. This was present in the shape of an early twin-rotor 1300cc 13B, originally from a Series 3 RX-7.
Upon trial fitting the rotary, it quickly became clear that the sump of the Mazda motor hung an excellent couple of inches lower than the VW engine’s, and with the automotive being so low, it was real cause for concern. Pipey and friends fabricated recent mounts for the 4-speed VW Type 2 Transporter gearbox that had been adapted to the motor, after which cut into the bulkhead to permit the box and motor to sit down two inches higher. Finally, after plenty more hours spent checking out the wiring and cooling and with a summer filled with events fast approaching, it was time to begin the Mazda-powered VW up.
Unfortunately, the ‘great running engine’ Pipey had purchased turned out to be an entire dud, and never long after it was fired up for the primary time, it dropped a rotor and fell to pieces. With only two weeks until the 2013 Retro Rides Gathering in Worcester, Pipey now had himself a dead duck, and spirits were low – but it surely wouldn’t last. Help got here from Carl and the team at Hayward Rotary in Berkshire, who dropped all the things to get the motor apart and not only fixed up, but transformed right into a monster.
The block has now been fully bridgeported and runs high-compression Series 5 RX-7 rotors with Hayward’s own highly-regarded apex seals. Rotary engine porting, for many who may not have had much to do with these motors up to now, involves enlarging the intake and exhaust ports to permit more air and fuel into and out of the engine, similar in concept to porting/polishing the pinnacle and fitting a more aggressive camshaft/s right into a piston motor. The ‘bridgeport’ specifically refers to a means of not only enlarging the usual port, but making a second thin port just above it, almost like an eyebrow to a watch. The bridge that’s left between the 2 ports ensures that the corner seals of the rotor don’t fall out and make mincemeat of the motor.
The engine now pulls air and fuel through a 46mm Weber IDA carb, which is bolted to a port-matched Racing Beat manifold and was originally pulled off a Porsche 914 race automotive.
Spark is provided to RX-8 plugs by a pair of MSD Blaster coils via big Magnacor leads.
Big braided water lines could be seen running from the rear of the automotive to the front, where a radiator is situated between the 2 enlarged wheel tubs.
A bridgeported motor requires a complete lot of respiration room, so to ensure that the 13B to exhale efficiently, a custom set of headers was fabbed up, which dump right into a short exhaust pipe running down below the bumper. As you possibly can imagine, with such a brief exhaust tract, this automotive isn’t precisely the quietest…
Though the motor hasn’t been dyno tested, wisdom states that it must be making somewhere across the 250hp on the flywheel mark – an excellent five times greater than the stock air-cooled flat 4 that was within the automotive previously. Though the massive hike in power was great, it made the automotive scary to drive on its current static suspension arrange. It was time to make this machine slightly more practical.
Sure, Pipey had already been driving this automotive around for an excellent 12 months crazy-low on static suspension, but for the sake of practicality he decided to amass a Rayvern hydraulic suspension arrange, which has been designed specifically for the Bug platform. He admits that it’s the one big thing he doesn’t like in regards to the automotive, but sooner or later, you’ve got to be realistic about practicality, and nothing screams practical like having the ability to lift your automotive and drive without being followed by fireworks as your panels go toe-to-toe with the road surface.
The arrange runs hydraulic rams with inline shock absorbers and adjustable rear spring plates. The front beam has also been narrowed considerably, which Pipey carried out firstly since it’s a standard aircooled Bug modification, and since it also allows the front wheels to realize full lock.
The 2-piece drag-style wheels measure 16×6 inches and were made to Pipey’s specifications in California by Custom Metal Spinning, before being sent over to the UK. On this image you can see just how far contained in the fenders the front wheels sit.
Like the remaining of the VW, the inside has a really rat-bug feel about it and is pieced together from various ins and outs. With that said, Pipey says that he wouldn’t mind going for a more complete interior a while within the near future.
For now though, the bead-rolled dash is about so simple as it gets and houses an array of gauges from an Audi 80.
The steering wheel has been custom made by Coltech Classics, using a wide range of bits and pieces from vintage euros.
These awesome Vabric tweed-trimmed bomber seats are by far my favourite addition though, and so they suit the variety of the construct perfectly.
With its sparse Beetle interior, ratty Golf GTI exterior and raucous Mazda engine jutting from its boot, Pipey’s automotive is what some might call a European hot rod of sorts. It’s made from up so many various vehicles, and is about as removed from the stock automotive – whichever one you select – as is feasible. Considering it’s completely street legal and it has driven throughout Europe, we’ve to wonder how a automotive like that is received by all of the those who pass it by on the roads.
“It’s not a really inconspicuous automotive in any respect,” Pipey says matter-of-factly. “From the second I roll out the drive to the second I turn it off at my destination people just appear to go crazy on the roads. People have stopped traffic on the M25 to take photos of it rolling. Others attempt to pull me over to speak in regards to the automotive; my lip reading’s great now – you possibly can clearly see people swearing. I think the thing that baffles people most is how low it’s and the way I can physically drive it on the road. From kids to grandparents – each time I stop someone’s running over to the automotive attempting to take photos or seek advice from me about it.”
We’re well aware that this mash-up-mobile isn’t for everybody, and that’s exactly what each we and Pipey himself love about it. It’s an outside-the-box, unique creation that has served as each a talking point for anyone Pipey meets, and a campfire of sorts. A spot that friends can gather around, have amusing and construct something interesting at the identical time. “For me, my favourite thing about this automotive is taking a look at it and desirous about the three years of labor that has gone into it. I’m extremely lucky to have the buddies I try this have put up with this silly automotive for thus long. I like the actual fact it causes such a response of passion from people once they see it. From absolute like to extreme hatred, it gets people talking regardless, whether or not they understand it or not.”
The Speedhunters
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Peter Kelly
Instagram: pedeykelly
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
