Bugger, I'm tempted by this thing...

May I be the first to say 'HFM' for someone's unfinished and rusting project?

There's hardly a lot left to do and it's perfectly road worthy. Personally I could think of things I'd rather spend £3.5k on, but I reckon the Golf could be a giggle.

Looks old, squashed and it front wheel drive. And its "frighteningly" quick @ 5.5 (or 6??? which?) to 60. He must scare easy.

Having pulled a couple of MK2s to bits, I can tell you that rust near the filler is A Very Bad Thing. The wheelarch tub will have seperated from the quarter panel, and welding it back up will mean dropping the tank and repainting the quarter panel. I'd also speculate that the area where the A pillar meets the inner wing will have disintegrated, probably badly enough that there are holes through to the tray where the blower motor sits, which implies there's nothing much left on the other side.

OTOH it'll never fail an MOT test for it as you can't see either from underneath the car.

And VR6 bores go oval don't they? I'd much rather have a 1.8T.

That's not the point - if I'm spending that much money on any MkII Golf, it needs to be utterly flawless. The list of bits to do to get it right is far too long - especially when you consider that sorting the suspension properly isn't going to be particularly cheap.

In your opinion perhaps. Which, as always, is correct. Unfortunately at least 8 people disagree with that.

Reading the auction properly, the only thing that would concern me about the car is that it hasn't had an MoT with all spangly bits attached to it yet.

I refer you to Doki's post - especially regarding the rust.

Just because 8 people are stupid enough to see a shiny Golf with a VR6 engine and think it's worth buying, it doesn't mean they actually know what they're talking about, you know.

£3.5k is a f*ck load of money for a 'bitza' MkII.

I concur. At least it appears to be something worth spending a few quid fixing. I'd rather it had 12 months ticket from a garage I knew beforeing parting with any cash mind.

Because obviously that's based on a thorough investigation of the car. I've seen a rusty Alfa 75 with lots of electrical problems before, does that mean yours is worthless?? You're making some pretty enormous assumptions without actually looking at the car (as usual).

Maybe not, but if they're stupid enough to pay that, then that's what it's worth.

Couldn't agree more, and I certainly wouldnt be paying it! But if that's 'your thing' then some people probably will. If he has spent £7k on bits, then it's potentially save some other monkey with similar ideas £3.5k. Just the engine, box and LSD must be worth a fair bit!

Couple of known MkII rust issues are listed in the auction - which Doki has confirmed usually mean there's a lot of damage you can't instantly see. It's like 75s with rust at the bottom of the rear arches - many people say 'just a small bit of rust in the rear door shuts' - I know this means the whole of the rear end is shot. And I've paid the cost of fixing it, too.

*shrug*

It's not something I'd advise Timo to buy, even without looking, it appears to be overvalued and have a significant 'scene tax' on it.

WTF are you on Steve? 2 1/4 inch springs are about as cheap as they get...

I said sorting it properly - not just bolting on a set of cheapie springs and hoping for the best.

It's a big heavy engine for a MkII, which is why it's not really the preferred engine conversion on them.

Rust on the wiper grommet areas doesn't mean that the A pillar area will be gone, but if the rusts getting to the outside of the rear quarter, then I'd guess the A pillars are also fairly far gone. TBH I'd be surprised to take the wing off any MK2 Golf GTI and not find some rust there. I reckon it goes through stress like the top of 205 A pillars are supposed to.

Random thought - I'd rather have a 205 Mi16 than a Golf II with .

2 1/4" springs are cheap for a reason, because all the better coilovers use them, so they are standard size. Standard size stuff can be wound as cheap in high quality as it can in crap quality.

A Golf 2 would be a lot, lot faster with a 1.8T than any Mi16 205. Although my Girlfriends next car will be a 205 GTI in all likelihood, and if I can't get the handling how I want it on my MK2, there may be a swap...

Avo coilovers, so that'll mean that the dampers are adjustable pretty much every way there is. A new set of springs and fettling the damping settings is all it'll need unless the dampers are actually dead.

No, it wouldn't.

The Mi16 potential is huge, standard at 167 HP and 200 HP costs about 1k UKP. It is very light compared to the Golf, which may be a little bit faster in straigh line but positively akward when the fisrt corner arrives.

The Golf will be better build (after all we compare it to a French piece of ya know), but the Pug will be lighter, far superior on brakes and suspension, more scary and far more rewarding.

Not to mention that Pug has a race-departement stuffed with tested goodies where at Wolfsburg they just will look the other way: wir machen das nicht. Gehn Sie weg!

However I can't see why one would put the Mi16-engine in a 205 when Pug did it on the 309. The 309 16v (if you can find it and if rust hasn't eaten it) is a fearsome car, once again not wel build nor solid but it will eat the Golf alive.

Story cut short: buy the Golf if resale-value is on your mind, buy Pug if drivers satisfaction and sheer enjoyment are primordial.

It's a choice between reason and heart. If it is winning that all important streetrace against more expensif machinery is the goal, then there is no substitute for the MI16-Pugs (205 /309 , the 405 will be too heavier or will require a lot of cash because in need of 300 HP)

Mind you: mess the Pug up, the tail will bite and you will die. Seems a part of the attraction.

The Golf? Buy a baseball cap... but this reminds me that I stopped roadracing because I've met this gorgeous young woman, sweet innocent smile and driving a (raodracing) Golf 16V with the right remoulds, the right suspension.

I refused that race because I wasn't sure to win (I drove a similar modified AR75) and becasue the danger levels would be to high for the gain.

Gravitated around the girl for a year, we parted as friends. She is now a testdriver for BMW... F-word: I am getting old :-(

Tom - liker and owner of a Mi16 engine with "some" bits - De Moor

I'm pretty sure PSA never sold the 309 16v in the UK - the 1.9 8v engined GTi was all we got. Shame really.

I know there are similarities, but I don't think 309s are just 205s with a boot anyway.

If car magazines are anything to go by, the Mi16 seemed to be the de facto engine conversion for 205s for a long time. It's probably one of the reasons why there are so few BX 16vs left. (c: