Old Dog, New Tricks

I know you’re a fan of MAX Power and you probably have three copies of every back issue. One framed on your wall, another sitting in an oxygen-free, helium-filled container for when it finally reaches the value of the Action Comics where Superman first appeared, and another one that you ever-so-carefully thumb through on those occasions that you need a dose of automotive journalism at its finest. So, I’m asking you to take a moment to look at this month’s cover car and see what differentiates it from every other car that we’ve ever placed on the cover of MAX.

If you’re as astute as I hope you are, you’ve noticed that the car is old. Not old in a bad sense, but old in the sense that it is an early German car—a predecessor that has had some influence on the design of almost every other car that has been on the cover of MAX. Yes, it’s a mid-’80s German automobile and the whole reason that its there is because you asked for it. You wanted to see some of those cool early model watercooled VWs and you got it—all you had to do was ask.

Volkswagen’s Scirocco is older than I am. Put into production way back in 1974, it’s definitely got a few years on me. Granted, AJ Russo’s car is a more recent example of the trend-setting Scirocco, but it’s still old school and very cool. AJ is a businessman and a German car aficionado. He co-owns Autobahn Performance Group Motorsports in Albany, New York. Originally founded five years ago, with the mission to bring VW modifiers a source for performance parts, APG Motorsports has since gone the way of many entrepreneurial automotive parts suppliers. AJ has tailored his business with a skew towards owners of Japanese marques. The business may be heavily Japanese, but AJ’s heart resides with the old school VWs of years past.

AJ’s owned many older VWs including a couple of Rabbits and other Sciroccos. This particular Scirocco, however, is his crowning achievement. It doesn’t follow the crazy trends that many novice car modifiers and even car manufacturers tend to. AJ’s car is a clean example of not only an old school VW, but also of a well-modified European car. Beginning with a ten-year-old (at the time) ’86 VW Scirocco, AJ wanted to modify following the “new school” philosophy that pervades most of the Euro car modification market.

The most noticeable thing about AJ’s Scirocco is the paint color. It’s definitely different and called Amber Fire Pearl. The custom carbon-fiber hood is there to offset the paint color and give the observer something else to look at. Couple that with the fact that every nook and cranny creates a flow and a feel that’s smooth as a baby’s bottom, and you know you’ve got a pretty damn impressive exterior. To get that baby’s ass appearance, the door handles, body seams, and roof gutters were all shaved prior to the application of that Amber Fire Pearl paint.

Riding atop gunmetal Axis Se7en wheels measuring in at 17-inches, the Scirocco garners attention even from the Honda-owning enthusiasts that frequent AJ’s store front. Yokohama A520 tires provide the contact patch between the wheel and the ground, while the wheel/tire package is linked to the chassis by Ground Control coilovers and Tokico Illumina struts and shocks. The combination of the Tokico and Ground Control products has the Scirocco sitting roughly three inches lower to the ground all the way around, while Autotech front and rear strut tower bars, sway bars, and bushings, tighten up the handling capabilities. Behind the wheels, hide Powerstop slotted front and rear rotors, EBC Greenstuff pads, and braided stainless steel lines that bring the little 16v to a stop more effectively than the OE setup.

Speaking of the 16v, lift the featherweight carbon hood, and the engine appears to have been left alone, except for the addition of color as a result of powdercoating and painting. This, however, would be out of character for a car owner such as AJ. AJ’s brother, Carmine, has performed quite a few modifications to the stock 1.8L engine, including the replacement of the stock 1.8L block with that from a later model GTI whose displacement is 0.2L greater. Add to that a pair of Kent camshafts, a Kent adjustable cam gear, Bosal header, Techtonics exhaust, an ITG replacement filter, Unorthodox underdrive pulleys, and Bosch plugs and plug wires, and you’ve got a much more potent powerplant than VW originally placed under the hood. With the power being transferred to a taller fifth gear via a Centerforce dual-friction clutch, the car is now able to hit a true Autobahn speed of about 130 mph.

Of course, no car would be complete without a cockpit that was up to the driver’s snuff. So, out went the stock front seats for a pair of black cloth covered Konig S100 seats. The rear seats were recovered in the same black material, while the door panels received a black re-dye. The carpet was ousted in favor of newer black stock, the steering wheel in favor of a Nardi one, the shift knob for a MOMO unit, and the pedals covered by Razo. The gauge faces are custom numbers as are the APG floor mats.

To make those trips around Albany more bearable, the sound system was also reworked and now features Image Dynamics speakers (including a 15-inch sub), PPI amps, a Panasonic head unit, and Stinger wiring. Perhaps the most interesting component of the sound system is the Alesis equalizer that was cut in half to fit in the glove box.

Despite all the work that has gone in to transmuting this car from an old car into a cool, old school car, I haven’t yet touched upon the most impressive modification—the installation of smoked Mercedes 190E taillights that have been flawlessly integrated into the rear of the car. With about 75 hours of work required to make them fit as well as they do, AJ’s only problem with them is that they look so much like the OE set that people keep asking him if they’re smoked taillight covers.

So, now that we’ve officially given credence to this whole “old school is cool” movement, we expect something from you readers out there in MAX world. We expect to see many more pristine examples of old school European tuning with the same kind of attention and pride that AJ’s put into his MRyde.