Mike Gibney's Not Exactly A Friend Of Environmentalists Now That His Gti Has 349hp At The Wheels!
It's fascinating to talk to people about how their project car got started. If you read enough of these pages, you'll discover most either never intended to do anything, but things "kind of got out of control," or they knew what they wanted to do from the start.
Well, 26 year-old Mike Gibney had his plans pretty much mapped out from the start, right down to the color. "I had to wait six months for the car to be delivered," Mike recalled. He didn't want any old Golf off the dealers lot- he wanted Rave green and was prepared to wait for it.
"I bought it new in December 2000. Since I lived with my grandparents all my life, my Grandmother co-signed for it. At first, she thought I was wasting my time, but was pleased when I started to bring home trophies. She passed away recently, but without her I couldn't have done any of this," he told us.
The six-month wait gave Mike time to gather some choice parts. "When the car arrived it had 200 miles on it, and the very next day we fitted Koni coilovers, an ATP downpipe and Techtonics exhaust. They'd been sitting on my floor waiting for the car to appear," he said.
Throughout the project, Mike turned to his friend Kevin Fernandes for help and inspiration. It was Kevin who initially got Mike hooked on Euros and supplied many of the parts through Euro Speed Designs - a company he runs from home. The pair would then fit the parts on Kevin's driveway.
After the first performance parts were fitted, there was a pause as Mike, still in high school at the time, saved up to afford more.
In time, he was able to buy a Rieger lip kit, which ostensibly remains to this day. The only change was to the front end where the front lip went from the stock bumper to a Euro bumper. It was then swapped out for Rieger's full bumper, which was later sculpted to incorporate a front-mount intercooler.
The sculptors were Five Star Collision in Westport, MA who opened the main aperture to accommodate the FMIC. They cut sections from a second bumper and fitted them around the intercooler so it appeared to be a factory-fit.
The bodyshop was also tasked with smoothing the tailgate by removing the plate recess and emblems. They also extended the hood to meet the Rieger grille, and in so doing, filled the hood notch.
Euro Speed, who supplied the Rieger parts, also provided the smoked Hella headlamps and side blinkers.
Following Waterfest, a carbon hood was purchased and fitted. However, Mike forgot to latch it properly one day and it slammed into the roof, causing considerable damage.
The car was repaired, only to have lowlife scum attempt to steal it by breaking in through the sunroof. At some point during all these repairs, the roof was painted Black Magic pearl, along with the Rieger wing and Cup mirrors. "I wanted something different after having the car for so long," Mike explained.