While you enjoy poring over our Essen '07 coverage elsewhere in this issue, we would like to take you back 12 months to last year's Essen show. In the et 3/07 issue, we brought you ten pages filled with the greatest cars from the 2006 show, one of them being this stunning Mk4 GTI.
It took us a while to track down the owner and a local photographer, but we're finally able to bring you Martin Jung's candy blue GTI in all its shimmering glory.
He works as a mechanic at a German tuning shop called Bullock-Style in Altendiez, near Koblenz. They specialize in chassis mods, including air suspension systems, but offer a wide range of tuning and styling parts for a variety of vehicles.
As you can see, 30 year-old Martin has utilized his mechanical knowledge of air ride to create the slammed stance of his '01 GTI. He takes the car off the road every winter to work on it - and those German winters can be very long!
Beyond its ride height, perhaps the dominating aspect of this GTI is its House of Kolor candy paint. Look beyond that and you'll find plenty of cool custom work integrated into the blue body to mark this out as a very special Veedub.
Starting at the front, we find a badgeless grille atop a smoothed bumper, devoid of its black rub strips, which were also eliminated along the flanks. Below this, you will find front and rear spoilers from the European 25th Anniversary Edition GTI (similar to our 337 edition).
Moving down the sides of the car, we are distracted by the deleted rub strips but shouldn't overlook the stubby mirror borrowed from a Japanese-spec Golf. Nor should we ignore the painted rain channels on the rear section of roof.
As we arrive at the rear we discover a tailgate minus its badging, handle, wiper and roof spoiler. We also see some distinctive tail lights. And while these might not be to everybody's taste, Martin has integrated them nicely by painting part of the housings. The round LED lights that are left exposed are split into four quadrants for the rear light, brake, indicator and reverse functions. Two further strips located on the side provide secondary indicator lights.
With the body mods complete, the car was swathed in a flat black base coat, followed by a candy silver and then 13 coats of candy blue before it was protected by two additional clear coats. Assuming the original paint remains below all of it, this GTI must be carrying 100 lb of paint!
We already mentioned the HAS air ride, but the bulky components that allow the car to sit so low are discreetly hidden. The two 15 liter air tanks and the compressor that fills them are hidden below the trunk floor, only visible through a plexiglass panel in the carpet. Even the system's switchgear is concealed, leaving just those tucked, grey, 18" Evox RM4 wheels as testimony to its presence.
With access to vehicles unavailable on this side of the pond, Martin chose to plunder the Audi S3 for parts, robbing its front and rear seats, front brakes and engine cover for his project.
He also fitted the 25AE black headliner inside the GTI, trimming the pillars to match, giving the somber interior a dash more class.
The center console features piano black trim that also houses a quartet of gauges to monitor oil temp plus boost, oil and suspension air pressures.
The reason engine parameters are monitored is that Martin has added strategic tuning parts to tease his 1.8T up to 190hp with a custom Bullock-Style exhaust, cold-air intake and a smidgen more boost.
And since he had paint in the spray gun, he had the Audi TT engine covers painted in the same candy blue. With the addition of Samco hoses under there, the 20v motor looks good enough to eat.
Combining a great mix of parts and a few innovative ideas, both Martin Jung and Bullock-Style have again proved there's plenty of life left in the Mk4 chassis if you're prepared to have a go.