After a 16-year love/hate relationship with his '89 VW GTI 16v, Andrew McDermott has returned with a concept unique in the US VW scene.
It's not your typical Mk2 GTI with a VR6 swap, shaved engine bay and BBS RS wheels. Instead, this project pushes the envelope, although it won't appeal to everybody. But if you followed its progress, you'll remember Andrew tried the slammed 'n stretched route with his first feature in et 10/06.
"Let's turn back the clock. Coming home from our photo shoot three years ago, I was unhappy. I'd lost interest in the car," Andrew began. "I was schooled in the Malibu hills trying to follow Greg Emmerson in a Jaguar X-Type. Oh sure, I wasn't the one causing children to run for cover, but I took no solace in that."
The next day, Andrew put the car up for sale. It was clear the GTI couldn't handle or perform as he wanted. It was more for show. "The car had lost its way," he explained. "It was never made to win trophies, yet I'd fitted super-wide wheels and stretched tires, making it useless. Coming home from the shoot, it was scraping all the way."
The car sat for months with no buyers interested. Slowly but surely, the gears in Andrew's head started turning and he decided to make it handle again. So the GTI went off the market and into the next phase.
In et 12/07, we began following Andrew's progress in Garage Projects. The goal was to implement a 'vintage' theme - similar to modern hot rods. Good friend, Bernie Chacon of dub-nation.com, sparked the idea with a simple Photoshop of Andrew's car. From there, the project saw several months of hard work from multiple shops and, of course, Andrew himself.
The rev-happy 1.8 liter 16v engine retained its Autotech cams, CIS-E power module, 50mm intake manifold and underdrive pulleys. The 020 tranny also remained, with its taller fifth gear and 3.94 final drive. The only mechanical additions were a Piper timing belt from TMTuning and a RSD oil cooler for reliability.
The bay took a new direction, though. Tomas Sport Tuning (TST), in San Pablo, CA, pulled the motor to remove the coolant and washer bottles, along with the battery tray and A/C. The bay looked cleaner, but Andrew didn't want a completely shaved bay. After all, he'd learned his lesson and wasn't building a show car again.
For the next step, TST designed a side-exit exhaust that traveled through the cabin and out the side. It was critical to keep the noise low and the carbon monoxide out, so a Magnaflow muffler with high-temp sealant preserved Andrew's health.
With its new exhaust, the four-cylinder sounds more aggressive than a VR6 yet surprisingly passes California smog laws.
Next on the hit list was the stereo, which was never part of Andrew's original plan - the GTI was meant to be a track car but Boston Acoustics wanted a piece of the action. Andrew obliged.
Alex Garcia from Exotic Audio built speaker enclosures, followed by fiberglass door panels, kick pods and a subwoofer enclosure in the spare wheel well. Once the fixtures were in place, 11 Boston speakers were installed and powered by a pair of four-channel amps. Ear-bleeding bass was provided by Boston's oval-shaped 555 subwoofer, while a Kenwood head unit from Crutchfield controlled the audio outputs.