MKII 1.6L GT update (My weekly Rant)

["Armando Pereira" <armando_pereira@hotmail.com>]

<x-flowed>Took the Rocco out on the highway last night...  didn't get a chance to do 
so during the weekend because I had the car in the shop and then the lady 
friend decided to make a surprise visit on sunday.  I hated to be pulled 
away from working on the car since I had planned on doing a ton of mods all 
week but she was very convincing.  Playing with the car is a form of stress 
relief for me. I guess playing with her was too...  Yeehaw!

Anyhow,  I had already tried gunning the car a bit around town and the car 
moves surprisingly well for a 1.6.  The close ratio gearbox making up for 
some of the power.  I was pretty impressed.

Mind you I paid very little for this car and I was fully expecting to trash 
the engine and put something new under the hood but to my surprise the 
engine is in pretty good shape!  Better than I could have hoped for at 
least.

It accelerates smoothly and whenever i needed more power I could just drop 
it a cog and it would respond without hesitation. Of course this is all 
preliminary since i didn't push it beyond 4500.  Mostly around 4000 really.  
But you can almost "feel" that the power is there, ya dig?  Anyone have the 
torque curves for the 1.6?

It definitely wasn't the beast the 200 Turbo Avant is but it handles much 
better.  I have no power steering and really feel in touch with the road 
(maybe a bit TOO much when it comes to parking).   I like it like that.

While on the highway I chucked it happily from right to left to observe body 
roll, the suspension is in pretty good shape... Also played with the 
brakes...  I can't wait to see what kind of difference the new brakes and 
suspension will make.

Finally,  what a fun car to drive.  I'll have some more info in the future, 
like fuel economy.

I'm still waiting for someone to give me hell about the targa top idea.  I 
haven't gotten any sort of criticism at all.  Didn't get much encouragement 
either.  There must be at least one Scirocco purist who can't wait to tell 
me to f*ck off and buy a Honda.  Am I the only one on this list to ever have 
thought of this?

Anyhow,  If the car handles half as good as it does now I'll be happy.

I do have one complaint.  I've driven the US Scirocco and there's a nice 
little place to put your foor when you're off the clutch...  Like most LH 
Drive cars...

There's no such place on the RH Drive Rocco's and it's pretty annoying.  Has 
anyone done something about this?  Also the blinker indicator blinks on the 
driver's dash of course but "clicks" by the passenger!  And...  get they 
kept the hood latch and fuse box on the passenger side!

You forget about all this though as soon as you drive the car...

Take care,
Armando



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