A 213hp (160kW) Golf I LDV would keep most power hungry petrolheads occupied and well entertained, but it all became a bit much for South African Omar Asmal when he could no longer deal with the unreliability issues of the 1.8 turbo unit. A constant procession of broken clutches, CV's and gearboxes just didn't do much for him! And he also felt that that kind of power in that old a chassis was just not suitable. So he let go of the LDV, in favour of a Golf III GTi - and then decided that he wanted his new ride to look good rather than go fast... not surprising as the 2.0 litre 8 valve unit is perfect for not wanting to go fast....
With the styling bug firmly implanted in his mind, he set about turning his new toy into a VR6 clone, albeit a good-looking copy. Soon enough a set of VR6 badges adorned all corners of the car along with genuine door rubbing strips, front spoiler and tinted tail light lenses. A lowering kit, frenched tail gate along with a double headlight kit and 16-inch alloys set this apart from the hundreds of other VR's roaming our local streets. But Omar soon found the novelty of the styling lark wearing off and realised that his pseudo-VR had too little power. Mainly, I suspect, due to genuine VR owners calling his bluff on the road, and he not being able to retaliate! So after not too long, the VR clone made way for the genuine article: a malachite green 1996 example was acquired dirt cheap.
So much did he like the way his old car looked, that Omar soon found himself starting all the same styling mods on his new toy. Apart from the 16-inch Ewing DTM alloys, many believed that his old car had simply undergone a re-spray, which suited Omar just fine 'cos this time he knew what lay under the bonnet.
He started modifying the exterior of the motor, firstly junking the stock exhaust in favour of a 63mm stainless steel free-flow piece, ending with a Dragon Tailpiece that shared the bumper cut-out with a Razor Heat Shield. On the induction side, a K&N Cone filtercharger now takes preference over the standard airbox set-up. From there air passes through a gas-flowed throttle body with fuelling and spark duties provided by a DASTEK Unichip. (Yep, that's where our Unichip comes from - South Africa! - Ed) This piggybacks onto the standard ECU and tricks it into thinking that the motor needs more fuel, more timing, etc. All of these mods culminated in a true 127kW at the wheels.
Not satisfied with being one of the fastest Golfs on our roads, Omar wanted to be one of the quickest street cars around - full stop. Having previously utilised turbocharging, he knew the associated headaches and the cost of work needed before you can run serious boost settings. So he went the dental route and plumbed in serious amounts of extremely addictive N2O. After a little homework he decided that a single jet on the induction pipe would not suffice and therefore decided to go the whole hog and have a six nozzle fogger set-up plumbed straight into the inlet manifold. One of the most attractive features of using nitrous oxide is that you select the power increase you desire by choosing the appropriate nozzle size. Omar went for the 97kW (130hp) increase, to bring his car up to a dyno tested 200kW. The only work needed to run this amount of nitrous was a slight re-map of the ECU and the use of plugs that fell within the correct temperature range.
With a nitrous-sniffing 200kW now available, it was time to see what that translated to on the road. Needless to say, a standard VR6 proved no challenge - and neither did a BMW M3 for that matter! Much to everyone's surprise - especially the driver - a Nissan 300ZX was only in front as long as his superior traction allowed. With such giant-killing performance under foot, Omar has decided to enter legal quarter mile drags, but is not too optimistic as he realises that such an instantaneous rush of power through the front wheels is often traction defying. Even the 215 section Toyo Proxes T1S, which he swears by, are no match. Seventeen inch alloys may help the cause but the 16 -inch wheels are a perfect compromise between, comfort, looks and handling, says Omar. Accompanying the alloys to aid handling and safety is a set of Apex 40mm lowering springs, while Omar reckons that the standard brakes are more than capable of handling stopping duties, especially with the ABS system.
The front spoiler is a Euro-spec unit (which was never fitted to the South African models) and to keep the airflow pressing the rear down, a Zender spoiler resides on the tailgate. Inside, a set of aluminium door pins and Momo leather gear knob and steering wheel keep the driver in control. And to enjoy the awesome summer nights here in Durban, a tilt moon roof is fitted. Sound signals are provided by the Alpine 7915 front loader through JVC and Linertec amplifiers to exit via a pair of Lanzar tweets, Kenwood mids and a lone Pioneer 12-inch subwoofer that shares the boot with the nitrous bottle.
As with all modded cars, the quest for more power seldom ends - future mods include a pair of Schrick 262 cams, stainless steel valves, flowed head and ceramic coated pistons. Well, for now, anyway....
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