So having been lurking around in the shadows of CGTI for a while, I had been hankering for another GTI hit. I had been losing confidence in my old Donkey (Diesel Accord), and with some maintenance bills lurking around the corner I felt it best to move it along and find a new daily drive. I wont bore you with the detail on how I came to my decision, but I was focused on finding a BYD powered Mk5 Golf GTI, and this time I was thinking with my heart rather than my excel spreadsheet lol. Criteria being: not modified, full service history on an annual/12k schedule, manual gearbox, ideally 3 door, not white or red. After reviewing the options available on the market, I made an appointment to see a Grey Edition 30 in Essex, and asked Gurds (VW_Singh) to be my sanity check when viewing the car. So on Sunday 2nd Feb, Gurds turned up at my house in his ankor, and he used the torque to rotate everything inside of the M25, bringing east London to where we were lol After a 2 hour inspection and shakedown of the car, its history and driving experience, pulling out a stack of reddies sealed the deal and I became the owner of the Edition 30. I felt the cars number plate lends itself to the name Toby or, as it is from Essex the abbreviation The Only Way is Boost 52k miles on the clock, mint interior, very minor (usual mk5) exterior defects, and is totally standard bar the colour coded wheels. Of which there is also a handy 5thcolour coded spare! The previous owner was a very careful gentleman, and we suspect the car has not seen much action beyond 5k revs so Ill be breaking Toby into my driving style gently Progress on this build thread is likely to be very very slow. The plan is to simply maintain and generate some baseline figures for now, including but not limited to driving it (it wont be a scene queen), dyno run, mile and sprint the car at Curby. Ensure the car is in good health before I start on the never ending path of dialling out any weaknesses and/or annoyances and a little bit of making it my own Either way watch this space for the very little progress I will be making lol, and in the mean time, a huge thanks to Gurds for taking the time out to inspect the car with me and keep the rose tinted specs off my eyes
Cheers guys! For sure - not regretting the purchase at all! Exploring the behaviour of the engine/throttle response at the moment. Getting used to the accelerator pedal and clutch (a lot more pedal travel than I'm used too - should make for more precise driving?) Loving the standard suspension - lots of people would argue it could be made better (and probably are right), but to me it seems just right for the "enthusiastic commute" A few little cosmetic things to keep me busy whilst the performance is baselined A good clay/polish/wax is due, but will need to wait for the weather and for the twins to calm down lol.
I had fun going to check this out Rayhoop! Anytime mate. Have you linked just the thumbnails above? Pics are very small. Link the full size images. Gurds
