Note to self

[parrot]

Don't drive down dirt roads at 100km/hr when you have 235/35 R19 tyres!

$440 lesson after puncturing at the bead.  

Also, google maps doesn't differentiate between bitumen and dirt roads.  

My Volkswagen GTI Mk 8 however is a phenomenal car, and had the best day driving around the King Valley in Victoria yesterday on way to Winton Historics.  Best $440 I ever spent!  

[altezzaclub]

True-  There's no sidewall in a /35, and rally tyres are fat and heavy for a good reason! We had one throw the tread off recently, just left big areas of the wires on the surface, gravel is much harder on tyres than asphalt.

[ke70dave]

That would do it, but what good is money if you cant spend it on hooning about on dirt roads. 

and you've got to live up to that display picture...

 

 

[parrot]

I have to say i was very impressed by how well it handled, until i got the deflation warning.  Oh well.  The reason i was going so fast is I was concerned about someone coming the other way and chipping the paint.

My avatar i have to admit is some mad Irishman I found very many years ago.

This was the first opportunity I've had to really open her up on some challenging roads after 10 mths of ownership. And I went nowhere near it's outlet limits.  Amazing that something you can potter up to the shops in can be so incredibly quick and raucous when given its head.  You really do see a different side of the car other than just blasting away at the lights. 

Phenomenal.

I had been aiming to buy a GR Corolla for a couple of years prior to giving up on Toyota and buying this.  I see one in the carpark at work regularly, and it's actually a damn ugly looking thing.  

[ke70dave]

Yeah I saw a GR corolla the other day, I wasn't too impressed with the looks. The GR Yaris is similar but I dunno, seems to wear its ridiculous looks better. The Corolla looked a bit too try hard.

Not to mention how much is a GR corolla worth? 65k! hah, I'm not paying that for a corolla. Save up a bit more and you can get an older Porsche!

 

[altezzaclub]

"The Corolla looked a bit too try hard. "

Definitely! The last decent-looking car Toyota made would be the Altezza, it followed on from some lovely Supras and Soarers, then devolved into weird angles and mis-fitting panels.

The Yaris is like the Ford Ka, a ewe pissing, just not as bad.

After Josh's bro bent his Golf R we fitted all the mechanicals and wiring from that (including the boot floor) to his Mum's 1.4L Golf. Now she has a shopping rocket that his Dad swipes most days, and it looks completely stock. The boot floor was the only part that needed altering (shallower floor)  to fit the 4WD.  Keeps your eyes open for an R at the auctions/wreckers, you never know...

[parrot]

I thought more about it, and decided I didn’t want to have to drive 400km on a space saver again. So thought I would look around for something Volkswagen in a 19 inch wheel. Not sure why, but I see very few Mk8 GTI’s on the road. And these are an option wheel too. Stunned on marketplace to find 3 of the same wheels for $200 each. Some poor P plate kid hit a pothole on the way to Adelaide and destroyed a wheel. Brand new from VW they are $1500 each. I saw his quote, and the wrecked wheel. So not unreasonably he bought a set of some aftermarket wheels for under $1000 and sold these. 
 

2 of them are as new, while the third had a little gutter rash. So that one is my new spare for when I go outside the metro area. I couldn’t get around to his place fast enough. The other two can go up in the roof just in case. 
 

It has been a new experience watching like a hawk for any potholes. 

Edited June 1, 2024 by parrot

[Banjo]

Golf R !

https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/faster-2024-volkswagen-golf-r-teased-144309/

Now if money was not a stumbling block; then a big Yes; but at $ 60K - $ 70K, that might hurt a bit.

My son's girlfriend's, whole family are Volkswagen thru & thru, & swear by them.

No one, including me, will put down Volkwagen's reputation for reliability.  However, somewhere along the line, way back; pulling a kombi engine; & a Bettle engine out for friends, in a driveway, without the assistance of a vehicle hoist, still reminds me a stiff neck, for a week or so afterwards.

My earliest initiation to Volkswagen, was in Papua New Guinea, where I worked for a while in my late teens & early 20's. I was on contract, but we had to find our own accommodation & transport, although we were paid an allowance.  Finding good secondhand cars was an issue, & rust was a problem. I remember one FB Holden, where you watched the road beneath you fly by, below your feet, & that was whilst driving.

In Rabaul in East New Britain, we came across, a fully imported German VW which was, I think; the most basic model they ever made. It had a 27HP engine, when I think the Australia model, was 30HP , at the time. It had the little oval window, at the rear, but it had had a divider in the middle, unlike the then current Australia model. It had no fuel gauge, but when you ran out whilst driving, you kicked a little lever, to the left of the clutch pedal, & the petrol then exited the fuel tank from a second lower pickup point, & got you home.

However, for all the basics; it never broke down.  I tell a lie !   Once we broke a fan belt, which is a pretty important item, in an air cooled engine.

We didn't have one, but did use a girls panty hose, that had been left on the back seat, (duno how it got there) & we made it back to town.

Cheers  Banjo

 

Edited June 2, 2024 by Banjo

[altezzaclub]

I had one when I first came over here in 1976, a Beetle I bought in Sydney with a  blown clutch, the rounded but not split rear window. Stayed with my sister and changed it in her driveway, then drove to Canberra where I was staying. It was resprayed down there while I worked at a panelbeaters, then GF & I went to Darwin in it...  well, not quite, it melted a piston in the summer heat around Grafton & I hitched in to Glen Innes to get a new set from a wrecker. It never felt right after that so we left it in Townsville to be sold and hitch-hiked on to Darwin, where she flew to Indonesia and I hitched back to pick up the money. The dealer paid me, said the timing was out and the car was so good he sold it to his daughter!

The adventures of youth!  Many of them involved VWs back then!