1985 Volkswagen Golf

GTi

4 cyl Turbo

1VWDB0177FV056548

Clear

0 0 1 600 3420 Fine Art Models 28 8 4012 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE This car has been sold three times to three different people without the money to pay for it. It is offered now with no reserve and perhaps a real person will be interested in acquiring it.The Volkswagen being offered here is far more than just a car…it truly is a time capsule. The car was built in 1985 sixty feet from where I am writing this description…..in the shop at Marketing Corporation of America in Royal Oak, Michigan. In the 80’s my company was retained by Volkswagen of America to help create a performance image for Volkswagen in the United States. My counterpart at Volkswagen was Mike Kaptuch who headed up VW Sport at the time and it was this business relationship that lead to Mike becoming my best friend until he died suddenly one year ago. This car was purchased by Mike directly from Volkswagen in 1987 and he has had it ever since. I am now selling it for his widow. Back in the 80’s Mike and I had some of most fun anyone could have in business doing great performance programs that often got us in trouble with the VW legal department. Mike was told what he could do and what he couldn’t do. The two most important issues were never to mess with emissions and don’t do anything to the suspension. And Mike didn’t……my company did. So when our projects attracted national press I was always the fall-guy out of the reach of VW legal. Our ideas would come out of nowhere. One day we read about the Callaway Corvette and thought “wouldn’t that be a great story for a small four cylinder car like a VW GTi?” So we contacted Callaway and they agreed. Mike arranged to get them a crush car with no vin for development. The car I am selling was the first production car although it was really a prototype as they weren’t officially being offered by Callaway then.. We were very tight with BBS so we used their trim package and wheels. Then we added the Recaro interior and a competition suspension and we had a little red rocket! AutoWeek heard what we were doing and the editor then, Richard Hinson, contacted me and asked if they could have the car first for a cover story. We said yes and thus began a great adventure with this car. We used the car in the VW Sport program for two years and in 1987 Mike bought the car from Volkswagen and has kept it ever since. All this prompted me to go into my company achieves to see what we had kept and sure enough, I came up with the issue of AutoWeek that featured this car on its cover. Then I found the consumer brochure we created that was handed out at all motorsport events where the car was featured. Of course once again it was my company doing all this and not Volkswagen. For the fun of it I called Richard Hinson who doesn’t live far from me and invited him over to the shop. When he saw the car he just smiled and said….”did you ever fix first gear/” It was always hard (you just had to know the trick) to get into first gear and sure enough….no we never did fix it. So when he drove the car once again he just laughed and said “that’s the way it should be.” When we got the car back here we went through it from one end to the other, put new tires on it and used the stock wheels because the three piece alloy BBS wheels for the car don’t like pot holes as they really are racing wheels. But we have the four original BBS Wheels never used and new in their boxes that go with the car. So too does all the promotional material featuring the car. Here’s the vin number 1VWDB0177FV056548 The car has 48,051 original miles on it. There is no rust other than a small spot created by the license plate over the years. There is also a shallow dent in the right front fender that I am certain that can be pushed out with no paint issue, but we didn’t go to the trouble to do it. Beyond that it is the original paint in excellent condition. The car truly is a time capsule. The car is priced correctly and it is looking for another good home. We can ship anywhere and depending on your location we may be able to deliver it to you at no cost. If you have any questions feel free to call me EST at 248 252 4010 and ask for Gary. I’ll be happy to send you as many pictures as you like if you provide me with your email address.When the car was listed a few days ago I received this email from the former lawyer at Volkswagen and he has allowed me to make it part of the description....it makes for a few smiles even today;"Hi, Gary. ____ ____ here. I was the VW lawyer Mike was avoiding. We had a symbiotic relationship. He pretended to cooperate and I pretended to be fooled. I was sad to learn of his very untimely passing, especially since I had just moved to Atlanta and was hoping to renew our acquaintance. I drove that car once -- what a blast. Best wishes to you and of course to Mike's family. _____