My GT-G40

[Alex]

Quick update...

Couldn't believe my luck yesterday. Got the car out of the garage for its spring clean (it got a quick once over at UD as it had just come out of the bodyshop) and despite hovering black clouds the whole time the weather didn't turn on me. Gave me a chance to wash, dry, quick detail and wax (with Dodo Juice Pro - which I've never used before - it goes on so well!) then pop it back under cover for lunch before it rained.





That's this week's press car reflected in the boot.

Quick once over with the Dyson inside, dust off the dash, back indoors overnight ready for an early ish start.

Spent the day at Spring Fest, as some of you know. Dumped the car in the show and shine after a quick wipe down.



Walked about, watched a G40 blow up on the strip (fairly serious too) and then came back to drop the bonnet. Always worth getting pics while it's clean.





Weather held until I got home, then it lashed down. It went from sun, to hail, to thunder and lightning, then a downpour, then sun again within ten minutes of parking up. Crazy weather.

Token beadage shot:


Got a week of commuting in the Polo ahead of me. The B goes back to Mercedes tomorrow morning, and I've left it a few days before the next one comes in so I can give the G40 a bit of a run. It's not really doing the miles these days. Lazy git. :lol:

[Andy]

Looking awesome! Will be made up if Perky gets my paint the same as yours.

Whose G40 blew up?

[Alex]

Cheers!

It wasn't one I recognised. Black one, stripped bare on a set of Mattigs.

This one:


Got a few feet off the line and white smoke was pouring out of the exhaust. But it wasn't just a head gasket, it stunk of oil too. Overheard people saying it had no oil or coolant in it when they parked up, and the last I saw it was being towed off by another G.

[Alex]

Instagram snapshot from the office. I like it.



It's a 136-mile round trip to get to work, so I don't take it often. The A1 was totally clear on the way back though, which made the commute home good fun.

Got this as a random snapshot yesterday, too.


Retweeted by BBC Newsnight. Go me!

[Alex]

Today's been pretty epic, perfect G40 weather this morning and a 30-mile country lane commute down to Millbrook Proving Ground near Bedford. Then a trip back, not flat out or anything, just purring along with the windows down listening to the whirr of the G-Lader.


Unfortunately not everything is as attached to my car as I am. Got home, took the above pic, then got my bag out of the boot and spotted something that was missing:


Time for some fresh plates. I'm thinking of going back to the old style font, as you can still get them made up:


But I'm not that arsed, and the weather's too nice not to use the car, so I can see myself grabbing another Halfords plate and get the car legal again ASAP.

[Andy]

Where can you get the old style plates from?

[PeteG40]

there's a place i've got details for, which does both rounded and square size old fonts.

he'll also reproduce the dealer graphics on it if you have something you can scan... this for about £30.

for £50 he'll do you a matching dealer rear window sticker and tax disc holder.

i think he's called passion restoration products (does a lot of ford stuff - and them boys are picky!)

[Alex]

Beaten to it - what he said ^^

(Pete brought the company to my attention in the first place)

[SpikeyG40]

Got a few feet off the line and white smoke was pouring out of the exhaust. But it wasn't just a head gasket, it stunk of oil too. Overheard people saying it had no oil or coolant in it when they parked up, and the last I saw it was being towed off by another G.

Saw this while it was parked up with the bonnet up and a hole bunch of guys taking a look. They were talking about disconnecting the charger and running it home without it so to me, that suggested they blew the charger.  Thats what they said anyway. 

[Alex]

My 'birth certificate' for the Polo arrived today, interesting stuff!

Not posting it on here as it's got my VIN on it. But details as follows:

Model: 803 5J2, VW Polo Coupé GT, five-speed
Engine: 3F, 75 DIN-PS / 55 kW, 1.3 litre
Colour: L 94 K Pearl Grey Metallic, Material slate black slate
Built on: 14 January 1991
Left factory on: 15 January 1991
Country of destination: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Options: X2B Country Settlement Great Britain
3FB Tilt/Slide Sunroof
8V1 Cigarette Lighter

Interesting bits here (used to be a GT in case you didn't know) is the destination country (assume it's due to shipping the car from there?) and build date. It wasn't registered until June so it sat around for a while.

Also, tilt/slide sunroof?!? I guess it's a single code for all metal sunroofs.

This is based on the manufacturing slip from the factory.

[SpikeyG40]

Sounds interesting Alex, where do you get the details from?

I managed to get a print out from a dealer with some details on it but nothing like that.

[Alex]

It's from Wolfsburg, I ordered it while I was out there.

You give them your VIN, cough up a not insignificant fifty Euros and they dig out the original manufacturing slip from the production line with all the data on it. Then they make a nice certificate and print it on watermarked, hologrammed paper and send it anywhere in the world.

You can order them online though:
http://automuseum.volkswagen.de/index.php?id=12&L=1

[Alex]

Had a quick check of my Zertifikat today, just in case you're interested to see what you get for your cashmonies:


Those of you who I'm friends with on Facebook will also have seen me boring my friends list silly with talk of number plate replacements.

Having re-introduced some originality with the rebuild last year, I decided to go for the old style plates. But I made the mistake of ordering them on eBay, from a seller listing them as show plates because they're the old font. Fine for mine, I thought, because it's a pre-2001 car, so perfectly legal to have that old slightly wider font.

Trouble is, yes they're the old font, but they're also the wrong size. Basically they'd have been illegal even before 2001, when the old font was for sale from your local Halfords. I know it's being picky but if I'm going to the effort of having the right plates on the car, then they need to be the right plates.

Anyway, I've decided to put this down to experience and not use them. The eBay seller isn't interested. Had a dig about in my parents' garage while I was home in Cardiff for the bank holiday weekend and found not only my old pre-2001 rear plate, but the dealer-marked plate the car came with too.

Here they are with the new one I ordered this week, so you can see what a picky bastard I'm being. They just won't look right.



I've got the old pre-2001 front plate too. But it's not much use thanks to an incident while overtaking a gritter about nine years ago:


Umming and aching about whether to get a matching pre-2001 front plate, or a matching GB-striped rear now I have the V5 up here to go and order one. But at least I can get the car legal again now.

Bored yet?

In other news, Club Polo track day is approaching in August and I'm hoping to be there but I want to get it corner-weighted first. With a house move to deal with in the meantime (we've not found the new place yet) it's going to be a busy couple of months.

Oh yeah, and Mum's new car arrived this weekend. It's a Move up! with the Bluemotion Technology package, and an upgrade to the "Waffle" wheels. It's also very much a spiritual successor to the G-plate Tornado Red Polo CL breadie we had when I was a kid, which was written off my a stolen car.



She's had a 206 Quiksilver with the CC wheels, spoiler, arches and mesh grille for the last ten years, but this is such a huge upgrade! She loves it (older members might recognise the road from my old pics of the Polo too...)

[Alex]

I take it all back - got no reply to my email to the eBay seller last week, but I've got to the office this morning and look what was waiting for me:



I wasn't expecting that! But very happy.

[Justin14100]

I love your attention to detail Alex. Very nice. I had to get new plates and I opted for a plain (non GB front) but a GB back so I dont need to put a sticker on when I go to Europe but the front remains clean.