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Mine is build 1991 (from memory July) registered January 1992.
I used to buy a few VWs in those days and often used to shoot the breeze with the dealer about cars in general and VW in particular. He told me the number 150 also. I read subsequently (might have been in Wheels) the number 200. My information is from conversations I had then with the dealer.
There weren't many GTIs imported. They were brought in at the time when the importers changed and the new importer was anxious to reposition the brand in preparation for a relaunch of the Golf. The GTI legend had reached these shores even though for some years we'd only been getting VW vans. The new importer also had distribution contracts for VW in SE Asia and the cars we got here were Japanese spec. Mine is German build and I thought they all were. In fact, the model was a dog. It couldn't be sold and the last 50 or so in Sydney were registered by dealers and cleared as second hand cars. The automags all agreed the car handled as sweetly as any GTI but the engine mods killed it. Next off the rank was the Mk1 cabriolet
Our cars had the RV engine. It was modified to run on low octane fuel and to run as a clean engine. The mods were dreadful. Even when new it was rough, rattly at idle and it would just choke to death between 3500 rpm and 4000 rpm. It wouldn't redline in any gear. With its close ratio gearbox and high first gear my wife at the time considered it an undrivable slug. In recognition of the problems, our cars had a different camshaft intended to give more torque lower down.
Most of the detox mods were in the exhaust area. They started with a different exhaust manifold and they got worse after that. I was told the problem VW needed to solve was to get the catalytic converter temperature up to the necessary level from a cold start within a delay dictated by the ADRs, without spending any money. They achieved that by choking the gasses after they left the head using bits cobbled from the parts bin.
In my experience, reversing the detoxing by changing the exhaust, transforms the car. At one time I bought a new GTI camshaft from a dealer in France and tried it in the de-detoxed car. In my view the Australian one is a beauty. The one in the local car lets the engine spin every bit as hard, but it has lots more low down and mid range torque, so it spins the speedo round much quicker with less drama. The local camshaft get 5.4 litres/100 on country run and 6.3 around town and can run away from 6 cylinder Holdens and Fords all day long. With the European camshaft the car isn't quicker but fuel consumption varies between just under 8 and just under 10 litres/100. Matters quite a bit these days.
Cheers
Originally Posted by moto
Camden GTI Performance. VW / AUDI Specialists
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