For last week’s retrospective post we looked at a Mk2 VW Golf Cup car built by Euro Magic in Osaka, Japan. The Voomeran Wave showed how well a few select JDM styling cues can work on a European car base.
While that Mk2 was a race car turned road car, the Mk1 we’re looking at today is the opposite. And there’s a lot more to it than that, just as you’d expect from a Gatebil build. Let’s turn back the clock ten years to see Simon Jonsson’s drift spec Golf.
2014 Feature
If you feel the urge to drift, you have many out-of-the-box options – but if you want to make a statement and go sideways in style, converting an iconic front-wheel drive hot hatch to rear-wheel drive for drifting is an option. the only way to go.
But why go to all that trouble? Because that is of course possible…
I know this sounds like a classic get-out clause, like when someone says, “If you have to ask why, you’ll never understand.” But you know what? They are clichés because they are true. Sometimes you have a spare bike and a drunken idea takes shape, or a friend proposes a challenge. Or maybe you just like the shape of a Mk1 Golf and the idea of repowering one with a Volvo engine and drive sent to the rear wheels.
The other problem with asking these questions is that the people doing the things you’re questioning simply can’t answer you. That’s what the passion we have for car culture can do: it can strip away your logic and sensitivity, leaving you with a heavy “I can do that” attitude. That’s how Simon Jonsson ended up with the creation I’m going to show you.
So instead of letting him justify the “why” when he told me he wanted to get into drifting and needed a rear-wheel drive car to do it, I just thought, fair play – that’s good enough for me. Sometimes it’s as good as a crazy set of circumstances that leads to a project ending up somewhere completely random. The view under the hood is what struck me first when I saw the Golf, because let’s be honest: there’s not much that really stands out from the outside.
Or maybe? Those are five-stud wheels, right? Because the Mk1 Golf is of course 4×100… So to the trained eye, the clues are there if you look closely. Volvo’s front struts explain the first image in this chapter (you noticed then that it was five studs, right?), those 15×7 inch OZ Racing mesh wheels are a pretty perfect Volvo RWD offset from ET23.
Complementing the front (and keeping donor cars to a minimum) at the rear is a Volvo 1030 solid axle, which started life under an early 240 model. Mounted in its new home on a custom 4-link setup, you can only see the bottom beams of it here.
This also explains the extra widening of the arches, as Simon had to add 30mm on each side to cover the wheels. It was either that or narrowing the axle, which would have been more expensive, but perhaps only slightly more difficult to achieve in the long run. The flares mimic the original black plastic moldings of the Mk1 Golf quite well.
The only other exterior changes are the handmade alloy bumper bars, but even these are somewhat similar to what the originals would look like. Paint them black, and a large percentage of the people who saw them would probably be fooled.
As you get closer, the signs become harder to ignore. Sure, at night the yellow headlights may not be that great, but they’re just plain cool, and I’ve always been a fan of them purely for aesthetic reasons. The two air intakes are much more visible at this distance, with the left pipe flowing directly into the mouth of the turbo.
It must have been difficult to make the Golf stand out even more. There’s no wild body kit or even polycarbonate windows that scream “race car,” just the body modifications I mentioned and some tinted taillights. Oh, and Volvo’s candy red paint job.
But no matter how subdued it is on the surface, it’s like a lava flow of madness underneath…
Volvo for life
The Golf has a relatively short wheelbase compared to the larger Volvo monocoque that the engine, gearbox and other drivetrain and suspension components would have originally called home. To be precise, on the Golf the distance between the wheel centers is 2,400 mm (94.5 inches), and on the Volvo 240 the distance is 2,649 mm (104.3 inches), so that extra 26 and a bit centimeters means that smart action has been taken here.
First, you have to deal with the Golf’s main obstacle, which was originally FWD. After all, VW has designed this space in such a way that the transversely mounted four-cylinder engine fits neatly at the front.
But if you want to turn the engine 90 degrees and send the power to the rear, that baffle has to be chopped out. But that’s just the beginning, because if you cut a hole you weaken the shell, and that’s not good.
The engine has also not been left standard. I think if you go to the trouble of putting something random in, you can expect strong H-beam rods with ARP bolts, a VX3 cam, and some other nice upgrades. Using E85, this increases the B230’s standard power from the 170 hp (it would have originally had) to approximately 260 hp at the Golf’s rear wheels.
Take a look into the driver’s footwell and you’ll see the beginnings of the custom transmission tunnel and cage, which, although bolted on, is mounted on solid box legs.
Where the gearbox would originally have been located in the engine compartment at the end of the VW engine, it is now located between the driver and passenger seats. Once again, instead of opting for a motorsport-inspired shifter or even an aftermarket shift knob, Simon has used an original Volvo five-speed top-end. But when I asked what gearbox he used, he told me it’s a BMW ZF five-speed! Which gives me another head-scratching moment…
Here is a clearer picture of the simple home brew tunnel. Simon is very modest about the build and when I first spoke to him he was quite surprised that I wanted to shoot a feature film. But the fact that this is so all Because it was built with basic home tools and a MIG welder, it’s more about inspiration than fabrication skills.
Because the engine and transmission protrude much more into the passenger compartment than the originals, the entire driving position had to be shifted rearward to accommodate them. You’ve already seen the new pedal box, but in addition the steering wheel hub has been extended and the steering column has been lowered a few centimeters to keep the angle right.
Now, if you look closely again, you’ll see that the Sparco bucket seats are mounted quite far back compared to the standard seats. While the benefits may be small, little things like this will always help balance the weight in the quest for that perfect 50/50 split.
At the rear, the standard floor was completely cut out and replaced by a flat panel. The battery has been relocated (again for weight distribution when only a driver is in place) and is now held in place between the rear strut tower bar and the roll cage.
The Golf is still a fresh build and Simon hasn’t really had the chance to get it sideways properly. But with around 260bhp at the wheels and a total weight of perhaps 1000kg or less, it’s like meeting your new best friend. You don’t really know each other, but you know this is the start of something very special.
The Speedhunters
Instagram: the speed chasers
Bryn Musselwhite
Instagram: shoot the producer
Photography by Larry Chen
Instagram: larry_chen_photo