In May 2008 we
were approached by a researcher from Channel 5 TV car show, Fifth Gear who
wanted to purchase a seminal Mk2 Golf GTI to be featured on their programme.
Curiously we had purchased from him his 92 model year 5 door 8v just under
a year earlier but this time it had to be an Oak Green 3 door 16v, a rare
combination which I happened to have in stock having bought one back from
one of my first customers who I sourced it for in 2001. I was told that
the idea was to buy a standard car, see how it performed, then modify it
and see if it's any quicker which sounded like fun so the deal was done
and eventually a cheque from North One Television was in my possession.
The prospect of Tiff thrashing one of my Mk2 GTIs around a track focused
the mind and my usually thorough preparation process was taken to another
level. I had smelt the distinctive scent of oil being burnt, only slightly
but it was there so as a result I commissioned our tame mechanic to replace
the valve stem oil seals. I also got a new MOT issued to make sure 100%
that the car was roadworthy even though there was around six months MOT
remaining. We'd already replaced engine mounts, rocker cover gasket and
many other items.
In June the car was collected and I almost forgot about it assuming the
project had been canned until I received a text message from the researcher
at around 7.55pm on a late September Monday evening informing me that the
car would be on TV in a few minutes and here's the result.
While it was fun taking a car to the Top Gear test track in 2004, this was
more significant for me as my hard work was actually being displayed on
national prime time TV - Tiff was genuinely taken by the car even in standard
form. |
