Mid-off
21-07-2012, 09:26 PM
I've lurked around here for a while, and finally got around to joining up. This is my second contribution, the first being a whinge on a totally non car-related topic, so I thought that I'd redress the balance and introduce myself.
The Golf in my signature is my company car, but I'm in the process of early retirement and will be buying it as soon as the pension trustees cough up. It will be, as far as I can recall, my eighteenth VW - I started in the late 1970's with Beetles, all tuned to various degrees, the ultimate of which was a Cal-Looker, 1904cc's with a counterweighted crank, Porsche 912 conrods, running twin DCOE Webers. Most of the parts came from the USA, and in the days before the internet this meant doing it the hard way, by phone and post.
Later came a variety of Golf and Scirocco GTI's, one of which was the Scirocco Storm once owned by Leonard Setright. I then deviated to Honda, with a couple of twin-cam VTi Civics - the DOHC VTi is one of the great four-cylinder engines. They were followed by some Company cars, which brings me back to the beginning.
In the early days I built quite a few tuned air-cooled VW engines, and this led to preparing and running a friend's Formula Vee for ten years.
Having missed out on the Series 3 (surely the GTI version was the most crass misuse ever of an iconic sub-brand?) and Series 4 and 5, I'm more than impressed with the Mark 6. As I have a back problem, the parking sensors and Park Assist are a godsend. The Park Assist is only rarely used, but is well worth the small additional premium, and the leather interior was the only way to have the more supportive sports seats. Although they're standard in the GT, there's not much between speccing up a GT with parking sensors etc and putting a leather interior into a Match.
Other interests? Cricket, as you may realise from my user name, and collecting watches - I have a weakness for 1970's Seiko chronographs.
My intention, once retired, is to do some freelance business consultancy and, all being well, some freelance journalism. Although, having spent my career being "managed", I'd quite like to do something which just pays me lots of money but doesn't involve having "objectives" or an annual review.
See you around.
Regards
Ian
The Golf in my signature is my company car, but I'm in the process of early retirement and will be buying it as soon as the pension trustees cough up. It will be, as far as I can recall, my eighteenth VW - I started in the late 1970's with Beetles, all tuned to various degrees, the ultimate of which was a Cal-Looker, 1904cc's with a counterweighted crank, Porsche 912 conrods, running twin DCOE Webers. Most of the parts came from the USA, and in the days before the internet this meant doing it the hard way, by phone and post.
Later came a variety of Golf and Scirocco GTI's, one of which was the Scirocco Storm once owned by Leonard Setright. I then deviated to Honda, with a couple of twin-cam VTi Civics - the DOHC VTi is one of the great four-cylinder engines. They were followed by some Company cars, which brings me back to the beginning.
In the early days I built quite a few tuned air-cooled VW engines, and this led to preparing and running a friend's Formula Vee for ten years.
Having missed out on the Series 3 (surely the GTI version was the most crass misuse ever of an iconic sub-brand?) and Series 4 and 5, I'm more than impressed with the Mark 6. As I have a back problem, the parking sensors and Park Assist are a godsend. The Park Assist is only rarely used, but is well worth the small additional premium, and the leather interior was the only way to have the more supportive sports seats. Although they're standard in the GT, there's not much between speccing up a GT with parking sensors etc and putting a leather interior into a Match.
Other interests? Cricket, as you may realise from my user name, and collecting watches - I have a weakness for 1970's Seiko chronographs.
My intention, once retired, is to do some freelance business consultancy and, all being well, some freelance journalism. Although, having spent my career being "managed", I'd quite like to do something which just pays me lots of money but doesn't involve having "objectives" or an annual review.
See you around.
Regards
Ian