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Aaqib’s street sleeper Golf 1 20v turbo gapping the ‘big boys’

By Jehran Naidoo for Auto Rush

There’s just something special about watching a Volkswagen Golf 1 give a BMW a run for its money. 

I think it’s mainly because BMW drivers are always pushing people off the road, much like their Toyota Hilux compadres. 

So when a little ‘golfie’ wipes the floor with the German powerhouse, it gets the heart racing. 

Its Biblical. Its David and Goliath.

Durbanite Aaqib Essop and his 1.8 20V ARY turbo often enjoys this Biblical practice. In fact, dusting the 6 cylinder BMW is one of his favourite memories with the car. 

“My favourite part about the car is the fun factor. It’s really exciting to drive. I think my fondest memory with the car is about a race I had against a worked up 135i. We ran three times and I hit him on all. The car runs really well and sits in front of the older M3’s and Audi S3,” said Aaqib. 

A wolf in wolf’s clothing

Seems a bit far fetched for a car that just had an engine swap and is still running on standard suspension [and ride height]. But that seems to be the case. 

Aaqib purchased the black ‘1.8i’ model from Cape Town over a year ago. He was in the market for a boosted car and welcomed the 20v swap with open arms. 

“My friend told me about the car and I was looking for a boosted Golf 1 at that time. When I saw it, I liked it immediately. It already had the engine swap done so I have no idea who built the car,” he said.

Everything besides the engine is verbatim from the factory. It has the 1.8R red stitching on the interior like the seats, gear knob and seatbelts. The door pads were also kissed by fire. 

Under the hood, he believes everything but the rods were kept original on the ARY 20v motor. The ARY motor generally came in the Golf 4 GTI or Audi S3.

The main modifications include a mandrel bend 76mm exhaust and a downpipe. 

‘Granny shifting, not double-clutching like you should’

Even the gearbox is a stock rod shifting contraption that sounds like you coughing up phlegm when you miss a shift. 

ElectroBoost handles the tuning with the car constantly running on 70/30 ethanol mix. Aaqib also drives it everywhere with a set of Toyo Proxies at the front. 

It makes 212 kw and 360 nm torque on 1.1 bar boost. 

Ethanol, turbo and semi-slicks with that power output: talk about a joyful ride to work right? 

Current testing on a Draggy puts the car in the 13.5 second bracket. 

Surprisingly, Aaqib has kept the ride height standard. This came as a great shock to me because I was under the impression that the requisite to owning a Golf 1 was cutting its springs. 

Nevertheless, Aaqib was reluctant to alter the car’s suspension as he still used it to work a couple times a week. 

“I didn’t really want to change the suspension. It still has the stock Velociti wheels with normal tyres at the back and Toyo proxies at the front. The only thing I want to do is change the gearbox to a cable shift and maybe upgrade the diff. I would like to have a LS diff and up the boost a little,” said Aaqib. 

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