86 MODERNCLASSICS
OUR DRIVES
Tales of running modern classics in the real world
JJ’s‘Roccofinallyreturnsto theroad,butit didn’tyieldwithouta fight
MyrelationshipwiththisVW
ha s beena troubledone.
It ’s tested me on more
occasions that I care to
recall. The standout kicks in
the crotch include – but are not limited to
- dropping fifth gear onto the A2 on the way
back from a trackday at Lidden Hill. Then
there was the time the passenger window
refused to close on a very chilly January trip
down the A1 to the Ace Café.
There have been some great moments
too, like dicing with much more powerful
stuff at the sadly now closed Rockingham
Speedway for another trackday and a few
glorious B-road blasts during its all-too brief
spells of reliability. More recently however, it
simply sat in a barn gathering dust. That was
until last year when John Grogan and his
team at VAG specialist VRT in Slough set
about undoing the Scirocco’s many wrongs.
The last time my Karmann-built coupe
graced these pages it was nearing MoT test
readiness.Theto do listhadshrunkfroma
mi ghtytwopagesof A4 downto justa few
oddsandendsto tie up, thoughthe
upgradedfrontbrakesfroma GolfVR6
were causingno endof headaches.
Whoevermachinedtheaftermarket
br acketsusedto fit thisbig-brakeupgrade
ha d clearlyneverseena Scirocco,never
mi ndtakenanymeasurements.Theinside
ed geof thebracketswereso far out that
th eyactuallyhit thediscs.To makematters
worsethepistonsin thecaliperswouldn’t
budge. A pair of newcalipersanda callto a
lo cal machine shopmeantthattheStorm
was once again ableto stopon command.
Next, the VRT boysturnedto the
decidedly sorry-lookingrearbeamaxle.
Th ere was plentyof surfacecorrosion
ev ident but that’sto be expectedfora car
th at’sseen35 UK winters.Oneof theanti-
rollbar clampshadn’tfaredquiteso well,
ho wever.It hadrustedthroughandallowed
th e roll-barto flexfreely.A newclampand
ru bberbushsortedthisout but fearingthe
worst,I askedJohnto checkthebeam
bushestoo.Theseold A1 chassisVWs
(S cirocco,GolfMkI,Caddyetc.)havetwo
la rgebushesat eithersideof therearbeam
an d afterthreedecadesof usethey’re
us uallyshot.Thankfullyminewereok as
ge ttingthemout usuallyinvolvesa
bl owtorchor a hammeranda lot of mess
andswearing.
Th erewerea fewmorelittlejobsto do
be foretheall-importantMoTtestwas
so ught.Somewasherson thefuelunions
jo iningthelinesto thefuelpumpwere
re placedto curea slightfuelleakanda set of
ne w springswereaddedto therearbrake
sh oesto returnthemto topform.A full
se rvicelaterandthe‘Roccowasreadyto
ta keto theteststation.However,trueto
fo rm– andto provethatit didn’tjustrefuse
to behaveforme – whenJohntriedto drive
It ’s a goodjobits pretty.
JJ ’s Stormis brought
backto lifeby VRT.
Johnat VRT
gi vesJJ the
bad news...
Theold roll
barclamp
wastoast.
GUESS WHO’S BACK...
Fi fthinjectorwiresstrippedcausinga short.
