Pete's Lupo GTI

OK, finally getting round to this, so this is how I bought it............




1.6 16v AVY
6 Speed box
BMC panel filter
TH-Monos in diamond cut/black
Back seats removed
Front seats replaced with Mk4 GTI Recaros
FK silverlines
Cambridge Tail lights
Gloss black wing mirrors
Rear wiper removed

So quite a bit of work had already gone into it, which was TBH a weight off my mind. Took it to Westside at the end of last year and it somehow found its way into PVW the next month which was a nice suprise and shows what a good job the previous owner made of it.



Then I felt the need to make it my own a bit, although I told my wife(to be at the time) that I would leave it alone unlike the rest of my vehicle history and be satisfied with how it was.

So I stuck on a Fabia RS upgraded rear anti-roll bar to help keep it planted, quite good fun on 'hardcore' setting, get plenty of lift off oversteer! Then I was after geting the roof sprayed gloss black but couldn't afford the price so I went to a vinyl place who stuck a sheet of black vinyl over it. The results left a bit to be desired if I'm honest but it'll do till I go for a full respray. Wouldn't advise vinyl to anyone now after seeing a few dodgy jobs being done by several companies.





Then with the winter season hitting hard I got the standard wheels that came with the car shot blasted and powder coated black by a local company, got a new set of rubber for them and got those fitted.




flickr37+ by Turbopete, on Flickr

Next my FK's decided to blow on me so I had to buy a new set of coilies after looking into which were best, and leaky FK's seemed to be a common problem, so after chatting to a lad from awesome-GTI I ordered myself a new set of weitec coilies, and while I was in the mood to treat the lupo I managed to find myself a cheap G60 brake upgrade off another VW forum so snapped it up before anyone else could get in there!







Then I felt with a couple of shows coming up I wanted to get involved with I'd best get my summer wheels out and rolling, but with them being manky from neglect on my part I sent them off to wheelcraft in heckington(thanks to John and Simon) and asked them to bring them back up like new but also to strip back the black centres so the inner bowl is polished too and they've done a cracking job on them. Got another fresh set of rubber for all four and got them fitted.





Then got them fitted....









And how it sat on my recently polished monos-thanks to John at wheelcraft for a great job!



Since then I have had all my door cards trimmed up in red leather......









Since then I managed to source a BMC CDA with piping at a bit of a bargain, only fitted temporarily mind but it definitely gives the lupo a bit more of a growl factor!









Also got myself a leather engine cover sorted out with some nice red stitching.......





Next on the agenda is fitting this.........



^^Not my bag, honest!^^

SICK car man. Looks sweet on the polished wheels. your wife sounds very understanding

Great looking lupo buddy, where did ya get the leather trim on the engine cover done???? looks awesome

Thanks lads, yeah she's great, although we did have a bit of a falling out when I stomped my feet wanting air........and I got the cover from a lad on club lupo who was stripping his show gti back to standard, but I know a lad in sleaford who's doing stuff like that now, he did my door cards.

looks great, fancy a lupo for the wife

You trying to tell me something Lewis?!

haha sorry, that can be read in many ways!

she would benefit from a small cute cuddly vw!

Hmmm, not much better fella! The lupo gti has been compared to a kitten with boxing gloves on though.....

only pulling your leg, i think they are super little cars, probably more in keeping with the original gti concept than the current golfs

Yeah, I love mine, had an a4 before and thought I'd struggle with another small car but it's so roomy inside, plus it's only a two seater so loads of boot space! Dunno what other car I'd ever want to change it for though, possibly a glanza turbo, that's the one thing I really miss, boost!!

Supercharging these is pretty common might be worth looking into? The charger from a mini cooper is the most common one used

Hi Krash, yeah, they're not that common, only know of two and both have had nasty problems, belts coming off down the road, ECU's blowing etc.....AndyP(from lincoln)with that champagney green GTI is the most local one and he had no end of problems with his, and the other lad I know, his has been in pieces for the best part of the last year but he's an aircraft engineer and all sorts of state of the art gizmos are under his bonnet but he also has had serious issues getting it to run at all, let alone properly, gotta worry about compression and all that!

It's more common to put the 20v golf/a3/s3/tt/lcr etc lump in them, but there is a lot of big work involved in that, but there are obviously a hell of a lot more gain with the turbo lump, Andy doesn't know the exact output of his but it's obviously less that 200bhp, and the other one I mentioned, he reckons when its running with this new ceramic charger all functioning as it should it'll be facing 250+bhp, but he's chucked I'd guess well over 10k with research, trial & error with parts, and all that. Whereas the transplant of the 20v I'd say you could get done for about 6k and you're looking at 180-225bhp straight away depending on the map of the ECU but with a map up to 225bhp I bet that's plenty for a Lupo!

Little vw's arnt normally my thing but i really like this!Looks great mate!
Would love a bit of info on the retrimmer you used and a rough idea on costs if you dont mind?PM me when you get chance to give me a rough idea on price and where abouts he is as i want my headliner done properly.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks matey, PM'd.