Some pics of a locals fresh refurb of a 79 GTI with 1.6 Heron (110 hp) motor. I'm guessing that means something to the rest of you. Regardless, it's sooo clean.

EDIT: Damn resize makes it look like crap.

 

wow! i had an 86 rabbit GTi..i loved that car..it had some punch fer sure..had it in high school...i did not know they made a golf first. then a rabbit. then a golf again..they r confused! those germans

 

I love it, my dad had a 85 non turbo diesel jetta, i wish i had that car now. I learned to drive a stick in it. It smelled like diesel and smoked and had 300k on it. Total awesomeness.

 

They didn't... the "Rabbit" here was always a Golf in Europe. That car is an imported MkI (A1) Golf GTI, not a US spec car. If it's a real Euro Golf GTI then it's fairly unusual here. An '86 GTI is a MkII (A2) car and they were called "Golf" everywhere. VAG did a bunch of renaming of cars for the North America market at that time (like the Audi 4000 and 5000 here were the Audi 80/90 and 100/200 in Europe)

The Heron head engine was used in early 1.6L GTI's, it's main claim to oddity it that the combustion chamber side of the head is completely flat, the chambers are in the piston tops.

 

Very cool, can't say i've seen a true euro one in person. That motor is supsoed to be a blast, much better than the US spec JH 1.8.