Aircooled VW South Africa

Have been working on this car on and off for a few years. It has an air cooled motor in again (1835 cc) after it had been modified by the previous owner. Motor does not have the OE fan housing and the car doesn't have the OE tail lights. Has been converted to disc brakes at the rear with a bolt - in roll cage. It has a 4 speed gearbox almost the same as a beetle as the reverse is in the same place, but instead of sideshafts it used CV joints. Still need to do the interior, some lights wiring and then spray the car again to finish it. As far as I know its the only one left in SA. The other one I know about was totaled some years ago, and I have the spare gearbox, dash and studs of that one. Brought in by VW SA Development to Uitenhage were we bought it.

Not to be confused with Volkswagen Golf.
The Volkswagen Gol is a subcompact car manufactured by Volkswagen do Brasil since 1980 as Volkswagen's entry-level car in the South American market—where it succeeded the South American VW Beetle (Fusca). (wikipedia)

just love that car man.

Always wanted to take a Audi 80 or Passat 1 and change it to aircooled.

Please post more photo's from the front with the grill and engine in one frame.
Aaagg just lots more photo's will be fine... ..

Herman

Awesome! Was this the one for sale on gt a while ago?

Will take some more photos tonight from the front. Same one yes, don't have the time at the moment to build it like it should be. But working on it still as I get a chance. Still want to take it for fine tuning and wheel allignment.

love these old things, very cool

pretty rare car in SA...........nice score man, way WAY cool.

Wrong cooling system, saw one in Portugal some years back, sort of looked like a mix between a Audi 80 & a MK1 Polo from the early 70's

Very interesting car, and as unique as can be in SA. Found these pics on TS:

That's the right cooling system yes, still have parts of it. Just the altenator is buggered thats way the change came in. Will try if I get the time to take it back to OE.

I've always liked the look of that cooling system, nice and compact to make space for the spare.

With stock twin carb setup, the spare went into the boot.

After the failure of the altenator we decided to upgrade the motor to 1835 cc and put the twin carb's on. Also much easier now the work on the motor and alot more pleasant to change plugs than in a beetle body Still need to make a bumper for it as the one it had got lost. Looking for a blade bumper from a Golf to modify to fit. Headlight and wiring must still be done.

question?..........how much of an issue is the cooling going to be, because the original set up has the fan on the front?

Well must say it keeps very cool. Much cooler than my beach buggy and if got the same setup in the buggy. The Oil cooler is mounted right behind the grill. Thats the pipes running from the oil filter to the front. I have also fitted an extra sump and mahle oil pump. Oil pressure stays about 1.2 bars higher than my buggy when running operating temp.

to my knowledge, the original Gol suffered from cooling problems. That said, the T1 shroud is actually an improvement.