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With motorsport on the menu, Project Buzz Box needed to handle quicker than Schumacher on speed… and, thanks to some sensible chassis tweaks, it does just that!

Since we initially got Buzz Box off the ground (or brought it considerably closer to it), we've made a few additional adjustments to the already sorted suspension set-up.

We've also incorporated a couple of serious chassis upgrades since then. The results of which are fantastic, if a little on the solid side for everyday use - just ask anybody who's been for a passenger ride up the infamous PVW test route.

Suspension
After deciding to go full-on with Buzz Box, we ordered in a set of nickel-plated Avo coilovers from Chassis Dynamics and featured it in PVW 3/99. We went this route because they're popular on the UK scene and very effective, particularly at lowering the ride height. Weighing in at a very reasonable £550, it's easy to see why we've used them.

While we were at it, the old anti-roll bars and rubber bushes went out the door, swiftly followed by the knackered dampers. To add extra rigidity and durability, we fitted extra-thick Eibach anti-roll bars and Powerflex bushes.

All these mods allowed us to bring the car down to earth and gave us the opportunity to decide which wheel worked best in the car's dinky arches - safe in the knowledge it wouldn't let us down on the track.

	Wow!

Wheels
Going with the original plan of incorporating a motorsport theme with a subtle Euro twist, we felt Revolution's RFX five-spoke fitted the bill. It's an ageless design that's been linked to some of the toughest race and rally cars - just what we were looking for!

The rims looked sweet, as expected. However, we went a bit OTT with the size. Seems our eyes were too big for our wheel arches. After the 9x16s arrived (I know, what were we thinking?) and were wrapped in chunky 225/24 Bridgestone rubber, we offered them up to the car. There was more chance of stashing a school of sperm whales under our arches than the menacing Revolutions. Our second choice was to fit 8x15s all round and this worked a treat as we scaled down the attack and went for the ultimate Euro-stance - low and phat!

Now we'd be lying if we said the wicked 15" Schmidt rims came to mind straight away. Oh no. Life's not that easy. We had a set of 7x15" Ronal Turbos floating around but, by the time Buzz Box was complete, every Tom, Dick and Tarquin had bolted a set to their Veedub… bugger!

Despite how good it looked on the Turbos, they just coulden't create the impact we were after. It wasn't until late in the day that our guardian angel at R&A Design cane to rescue. Both Rick and Joe knew we'd been after something special and, following a deal to be sole importer of Schmidt wheels from Germany, we were halfway there. However, choosing the Schmidt wheel we wanted was another story. Too much choice con often be a drawback!

After Serious contemplation, we went for the TH-Line rim in our desired 8x15" fitment. Running ET25 offset, the rims fill the de-trimmed arches a treat. The dished style and two-piece design gives us the look we were after and a deep polished rim. They drop mare jaws than Tyson's right hand… nuff said.

With the suspension sorted and a set of wide-boy rims ready to do business, we didn't want to let the side down by fitting gash rubber. As luck would have it, BFGoodrich announced the launch of it's all-new ProfilerG tyre and, in 2000 miles the rubber's taken all we can throw at it - and believe you me, that's some serious abuse (you're all man, Elliott ~Ed).

Floor Pan
Well, that was the easy part - fitting the off-the-shelf goodies. For our next move we needed to go a bit more extreme. We'd decided to fit a centre-exit exhaust and incorporate a motorbike rear silencer (a la TVR Tuscan). It was definitely the way forward (or is that backwards?).

The main reason behind this decision was that running the zorst straight through the centre of the car would optimise flow - and look the nuts, too. What sounded quite straightforward didn't turn out to be such a walk in the park. Basically, it involved removing the original fuel tank and plumbing a race-spec ATL fuel cell in the boot, before cutting out the spare wheel well and welding a steel plate over the large hole. Finally the rear valance had to be modified before the zorst went on.

	Project Buzz Box

Sounds simple, but our god friend, Jon Haycock at Haycock Motorsport, spent ages getting the system to sit just right. It's like everything though, the first time is always the hardest. With the exhaust mocked-up in mild steel, it was off the Milltek, where the guys knocked us up a stainless pipe section to mate its tasty carbon bike box to Supersprint's four-branch manifold. Job done!

Roll-Cage
With some serious thrashing planned for the car, we thought it best to be on the safe side and go for a full-on weld-in cage. Once again, we got a little carried away. The guy's at Soley VW (SVW) had a Mk2 cage kicking around and, a mere £90 later, it was sitting next to the car. To be honest, by the time we paid Jon Haycock to cut and fit it, we'd have been better splashing out an a new Mk1 item.

Not only did Jon fit the cage and reinforce the mountings, he also fabricated additional door bars and a second rear diagonal. You think that's excessive, wait until 11/00 issue when we fit the new roof from SVW.

Brakes
The area which needed the most attention was the brakes. Lets face it, the Mk1 GTI wasn't blessed with the best stoppers in the first place. Somewhere along the line, we've replaced basically everything related to the original brakes.

We knew the rear drum set-up would get the elbow because it ain't that effective. A quick call to the German Car Company saw the arrival of rear disc conversion which. At almost £400, seems quite expensive. Yet it contains all the parts needed. Like most things on the car, a few alternations were needed before fitment - namely the rear beam had to be cut to allow the callipers to fit. Apart from that, the swap went smoothly.

When it came to upgrading the front brakes, we were torn between two options; either Wilwood four-pots at around £800 or taking the advice of Tim Stiles at TRS Performance and fitting one of its 285mm Big Disc Conversions.

Despite the appeal of the whopping Wilwoods, we decided that Tim, being a living legend in the VW tuning field, knew his stuff and went for reasonably priced £329 kit.

Next came the tricky part. We wanted to lose the messy servo and swap it for a more effective adjustable bias arrangement. This allows you to adjust the amount of front to rear brake bias to suit the circuit or race conditions you're driving on… and all from the twist of a knob.

After a few phone calls, we discovered the only options available were to a) by a Mk2 kit from Rally Design and modify it, b) entrust Autocavan to modify the existing unit or c) get Jon to do the donkey work for us. Which do you think we chose?

After endless hours of drawings, cuttings, shutting, tweaking and swearing, Jon arrived at what's arguably the most effective system you could fit to a Mk1. Not only can you tweak the in-line braking by a lever, there's also a dash-mounted knob to fine tune the pedal box.

Words: Elliot Roberts, Photos: Max Earey
Source: VW Performance, issue 9/2000, page 33ff