Larry, Thanks for the kind words about my web site. I wish I had the time to update it with a more modern look. With well over 5,000 pages and 10-15,000 images an update is a massive undertaking. Maybe in my spare time when I retire someday and I am looking for a new, full time, job.
The "youngtimers" term is interesting depending on where one is located. When I first started showing my totally restored 1980 VW Rabbit at the Antique Car show at Hershey, I heard some not so nice comments when I drove it in. Seems the Rabbit was not "old enough" for some people. I laughed my butt off at those comments given the crowds of people that stopped to look at the "youngster" and talk with me about owning one or being a VW salesman or VW repair tech back in the day. Those negative comments have pretty much stopped now. Now that I take my '87 GTI 16V to these Antique Events I get to talk with a new group of people who have owned, sold or fixed the GTI 16V. Boy the stories I have heard. BTW, last weekend I met another former VW employee. He trained VW techs how to fix VWs. We got to talking about the GTI 16V. He does not seem to remember that VWoA did anything special for/with the last GTI 16V. I do have to wonder if VW sold the last GTI 16V or has it in the VW Museum in Germany. Hmmmmm. Charlie On Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at 10:58:40 PM UTC-4, Larry Velez wrote: > > Charlie, > > > > First off, great work on your site – it is the premier source of concrete > data on our cars. Thank you for building and maintaining it, I know it is > not easy to do so for so many years. > > > > Too bad the VINs don’t follow a logical pattern, I’ll ask VW classic and > see if they can shed any insight on how to decipher the VINs in case anyone > wants to track total numbers sold and try to figure out survivors and > special cars like the last one.. > > > > Great to hear you continue to preserve your 87. I am hoping some > collectors start picking these up so that there is more interest in resting > and preserving them. I think it is up there with the other great cars of > this era. The European collectors are calling cars from the 80s, 90s and > 00s ‘youngtimers’ and are beginning to add them to their collections. > > > > Keep up the great work on the site and thanks for being a part of our > little email group here. > > > > -Larry > > 91 GTI 16V > > > > *From:* [email protected] <javascript:> [mailto: > [email protected] <javascript:>] *On Behalf Of *[email protected] > <javascript:> > *Sent:* Thursday, August 20, 2015 10:16 PM > *To:* MK2-16v <[email protected] <javascript:>> > *Cc:* Larry Velez <[email protected] <javascript:>> > *Subject:* [mk2-16v] Re: Last Mk2 16V? > > > > Greetings Everyone. > > > > Back in the mid to late 1990s when I started my web site (www.gti16v.com) > I became acquainted with an Engineer who worked for VWoA in Auburn Hills, > Michigan. This fella is a great guy and a hardcore VW Enthusiast who also > happens to work for VW. At one point, I asked him if he could get me > production figures by model year for the GTI 16V. He explained to me that > the VW VIN number has digits that designate body and engine (ie Golf and > 16V). The problem lies in the last 6 numeric digits of the VW VIN. While > those digits appear to be sequential BUT they are not tied to or have > specific ranges tied to the GTI 16V or any model for that matter. In other > words an A2 GTI 16V could come down the assembly line and be given 000001 > as it's last six digits and a regular A2 VW Golf could be given 000002 and > an A2 Jetta could have 000003. By the late 1990s he was unable to find > production documents that could have answered my question and he thought > they had been disposed of since by then the GTI 16V was out of production > for 8 years and the US plant had been closed for 12 years by then. > > > > As a result of how VW assigned VINs it would seem very difficult to find > the last GTI 16V. > > > > BTW, it turns out that this engineer rescued one of the original,surviving > A2 GTI 16V engineering test mules (there were only a few 100 built) when it > bought it from another VW engineer who had it stored for a number of years. > The engineer I know then restored/rebuilt/modified the mule and had it for > a number of years as a driver. In fact it was on my registry for a long > time until he sold it. The funny thing about that GTI 16V was that it's VIN > did not accurately reflect the actual vehicle. After all, technically > speaking, there weren't supposed to be any A2 GTI 16V prior to 1987 unless > you happened to own a test mule.That is actually how I came to know this > person and who he worked for as I questioned the VIN he submitted when he > joined the registry on my web site. After he got to know me, he confided in > me that he worked for VW and why the VIN on his GTI 16V was odd. > > > > Larry, I do not remember the last GTI 16V was any kind of special > edition. IIRC, in 1992 VW marketed many of the VW models using "Wolfsburg" > packages trying to sell cars. They must have had a crap load of "Wolfsburg" > crests and wanted to get rid of them because they slapped them on most VW > models that year.Sadly, by the end of the GTI 16V production run VW had > lost interest in this model and the whole A2 line and was moving on > desperately hoping to increase sales with the new models. > > > > FYI guys, I still have my 1987 GTI 16V. Hard to believe that she is 28 > years old. A few years ago I started taking her to antique car events and > put her in the Historical Preservation of Original Features (HPOF) class. > She qualifies for that class since she has not been modified and is in > original condition. If anyone here on the list happens to be in the > Hershey, PA area on the second Saturday in October I plan to bring her to > the Antique Car Show being held there that weekend. Stop by and say Hi. > > > On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 5:19:33 PM UTC-4, Larry Velez wrote: > > Has anyone ever heard of what happened to the last Mk2 16V produced? Was > there some kind of special edition sold to celebrate? I wonder if a > collector has it somewhere… > > > > Would be interesting to know what happened to the first for that matter.. > > > > -Larry > > 91 GTI 16V > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MK2-16v" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] <javascript:> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mk2-16v. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mk2-16v/c5e8448d-8458-434c-bb06-9b6d8aa6a012%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mk2-16v/c5e8448d-8458-434c-bb06-9b6d8aa6a012%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MK2-16v" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mk2-16v. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mk2-16v/feafc58d-7148-4dd0-9146-a15107081b1a%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
