Skip to main content

Ratty Rescue: Portlandian ‘Rocco

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

The dream of the 80s is alive in Portland (we took a little license with the decade). For a mere $1,200 you can zip around in your own piece of VW’s quirky coupe history. This week’s Ratty Rescue is a little less ratty, but still in need of rescue, so if you’re in the market for a rarer-by-the-day ride, this could be the car for you.

Volkswagen introduced the Scirocco in 1974 to replace the virtually prehistoric Karmann Ghia. The new coupe featured modern styling from Giorgetto Giugiaro but replaced the sexy curves of the aircooled coupe with sharp creases and crisp edges. In one model, the wheezy, underpowered, unsporting Ghia sports car was pushed to the wayside: the Scirocco ushered in a new era of performance for Volkswagen.

Scirocco buyers loved the crisp handling, the low seating position, the light chassis, and the knife-edge styling. The little coupe was not only stylish but practical too, with a decent trunk space and a folding rear seat. “S” models had blacked out trim, Recaro-designed seats, red accented badges, white letter tires, and a 5-speed transmission.

00r0r_52iajobrwl3_1200x900

This 1981 S is a prime candidate for restoration. The mild Pacific Northwest climate has been kind to the body; not a speck of rust can be seen in the photos. Sure the Cosmos Silver paint is in rough shape, and yes there’s a dent or two, but the body panels all line up well, so that’s one less thing to worry about. And the owner upgraded the standard 13″ alloys to 14″ teardrop ones. They match the lines of the car well, but you’ll need to decide whether to go with the color-keyed wheels or the solid silver ones.

Inside, this little wedge-shaped coupe has the slick black and orange fabric seats in decent condition. Like all cars of this era, the driver’s bolster needs attention. A deep clean of the interior would make a huge improvement.

The Craigslist ad goes a little quiet on the mechanical condition. Apparently, the engine is not original. Neither is the transmission. It does not state what engine is in the car, so you’ll have to do some investigating. That new transmission also comes with artisanal gear grind. But overall, this Scirocco S is a solid little ride.

This 1981 Scirocco S is in Portland Oregon for a very unweird price of $1200. Check out the seller’s Craigslist ad for more information.

The post Ratty Rescue: Portlandian ‘Rocco appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2hVx3op
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more