New 87.5 GT member
 

Hello everybody, I was fortunate enough to obtain a 87.5 GT last month! The 2nd owner before me didnt know cars at all and thought the piston rings were shot, that being the only reason I was able to find it and turns out it just needed a little maintenance! Anyways, ill be on this forum often learning how to care for my Jem. Any tips are always appreciated. Its in the shop right now due to that dreadful slave cylinder breaking in half, causing the trans to be pulled, in goes a new clutch though.

Nice looking car! I got my one owner SB about two years ago, and I'm still trying to dial it in. It sat for 5 years so it has some gremlins. My best advice is get a Bentley manual. Neither Haynes nor Chiltons makes a manual for the 2.3L engine. I would also remove the brake booster pump. Mine was making enough racket that I thought it was my lifters. Follow the braided hose from the driver's side of the intake manifold to the funky looking thing on the side of the engine block. It's held on by two bolts. I removed the piston inside until I can fashion a blocking plate for it. I'm sure others have their own advice, but that's my two cents.

Thank you! Yeah it is a beauty and I love it to death. Thanks for the information also. Mine has its grimlins of its own. If i were to remove the brake booster i would have no power brakes right? and what is that funky thing on the drivers side of the engine?

Don't remove the brake booster itself. What he's talking about is the small pump on the head that feeds vacuum to the brake booster in the off chance that you're both slamming on the brakes and mashing the accelerator pedal (the throttle must be closed in order to produce vacuum). The car will stop just fine without any vacuum assist, of course.

While it's not needed, I would say leave it unless it's making noise. Might as well concentrate your time on the stuff that's causing problems...

Makes a good rainy day project though, and will clean up the engine bay a bit. BTW I have a PDF template for the blocking plate if anyone needs it.

-Rog

Oooh okay. hmmm I would like to remove that thing with a block off plate if its not really needed. It looks bad and i havent checked if its making any noise. Does it control all the vacuum or just the vacuum to the brake booster?

Also Rog since you know what my GT looks like, is mine a special/limited edition? Ive never seen another one like it and can only find one other picture online. Not with the same original wheels and paint.

Vacuum in general is produced by the engine itself (in the intake), so regardless you'll still have plenty of vacuum for everything. The vacuum pump is just to provide a bit of extra redundancy I guess, specifically for the brakes since they're important. The MC and other VW engines didn't have it, so it's not needed unless maybe you're doing a lot of track time with it I suppose, where you could potentially run out of vacuum. At that point I would just add a giant vacuum reservoir from a Mercedes and not think about it again.

It's almost certainly a Special Build, being that it has the NG motor (the caveat being if it was swapped at some point). The digital dash was an option on regular builds, so that's not always the telltale sign that some think. It should also have disc brakes all around. Those could have also been added, but all those things together would be a lot of evidence for an SB.

It would have come with the standard 16-spoke 14" Ronal wheels. If you have documentation that it came with the ones on it (looks like Borbet Type Cs?) then it's possible that it could have been done by the dealer.

I couldn't tell you for sure about the paint, since I just have the pictures to work from... I've never seen that done from the factory, especially since it looks like it doesn't have the shopping cart guards along the sides. I would guess it was repainted, at least from the middle of the doors down.

Are the bumpers painted or are they black plastic? I'd inspect all the edges, especially where there are rubber gaskets, and look for signs of a second layer of paint. Also, Tornado Red was a single-stage paint, so if it's been clear coated then that's for sure a sign of later paint work.

Of course the VIN will tell you a lot, since they had a code for the SB as well as for anything custom ordered...

https://forums.audiworld.com/vindecoder.php

-Rog

Well the engine shows no signs of being swapped in.. everything looks like it was made to fit together quite well. Ive ran several demo vin checks and half say it has the 2.2, and half say it has the 2.3 :confused: The exhaust manifold is the 4-2-1 style that is exclusive to the 2.3 only right? It does have 4 wheel disk brakes that dont like they were added on. The rims are indeed Borbet rims(16 inch i think). The only other picture i could find of a model like my GT has the same wheels, and thats more proof being that there was a duplicate made of it. Heres the vin: WAUBE0856HA030469. The vin decoder you gave me said database crash every time, maybe you will have better luck it. The car doesnt look like it was repainted and i dont see signs of over spray. The paint under the top layer is the same exact color and theres 2 layers then the steel i think. What do you mean if its been clear coated? the bumpers have black plastic on it at the top then splits into painted sections. the same red paint of the body is under the black as i can see through a chip. The decals on the side are aligned too perfect to be laid by hands.

The bumpers are two different pieces of plastic

picture of leather interior if it helps