A few months ago I decided that I wanted to build my ultimate gti so I bit the bullet and bought a clean little mk3 that funnily enough I had owned before.
I originally purchased the car in April 2016 for $400 with a blown gearbox.
After rebuilding the box it served as a reliable little run about for myself and a few family members before I decided to sell it.
I bought the car back in August 2018 and it was in a sorry sight.
Once again it served as a run about then I decided to pull it off the road for a rebuild.
I fell in love with the characteristics of the m16a and loved it for just how much abuse it could take.
My daily drive for the past nearly 3 years has been a 2010 swift sport, I loved it so much just the way it was and how well the engine performed that I didn’t change a thing on it for 18 months. Even though it was on the slow side.
So I bought a turbo kit and things got out of hand. The car is still going strong coming on a year now with the turbo and 232,000kms later and I really wanted to put one in a gti for a reliable street/track car.
So the build begins.

May wish to change that N/A all the way in your signature now

Keen to see where this goes

Haha! Well the gti will be staying N/A so I might keep it.


Cheers Tassie! So am I haha.

Some of my progress so far. I’ve rebuilt my swift sport box and installed a Monster sport 1.5 way lsd and replaced all the bearings and seals. Rebuilt the steering rack with new rack ends and freshened it up, also rebuilt the factory master cylinder.

A little bit of an update.
The gti has been sitting at my work for the past two weeks so I’m using every second I can working on it at lunch time and a few hours after work most days.
Have all my rear suspension acid dipped and painted it myself, bought a super pro bush kit and have installed most of the rear suspension.
Painted most of the interior and wheel wells.
Also bought some new rear wheel bearings and hubs, got them from repco for an absolute steal of $25 each, unbelievable.
Just waiting on my rear brake caliper rebuild kits so I can get them installed too.

Also a few pictures of my turbocharged swift sport daily drive.
Fitted with a HKS turbo kit, Garrett turbo, running a Link Monsoon ecu.
Makes 120kwish at the wheels on a hilarious 4.5 psi.
It’s awesome fun and surprisingly quick.
Also has a bunch of Cusco braces, jdm Recaro seats, Suzuki sport short shifter, monster sport carbon wing, Cusco rear sway bar, sunline racing titanium exhaust.

Can you show pics of the titanium exhaust?

Here’s the sunline racing titanium muffler.

I thought you meant the whole exhaust was Ti.

Haha I wish, the muffler was expensive enough.

We have some progress! Been fiddling around with the power steering column and have finally got it in a spot where it seems to work perfectly.
Just need to make some mounts which hopefully I’ll get time to do this week.

Finally got some suspension in it and got it back on its wheels. New swift uprights are in courtesy of dmw Dave.
Now to get her home and start cracking on the wiring.

Top build, just needs the monster sport crate motor and lsd.

Already have the monster sport lsd and 4.4:1 final drive. Monster sport motor would be a little out of my budget haha.

Slight change of plans, pulled the turbo off my swift sport because I think it’ll be much more fun in the gti.
Hopefully get some time this weekend to get the engine in and start making some serious progress.

Got some spare time tonight to start putting some bits and pieces together.
I’ve really wanted to run my little Advan A3a, 14x6 wheels but unfortunately they just will not fit with the wilwood calipers so I’ve sourced some nice lightweight watanabe 15x6.5s which should do the job.
Hoping to get the engine in this weekend so I can start running shifter cables and get a few little bits and pieces mocked up.

Loving your work here man! This thing will be a beast!

Thanks Tassie! Can’t afford to build the M16a how I want at the moment but the turbo m15a should be plenty of fun for now.

Im liking where this is going.... still lurking