Ok, so this car was obtained by pure luck. Practical Classics Magazine ran a prize draw along with Amazon which I'd entered and several months later was informed that I was the winner. I went to the Practical Classic workshop to collect the prize and drove it home 😄
It's a 1988 8v GTi Campaign edition and Practical Classics had done a fair amount of work on it (as can be seen on Youtube). Yes it had a few things that still needed looking at but overall it's a car that's in great condition (the bodywork is fantastic).
I noticed on the drive home from collecting the car, that the odometer wasn't increasing (speedometer works though) so until I fix that it won't be gaining miles. The fuel flap doesn't sit flush, but it still locks if I push it shut when locking the car. One of the dash bulbs has blown so I can't see the rev counter or fuel gauge properly in the dark, and some of the roof trim isn't sitting quite right.
All little jobs that I should be able to tackle myself once I've sorted the mess that the failed oil cooler caused that blew in February 2026 (fortunately close to home).
The other issue that I need to sort is that the car doesn't seem to be completely happy at low revs and a light throttle. It "kangaroos" down the road on light throttle between about 1850 and 2200 revs (at any other engine speed it's fine). I had started looking at this issue checking timing (it was fine), the idle speed (was a bit high and things improved a little when lowering it) and giving the idle control valve a decent clean (again, slightly improved things). Next step is to check for vacuum leaks which I will do once the oil cooler has been replaced and the coolant system cleaned out.