If you thought France had no chips in the watercooled VeeDub game, allow this fresh Mk1 to change your mind. This all-carbon road-racer Golf has set a new benchmark for VW builds…
Drink it in with an open perspective. What you’re looking at here, in essence, is the world. Sure, it may look like a Mk1 VW Golf, but it’s so, so much more than that. This is a project that neatly encapsulates the very nature of the Earth itself and reimagines it as an Ocean Blue vision of the macrocosm. You see, this Golf is characterised by two of the world’s most intriguing and exciting elements: carbon and gold. The former is the fourth most abundant element in the universe and, in this watercooled interpretation, you’ll find it everywhere.
Gold, however, is rare and exquisite; the total amount of gold in existence makes up only 0.0000000003% of the Earth’s mass (and it took us a long time and a hell of a lot of complicated maths to work that out – we used to read car mags under the desk in maths lessons). So the gold on this car is sprinkled around to embellish rather than overwhelm, and the finish is magnificent – a shiny wedge of imposing carbon, twinkling with rarefied detail. Its heart is so black-and-yellow it’d make Wiz Khalifa blush.
Where has this world-beating and world-mirroring Golf come from? Limoges, in France – an Occitan city known for its porcelain, Gothic architecture and, now, for GC Custom: a full-service hot-rodding outfit run by 23 year-old Gabriel Couty. Don’t let his tender years fool you, this guy lives and breathes modified cars and has a magical flair for it. And if you think that French tuning consists principally of questionable expanding-foam bodykits and minimal power mods then allow this impeccable Mk1 to reframe your outmoded misconceptions.
“The car was rescued from scrap,” Gabriel tells us. “My brother has a Mk1 Golf GTI and I always wanted one too, but this one needed a bit of work when I got it.” Yep, it’s fair to say that’s a bit of an understatement… “All of the panels have been replaced with new VW parts, and I’d say about 80% of the car is custom… and 80% is carbon,” he grins.
Well, that’s quite a lot of information he’s hinted at there, so let’s unpick it piece by piece. First of all, before he could set about building anything remotely show-worthy, Gabriel had to restore the decrepit shell. Having been straightened to factory specs…
Want to see more? Check out the full feature in Fast Car magazine issue 401 on sale now in all good shops, the Fast Car online shop or alternatively download Fast Car magazine 401 now.
