Fusing intercontinental style with innovative ideas and a high-end finish, this gloriously modified VW Scirocco Mk2 blends show with power thanks to a 500bhp VR6 motor.
Feature from Performance VW magazine. Photos: Rick Di Corpo.
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.” So said Terry Pratchett in The Last Continent, and he makes an interesting point. The location of things across the globe is secondary to the scientific constants that anchor them in reality, and there’s an inarguably scientific approach to certain modifying styles within the water-cooled VW scene: the Euro look, for example… take an early Golf or Polo, shove in a hot valver, run it very low on BBS splits with lo-pros, keep it smooth and simple, and paint it in some lurid or pastel shade. Voila, you’re rocking the Euro look, just like a 1990s wideboy.
OK, there’s a formula, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking these cars are strictly formulaic; each one has its own quirks, complexities, nuances, and most of all, personality. And such cars aren’t always found in Europe. The modified VW Scirocco Mk2 we’re looking at here is out there in the snowy wilds of Canada – it could just as easily have been crafted in Canberra, Canterbury or the Cayman Islands (yeah, in your face, geography), but the global positioning of this one actually worked out rather fortuitously thanks to the abundance and juxtaposition of Dubbers in that part of the world. This utterly magnificent and really quite brown tuned Mk2 Scirocco is owned by Steve Garofalo of Plaza Performance, and the build was masterminded by the creative genius that is Rémi Laflamme at Unix Performance.
It’s been a bit of a slow burn, this modified VW Scirocco Mk2 build. Decades, in fact – although much of that yawning chasm of time has been characterised by inaction, Steve playing the waiting game with the car until the time was right to make it awesome. He bought this Scirocco nearly twenty years ago, in totally factory-standard condition; it was rust-free and a good runner – a little rough-and-ready, but not without potential. The passage of time can play tricks with fate, however, and as the years whispered by, the Scirocco was increasingly finding itself in need of a refresh. And the more Steve thought about this idea, the more he liked it.
Restoration, of course, is a tightrope. If you find yourself with a tired and ageing shell, gazing thoughtfully at it as you try to map out its future, the blank canvas can be a little daunting – do you, for example, plough headlong into a full-blown concours resto, obsessing over what type of screws to use and whether they’re period-correct, while ensuring that the underside is so clean you could cheerfully lick it with no ill effects, or do you throw caution (and history) to the wind, modify it to your own tastes and thumb your nose at the aghast purists below that wobbly rope? Well, if you’re anything like Steve, you’ll do both. Yes, OK, that’s not physically possible, you’re right – but wait… look at the pictures here and you’ll see that, somehow, he’s managed it. A period-perfect concours restoration that’s also a custom-modified modern backstreet cruiser. How’s he done that, then?
With skill, that’s how. And with Rémi.
“Way back when I bought the Scirocco, I only paid a few hundred dollars for it,” Steve recalls. “I got it from York, Pennsylvania and brought it back to Canada; it was a little rough but rust-free, and I drove it that way for a few years. I eventually decided to swap a 1.8T into it and give it a little refresh – some wheels, some bags, a wrap – and then I took it to the H2O show… and when I saw the quality of the cars there, I decided that I had to step my game up a little!”
Fair enough, really. The standard of cars at H2O is enough to give even the most seasoned modder cause to pause, and Steve had a little bit of thinking to do. Slowly but surely the ideas started to coalesce in his mind, until – after much though and much parts-sourcing – he was ready to rope in Rémi and the Unix crew to get the party started.
“Steve delivered us a whole trailer full of boxes,” Rémi laughs. “He then dropped off the Scirocco shell and told me to have fun!”
This is a pretty baller move that we’re very much here for. After all, Unix is renowned as being a name you can trust when it comes to creating mould-breaking and eye-catching VW builds of the utmost quality (and regular Performance VW readers will no doubt be familiar with the name) – so the notion of delivering them a whole bunch of tuning parts as a sort of demented Lego set and essentially saying ‘here, make something out of this’ is frankly inspired. Steve knew what the basic ingredients of his Scirocco should be, and he was keen for Unix to craft it with their own unique flair and panache.
“I opened up all the boxes to see what we had, and immediately I had a vision in my head of how the car should turn out,” says Rémi, very much the guru of the Canadian water-cooled scene. “When I told Steve about the plan he was very enthusiastic and approved it right away, so we got started – first on the body, then the engine, followed by the interior and all the other stuff.”
The bodywork on this modified VW Scirocco Mk2 really is a triumph, as it follows a keen less-is-more strategy while also overtly creating something standout and unique. That mile-deep shade of brown was actually borrowed from the Toyota palette (and we really are fans of a brown car, people should be building more brown cars), and was painstakingly laid down by the artisans at Exclusive Automotive; the look has been neatly transatlanticised with the addition of Euro bumpers, Euro lights, and a super-cool (and rare-as-hens’-teeth) Kamei eyebrow. The killer stance you see comes courtesy of a full-fat V2 setup from Air Lift Performance – and just check out that boot build – while those newly tarmac-adjacent arches are filled with something properly special: zero-lip BBS E50s on skinny 185s, tucking perfectly into the arches for that all-important road-racer vibe.
…and being a road-racer is really what this little ’Rocco is all about. See, the gameplan from day one may have been to craft something inspired by the supremely high levels of quality found on show at H2O, but that’s not to say that this car was ever intended to simply be a show pony. Not by a long shot. No, look in that engine bay, artfully shaved and wire tucked as it is, and you’ll find yourself staring down the barrel of 500bhp. That R32-spec VR6 motor has had a Vortech V1 race-spec supercharger strapped to it, the binary bits knocked into shape by a United Motorsport ECU, and just look at the quality of the presentation in there. Drink it in. Did you ever realise you wanted copper pipes in your car? Possibly not, but we’ll bet this becomes all you can think about when you close this page down and go off to get a sandwich. Copper? It’s so steampunk it’s gone full circle and become the future.
With great power, of course, comes great responsibility. And if you’ve gone to the effort of shoving such a gargantuan quantity of horses into something that looks this good on the outside, then you’d better be damn sure to create a cabin that does the overall concept justice. Peer through the windows and you find yourself greeted by hitherto unprecedented levels of swank: buttery-soft leather throughout, slathered over Corrado Recaros, and behold what’s ahead of the driver: there can’t be many Mk2 Sciroccos packing a full Mk1 Audi TT dash. The mish-mash of aesthetic touchpoints across the decades has smooshed together into a magnificent fusion that’s bordering on genius. Truly, the combination of Steve’s ideas and Rémi’s vision and execution has created something the like of which the world has never seen before. The world’s best modified VW Scirocco Mk2? Well, let’s not open that whole can of worms, but goddammit it’s up there.
“With the help of Unix Performance and Exclusive Automotive, we got the result we were looking for,” says Steve. “Let’s just say we are far from the few hundred dollars I originally bought it for…” Well yeah, but that’s all part of the game isn’t it? Slow down physics, bend the universe to your will, make some magic happen. A world-class build with a global style; it was twenty years in the making, but this vision in purest brown was absolutely worth the wait.
Tech Spec: Modified VW Scirocco Mk2
Engine:
R32 3.2-litre VR6, United Motorsport ECU, Vortech V1 race-spec supercharger, custom copper-plated piping throughout, custom intercooler, wire tucked and shaved bay, custom stainless steel exhaust system, VR6 manual transmission, Péloquin LSD
Chassis:
17” BBS E50 zero-lip split-rims, 185/35 Nankang tyres, Air Lift Performance suspension with V2 management, Mk4 Golf brake booster
Exterior:
Toyota brown paint, Euro bumpers, Euro lights, Kamei eyebrow
Interior:
Full leather with Corrado Recaro seats, Audi TT dash, CAE shifter, Mk4 Golf steering column, Mk4 Golf pedals, custom boot build
