The VW meet at Worthersee in Austria, now in its 37th year, attracts some really special cars. South Africans will be happy to note that one of our local motoring legends was represented at the annual gathering of enthusiasts, the venerable VW CitiGolf.

American fan, local taste

American enthusiast, Jamie Orr, arrived in SA and did the near impossible. He bought and built a V6-powered CiTi Golf, in just six days.

Under the hood he and his team of VW-loving friends stuffed a 3,6-litre V6 petrol engine from a Passat. The powerplant is good for 225 kW. To deal with the extra power the engine is mated with a Golf 4 VR5 transmission with a limited slip differential, and lightweight billet flywheel and clutch setup.

“This combination is – probably – the only one of its kind in the entire world”, says Orr.

That power output makes the CitiGolf even more than the Golf TCR GTI launched by VW at the very same show, you can read about that car by clicking here.

Slightly tweaked appearance
The CiTi Golf maintains its signature a blue and white paint job, but sits quite low, with cross-spoke alloys, painted white to match the contrasting stripe on the lower doors, filling the arches.

“It was blue and white, and blue and white it will stay” – well, as original as possible,” says Orr.

According to Jamie the donor car was not in very good condition.

“It was simply unbelievable: Volkswagen South Africa invited me to their central parts store that normal people never get to see. I ordered the genuine parts from there – for example the rear lid and the bonnet.”

Local debut to international fame

The now famous, in VW circles, 3,6 CitiGolf was first shown a t “Vdub Camp Fest” – the largest Volkswagen tuning show in South Africa. From there, it was sent to the Volkswagen plant in Uitenhage to transport the CiTiGolf via ship to Germany and then on to Wörthersee.

A ’Ring lap to Sema

After the Worthersee show, the distinctive car was seen circulating the famous Nurburgring, no word on how quick it lapped. From Germany the car’s next stop will be the Sema Show in Las Vegas later this year.

You can learn more about Jamie’s project by watching the video below.