Welcome to this week’s FC Throwback, where we take a look back at some of our favourite previous feature cars. This week it’s Will Smith, and his modified VW 6N2 Polo from 2014…

Feature taken from Fast Car magazine. Words Robert Godwin Photos Si Gray

Highs and lows, pros and cons, big fat kisses and jabs to the ribs… whichever way you look it, I’m sure we are all aware how much of a bitch life can be. 21-year-old Will Smith knows this better than most, having spent a large portion of his short automotive career being dropped into cavernous troughs and dragging himself up the steep peaks which proceed them. Many people would have given up a long time ago, thrown in the towel and conceded that the crazy world of modified cars was not for them. A lifetime of bird watching and watercolours would result, and probably a much healthier bank account… but let’s not dwell on that!

Will, however, is a stubborn fellow, the type that never gives up without a fight, no matter how big and scary his opponent may appear.“I started tinkering before I was even old enough to drive” Will tells me, “the first thing I remember doing was smoothing the boot on a mate’s Cinquecento. He couldn’t drive either!” Will ended up buying that very car as he prepared to take his test, but unfortunately a dodgy immobiliser scuppered its chances of ever getting on the road. This seemed to set a trend, as Will points out, “I haven’t got a great record with cars…”

The little Fiat was followed by a Citroen Saxo, which just had time for a few body modifications prior to the discovery of a serious case of rust. This was promptly sold on for a mere £120 and replaced by Will’s first VW Polo. This one lasted a bit longer, at least enough time for him to smooth the body and drop it on a set of airbags. The scrapyard in the sky beckoned shortly after it came out the paintshop though, thanks to a terminally corroded front chassis leg.

Disheartened, Will decided to approach things from a different angle, buying himself another Polo, but one that had been the victim of a rear end shunt. I guess he figured if it was broken from the start, surely the only way was up? Well, with the best intentions of fixing up the accident damage he quickly became side-tracked in the fabrication of some crazy arches after spontaneously purchasing a set of rather aggressive HTN splits. Many long nights of fibre-glassing and sanding followed, only to conclude that the original damage was far worse than anticipated, and really not worth repairing. Arse.

I may have mentioned that our Will is a pretty tough cookie to crack, and with sheer dogged determination, yet another Polo arrived on his drive. His heart was set on building a drop-dead gorgeous, show-winning example of Wolfsburg’s pocket sized hatchback, and nothing was going to stand in his way. He had a vision, which simply had to become a reality.

Will was deep into the Dub scene by this point, owning the two Polos beforehand, (short-lived though they may have been), had introduced him to a lot of new friends, which in turn had re-shaped his views on modification. “I’ve met some of my closest friends through Volkswagens,” He tells me, “and a couple of them in particular have had a big influence on this build. I never used to be, but now I’d definitely say I’m a proper VW enthusiast.”

Will’s previous forays into huge arches and in-your-face modifications would be confined to the history books. What interested him now were smooth, simple lines, silky paintwork and, above all else, an effortless air of quality.

Back to that vision I mentioned a moment ago, Will tells me that it has barely changed at all as the build has evolved, he has strived to stay true to his initial goals the whole way through. One thing that did change though was the colour.

“I had wanted to paint it purple like my last one, but decided that it wasn’t right to do it twice.” I fully support Will’s decision on this, as I’m a great believer in pushing yourself to do something different. “I racked my brains for another colour and it was only the night before the paint was ordered that I decided on the blue!”

And a stunning shade it is too, a factory Nissan colour with a custom undercoat giving a slight pearlescent quality, it really suits the car perfectly. Underneath the awesome paintwork are a whole host of mods, so subtle and unassuming they’re almost invisible to the untrained eye. Like its owner, this is a car that doesn’t shout about its accomplishments, preferring to draw people in for a closer look before revealing its secrets.

From the shaved door handle recesses, through the reshaped bumpers perfectly matching up with the expertly flared wheel arches, to the completely smoothed dashboard (entirely free of dials and gauges) this little Polo is a master class in OEM+ styling.

It couldn’t have been a Will Smith build if it had been plain sailing throughout though! First off, at nob-o-clock in the morning on the day of its show debut at Ultimate Dubs, and just a day after bolting the spangly new Rotiform TMBs on each corner, he had a tyre blowout in quite spectacular fashion. With zero sleep and the efforts of a friendly tyre shop in the arse-end of nowhere he did eventually manage to make it to the show, where the car was a massive hit.

Then, just six weeks after completion, disaster struck again. I won’t spend too long on this part as I don’t want to waste my word count on such humongous wastes of oxygen, but Will’s car got suddenly and irrationally vandalised one night in Slough. A couple of days later, to add salt into an already savage wound, the air-ride failed, leaving the car stranded.

“I lost the love after that if I’m honest,” Will shrugs, “I bodged it back together but it started annoying me to even drive the car.” This prompted him into abandoning the project and buying a Mk4 Golf instead, which was dropped over a set of 3SDM’s within days of ownership. This is still bouncing off the road now as Will’s daily driver, and is slowly working its way through VW’s back-stock of 1.8T sumps!

The desire to restore the Polo to its former glory was unshakeable though, and six weeks after it left the road it was back in the bodyshop, where it spent a further four weeks under the knife. “I’m really glad I got it sorted, it is now the best it has ever been!” Will says, a massive grin spreading across his face.

This was the beginning of June, and in the few short weeks following it, he hit every show humanly possible, and plans to continue this trend as long as he can. “I’m just enjoying it now, without having to worry about it going wrong!” For God’s sake don’t tempt
fate Will!

In the mother of all contradictions, just moments later, Will lets on that it is going back into the bodyshop for a few ‘small’ changes very soon, with some other ‘slightly less small’ changes to follow over the winter. This includes a 1.6 16v GTi engine swap to replace the little 1-litre lump which Will fondly describes as “being as fast as two midgets pushing it.”

For me, this car is an almost perfect example of how to modify a 6N2 Polo. In the metal, the sleek lines of the subtly tweaked bodywork are nothing short of stunning, it has an interior trim to put Alan Sugar’s private jet to shame, and an audio build that, thanks to the footwell-mounted sub will, quite literally, knock your socks off. But sometimes almost perfect just isn’t perfect enough, and although there is bound to be some further heartache and heartbreak involved, Will is not going to stop until he is 110 percent happy. I honestly cannot wait to see what he achieves next.

Life is full of highs and lows, but when some of those lows are adjustable via four little buttons on an Alcantara-trimmed dashboard, all the others kind of pale into insignificance to be fair. Will Smith wouldn’t have it any other way, he’s busy loving his life of highs and Polos.

TECH SPEC MODIFIED VW 6N2 POLO

styling
Smooth front rubstrip, stubby mirrors, smooth door handles, door handle recess deleted, side mouldings removed and holes deleted, petrol cap tab deleted and smoothed off, completely smoothed boot, genuine JDM-spec rear lights and bumper, roof smoothed, aerial deleted, rear light water drainage smoothed, re-spray in Nissan Intense blue with custom base coat

tuning
EMP performance exhaust system including downpipe, Pipercross panel filter

chassis
8.25x15in front and 9.25x15in rear fully polished Rotiform TMBs, Airlift custom front struts and custom top mounts, Bagyard supreme rear struts, 1.5in and 10mm airlines, Airlift V2 Autopilot management, Twin Viair 444C compressors, Viair 5-gallon air tank, polybushed rear beam and rear strut bushes

interior
2013 Jaguar XKR8 Recaro CS seats, genuine Audi R8 steering wheel, custom dash with clock delete and iPad Mini built in, custom A-pillar tweeter mounts, custom mid-vocal pods in original tweeter locations, custom sub enclosure in passenger footwell, custom mid-bass mounts on 46mm baffles behind doorcards, full custom install in the rear, fully trimmed in BMW black Nappa leather and charcoal Alcantara

audio
iPad Mini linked into Audison Bit One processor, Audison Bit One DRC, Audison SR1, SR2 and SR4 amps for full 7.1 active surround sound, Audison Voce 12in subwoofer, Audison Voce tweeters, Audison Voce 70mm mid vocals, Audison Voce 165mm mid-bass speakers

thanks
Shakey, Steve and Paul at Studio Incar for doing a fantastic job on the interior and air, Reece for always coming to the rescue when stuff goes wrong, Jamie at Bodyart for painting it, my Mum and Stepdad, Chris, Jamie and everyone on Cleaned-UK

From rotting in central Europe to grabbing stares in Edinburgh, this crisp, retro-look modified VW Mk1 Scirocco has come a long way. Literally…

Feature taken from Fast Car magazine. Words Emma Woodcock Photos Original Persona

Sharp lines and simple shapes. Giorgetto Giugiaro had thrown out the automotive design rulebook. Just years earlier, back in the 1960s, the Italian stylist had traced the suave Maserati Ghibli, voluptuous De Tomaso Mangusta and pretty much every Alfa Romeo you might see at the Goodwood Revival but the new decade brought a dramatic change. Complex curves were out and hard, angular minimalism was in.

Giugiaro was nothing if not committed. Shape after shape shot from his Italdesign studio, the new direction transforming superminis, supercars and everything in between. Manufacturers clamoured to join the revolution, collaborating with the designer to create models which still wow enthusiasts today. Whether it’s the wedge-styling machismo of the DeLorean and Lotus Esprit or the sparse simplicity of the original Fiat Panda, the look is an iconic reminder of an optimistic decade.
Keen to leave behind its dowdy, aircooled image, Volkswagen embraced the revolution even more enthusiastically than its competitors. A new family car arrived first – the 1973 Passat – and used its full width grille, trapezoidal glasshouse and thick, 45 degree rear pillars to shake the saloon car establishment. Back at Wolfsburg headquarters, work was already underway on the upcoming Mk1 Golf – the great-granddaddy of a hatchback legacy which continues to this day – but VW had another ace to play first.

Designed around the Golf but launched a full six months earlier, the Scirocco applies the same Giugiaro virtues to a small coupé package. It’s ten centimetres longer, eight centimetres lower and a touch wider, sharing barely a blink of its metalwork with the hatchback, plus it benefits from four headlights and a stubby, upturned Kamm tail. Forget the Capri: this is the machine a forward-thinking seventies car fan really promised themselves.

Rafal Bakowski has cultivated the Scirocco dream for years. A committed fan of the Volkswagen-Audi group, he’s owned a bundle of Mk1 Golfs – a widebodied Audi A8 with custom wheels and a 1988 Caddy with a wood-stacked interior and the front clip from a US-market VW Jetta. Right now, the Bakowski household also boasts a purple Mk5 Golf GTI on Bentley rims and a clean, mildly modded example of the supercharged Corrado G60 coupé. Cool cars, all of them, but not one of these machines is a Scirocco. That had to change.

“When I was younger, I always wanted to have an early Scirocco,” he remembers, “but they’re super rare in the UK and there are just 15 currently on the road. That’s part of why I chose it. I’ve been a modifier for around 20 years now and I always have something different.” In 2015, the hunt began and – well aware of the model’s rarity on this sceptr’d isle – Rafal scoured his native Poland for the right car.

The search soon paid off with a running, driving 1976 machine. But don’t go thinking that this was a well-maintained classic car. Close inspection revealed that the yellow paint was worn and roughly applied, while rust had eaten away sections of the floorpan. An even bigger transgression sat under the bonnet: the original 1.6 litre inline-four was long gone, replaced by 1781cc EA827 from a Mk2 Golf GTI.

None of this concerned Rafal. “I just ripped everything out,” he shrugs, “and the floor only needed a little welding.” With the metalwork complete, the focus switched to priming and painting the body. The citric shade was banished and Storm Grey applied in its place. A warm, strong middle grey that first appeared on the Mk3 Golf GTI and can still be specified on modern Volkswagens. It gives the Scirocco a mature swagger that brings its style into the 21st century. “It’s the exact colour I wanted,” says Rafal, “so it was a really quick decision!”

Exterior alterations don’t stop there. Eager to add some extra continental cred, Rafal also sourced a set of yellow Scirocco headlights from the French eBay. It took years to track them down. The citrine shade was standard in the French market between the mid-1930s and early 1990s, plus it helps the Volkswagen’s stubby indicators really pop. A front indicator delete ensures that showgoers aren’t looking anywhere else.

And then you spot the wheels. A riot of golf latticework with curling, double cloverleaf central cutouts and a wide polished rim, they’re like nothing you ever see on a road car. There’s a good reason for that: these fourteen-inchers started life on the track. “These are BBS Rennsport racing wheels,” Rafal explains, “and they’re magnesium, not aluminium alloy, so they’re super light. They’re also super rare – they’re often thrown away has-beens after they’ve been used on racing cars – and that’s why I bought them.” Restored by Scottish wheel sensation Mike ‘The Polisher’ Robertson and mounted on a stretched set of 165/55 Nankangs, the eight-inch wide wheels evoke images of fire-spitting DTM racers and gravel-spewing rally stars.

The wheels are framed by shallow arches that drop over the sidewall, thanks to a full air ride conversion by airRIDE-system.pl, who combined Reubens airbags with adjustable MTS Technik hardware. Control comes from boot-mounted canisters, a pair of VIAIR compressors and a remote control. A recent replacement for a set of static coilovers, Rafal couldn’t be much happier with the new air system. “It goes super low,” he grins, “it’ll sit on the wheels and, ultimately, the Scirocco is only stopped when the engine catches on the ground.”

Other mechanical changes are a little harder to spot. An exacting eye might catch the up-and-out sweep of the exhaust pipe from Supersport: a two-inch, straight through system which Rafal bought from Germany, but there’s nothing else to see outside. Pop the bonnet and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the driveline has been left alone – but you’d also be wrong. Rafal has removed the 1.8 litre Mk2 Golf engine and fitted the 1588cc, 109bhp inline-four from a Mk1 Golf GTI. Though it wasn’t fitted to this example from the new, the engine was made available in the Scirocco GLi from 1977 onwards.

Nobody is missing the upgraded interior. Where once stood sober cloth, now the dashboard, seats, centre console and door cards all sear with bright red Italian leather. “It’s all super smooth and you get that new leather, new car smell every time you get inside,” says Rafal, “I chose the colour because it’s a shade you just don’t see in other cars.” The seats have also been swapped for newer items but the Scirocco keeps it in the Volkswagen family – they’re retrimmed Recaros from a Mk3 Golf GTI. A three-spoke MOMO steering wheel with a Porsche centre cap finishes the transformation.

“The Scirocco will likely stay with me forever,” Rafal continues, “a lot of people like it, a lot of people ask about it and it really wasn’t easy to find!” That doesn’t mean the story has to go stagnant, mind. Having strutted its stuff at 2019 CleanFest in Edinburgh, the Scirocco is sliding into 2020 with the promise of even more alterations. The BBS wheels will be swapped for similar but one inch larger E50 magnesium rims, a fresh respray – still in Storm Grey – will keep the body gleaming and the engine may be replaced with a 1.8 litre unit. One thing that won’t change is how the Scirocco style makes Rafal feel. “It makes me smile every time. When I see it, I always have a good day!”

TECH SPEC: 1976 VW SCIROCCO

STYLING
1976 VW Scirocco painted in Volkswagen Storm Grey, Volkswagen Scirocco ‘Selective Yellow’ French-market headlights, front number plate delete.

TUNING
Volkswagen Golf GTI 1.6-litre inline four with a 2-inch straight-through exhaust from Supersport Exhausts.

CHASSIS
BBS Rennsport E30 split rim cast alloys, 14×8 inch front and rear, restored by Mike ‘The Polisher’ Robertson with polished outer rim, Mapet-Tuning Group air suspension (airRIDE-system.pl) conversion with Reubens airbags and MTS Technik adjustable hardware front and rear, boot-mounted air canisters, twin VIAIR compressors, remote control.

INTERIOR
Full retrim in Italian red leather, Volkswagen Mk3 Golf GTI front Recaro bucket seats, MOMO three-spoke steering wheel, wheel centre with Porsche crest.

A big diesel saloon makes for a sensible family car, there’s no question of that. But Cirk Robinson doesn’t really do sensible. Which is why this former BMW E60 520d is now a V10-powered dystopian terror…

Feature taken from Fast Car magazine. Words Joe Partridge Photos Ade Brannan

Bravery is an intrinsic part of innovation. It’s often said that a short-cut is a short-cut because otherwise it’d just be the way. But it’s when we go in the other direction, deliberately taking the long way round in order to determine whether we can find or create something better, or more unusual, or more interesting, that the real magic happens. Naturally you have to be brave to step off the beaten track, as you don’t know what sort of thorns or poison ivy or angry bears will confront you – but life’s too short not to try it, right?

Now, regular readers will probably already know that Cirk Robinson is a man who enjoys guzzling brave pills and stepping into the unknown. We featured his Corsa a couple of years ago and it’s just about the most mental Corsa you’ve ever seen: custom pickup conversion, heavily modded Nova wide-arch kit, sodding great turbo, the works. This fella is no shrinking violet. So perhaps it shouldn’t raise your eyebrow too high to learn that the bruising wide-arch M5 you see here isn’t actually an M5 at all… he’s just turned it into one through sheer brute force, 500bhp V10 motor and all.“The build on this car started with no intentions of touching it at all,” he assures us. Yeah yeah, heard that one before. “I’d worked my arse off at a little bodyshop, and I’d seen the BMW and instantly wanted it. I thought it’d be a lovely family car, and I wouldn’t touch it as I had the rear-engined Corsa I built to mess about with. So I enjoyed the standard silver M-Sport 520d for all of four weeks… before I bought coilovers.”

Things certainly took a significant turn at this point, as Cirk hadn’t realised just how beautifully comfy the 520d had been before he’d bought the coilovers – nevertheless, he’s not the type to take a backward step, so he forged ahead. Snapping up a set of 20-inch Y-spoke X6 wheels, he was soon happy again, and the car continued to evolve over a variety of different looks and setups; wheels, spoilers, the usual minor mods.

“Then came the stupid decision to make a custom Rocket Bunny-style kit for it, and a full colour change to Mazda Candy Red, with a great big spoiler, wide wheels and dragging on the ground,” he laughs. “Oh, how I thought this was cool is beyond me.

“I enjoyed the car like that for about two years, until a speedy drive one night rushing to pick my kids up on time led to the build you see here… I was driving to get to collect my kids; I went round a roundabout, exactly as I did every other night, the car went into a drift, did a 180 onto the verge, and I was going backwards looking through my rear window shouting ‘Nooooooooo, Monicaaaa!’ I went backwards into a lamppost. The car cut out and I thought ‘Oh shit, please drive…’”

Impressively, the car was not only driveable, but had in fact sustained only minor damage to the corner of the bumper, the spoiler, one taillight, plus a tyre had popped off the rim. An easy fix, and Cirk started collecting together the necessary parts… when what should he find for sale, but a written-off M5. Interesting. The floor was creased from a side impact and the shell was junk. But immediately the cogs in his head started to spin. Wouldn’t it be fun to transplant the M5 running gear into his 520d?

Since we’re on the subject of bravery, it’s worth pointing out that the act of fitting modified BMW’s iconic and famously troublesome 5.0-litre V10 to a project takes a pretty sizeable pair of trouser potatoes. This is an engine utterly fabulous if it’s a good one, and a one-way ticket to the poorhouse if it isn’t – and the fun part is that there’s no way of knowing which way yours is going to go. It’s all pot luck.

BMW’s first production V10 engine, it’s a formidable power unit by any standards – a naturally-aspirated 5.0-litre with DOHC, 4-valves per cylinder and double-VANOS; the block and heads are aluminium, it has individual electronically-actuated throttle bodies, aluminium oil-cooled pistons and a forged crank along with a quasi-dry-sump setup. All of this technical wizardry delivers a nice round 500bhp and 384lb/ft – and, crucially, it revs to 8,250rpm. This engine is, in short, an absolute animal. A masterpiece, if a reputationally flawed one.

We recently quizzed marque experts Munich Legends about whether or not these engines are as scary as reputation suggests and they very honestly replied that it’s 50-50. Half of these motors will be essentially trouble-free for many, many miles, while the other half could eat themselves at any moment without warning; big end shell failure is a particular issue, and you don’t get any notice short of a brief EML flicker before you’re suddenly sat in a cloud of smoke and clutching a £10k rebuild bill. All part of the fun though, isn’t it? And Cirk’s always been one to roll the dice. The mighty potential of 500bhp and 10 high-revving cylinders is more than enough trade-off for any perceived risk. Besides, once you’ve come up with an idea like this, there’s no going back. Your entire life would otherwise become a massive what if and no-one wants to live like that.

“So I bought the smashed M5, collected it, and stripped it down with the help of two friends,” he grins. “Bagging and tagging every nut, bolt and screw so we knew what was what, we worked three weekends on it – stripping the M5 on the first weekend, and then stripping and rebuilding my E60 on the next two.

“We got it all built up with only one issue: it started, but the excitement was short-lived as the car wouldn’t rev past 1,500rpm and it wouldn’t go into gear. We plugged it in and scanned it for an hour or two and found nothing. The head-scratching started and so did the interrogation, asking and blaming one another, ‘Did you plug everything in?’ and so on. After a full weekend of searching, one of the lads said ‘Pass me the driver’s seat’. So we plugged it in, and bam – it started and revved all the way and went into gear, finally!”

So it had worked. Cirk had successfully transplanted the V10 drivetrain into his sensible family car! Not so sensible now, eh? And with that achieved, he set his mind to the bodywork. Ordering a set of one-off WORK wheels, he knew exactly what sort of girth he needed to fill his custom wide-arches, which he then made from scratch before embarking upon the involved task of grafting a 1M bumper into the E60’s nose to create a startling hybrid of aesthetic styles. A set of unique vents, inspired by the E46 GTR, were grafted into the bonnet, and the whole shell was bare-metalled and prepped for primer.

“Finally, with hundreds of hours spent on the body alone, it was ready to paint,” he recalls. “After a lot of back and forth with colours, I chose Range Rover SVR Estoril Blue, with a blacked-out roof full of metalflake. And so the one mod left to do was to make the exhaust system; I ordered what I needed and set to, making a 2-into-1 4-inch system. The car has the factory manifold cats on and one silencer at the back, and it sounds like utter hell at full throttle!”

All of this custom work and innovation has created something unique and, frankly, terrifying. Sure, there have been a few bumps in the road, but no-one said being a pioneer was easy. The SMG-III transmission has been particularly meddlesome, to the degree that Cirk’s now a world-record holder in getting the gearbox out quick-smart to swear at it and whack it with spanners. But this is all just part and parcel of being a trailblazer. The results more than make up for the pitfalls.

“The car was built with all the anger I had in me from losing my dad, so without the massive loss of my hero and best friend I may not have built the car into how you see it now,” Cirk explains. “Finally, I can simply enjoy it. Seeing people stare at it as I drive by is fantastic too, it makes the hard work worthwhile.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. And Cirk’s certainly cooked up something delicious here – a mouth-watering fusion of stylistic ingredients, garnished with plenty of tasty brave pills.

TECH SPEC: BMW E60

Styling
Hand-built and home-made wide arches; custom 1M front bumper; Range Rover SVR Estoril Blue paint; blacked-out metalflake roof,; E46 GTR-style custom bonnet vents

Tuning
S85 5.0-litre V10, custom exhaust system; 7-speed
SMG-III transmission

Chassis
11x19in ET-40 (front) and 11.5x19in ET-33 (rear)
WORK Emotion wheels; 275/30 (f) and 285/30 (r) tyres;
BC coilovers, M5 brakes

Interior
Full custom red and black interior with carbon fibre trim

Thanks
I’d like to thank my amazing Mam firstly; my hero/Dad; my two mates who helped with the M5 conversion; Davy for keeping me company on those long nights; and of course myself!