1980 VW Golf Cabriolet Gets Ultimately Tuned

Some Volkswagen purists might be somewhat bothered by the sight of this extensively modified 1980 Golf cabrio, but Domien Courtens from Deerlijk, Belgium, had no such intentions when deciding it was time to give the car a boost in power and styling. He took care of the car’s engine bay, while turning to JV Tuning for the exterior and Custom Creations for the interior.

With old-school Weber carbs, '80s-style Berg Cup skirt kit, hot rod billet wheels, shaved bay, retro interior, blinged-out gold-plated engine and wheel, we must agree with the guys at the Eurotuner magazine when they say this car represents the history of tuning.

Starting from an original Karmann body kit, the team at JV tuning created the deep skirts and matching side skirts, removed the the door handles, wipers, indicators, side repeaters and badges, added a new front grille and headlights and relocated the fuel filler to the rear panel. The filler cap is gold-plated, matching the wheels, steering wheel, cam cover, transmission and strut brace.

The visual appearance is rounded off by the special black topcoat treated to a candy red lacquer, while the billet-style polished gold AC1 wheels from German company HTN feature gold-plated centers.

Taking a look at the engine bay, the car is powered by a 2.0-litre 16v unit that was fitted with Weber carbs and K&N filters. The bay, painted in Beetle beige, houses gold-plated cam cover, transmission casing and strut brace.

Inside, the front seats are a rear bench, trimmed in cream leather with panel-stitched alcantara centers, as is the rear seat. The dash is wrapped in alcantara and featuring hot rod-style pinstriping, but with only has fuel and temp gauges in the console. Homemade shifter, gold-plated Billet Specialties steering wheel complete the interior look.

Moreover, there are Rockford Fosgate speakers fitted in the front footwells, which are powered by the same amplifier (hidden in the trunk) that powers the 15'' Rockford subwoofer.

Oh, and we forgot to mention that Courtens is a butcher by trade....