When I was nine or ten years old, I was a great admirer of foreign cars. My friend Dan and I would be on a constant look out for the newest or coolest offerings from Mercedes, BMW, and especially VW. We had heard about the Scirocco but had never actually seen one. So when we spotted one in a parking lot one day we had to stop and gaze at it in sheer awe. I told Dan that someday when I grew up I would get one. “No way, those have got to be super expensive” he said. Did I let that deter me? Yes, yes I did.
Flash forward 15 or so odd years; reality had set in, I now knew that the Sirocco was merely a tarted up Rabbit. But I also knew it was cheap, and as you may know dear readers, I am one cheap guy. So when I saw one sitting in front of my friend’s VW junkyard for sale, I knew it would be mine.
It had been given to him as scrap, but had no major problems! And with a price tag of four hundred bucks, who could say no? Certainly not I! It was maroon-ish (actually “Brazil Brown Metallic”), had a sunroof (crotch wetter), and the typical alloy wheels, and did I mention it was $400?! After I got it, I was amazed at the power it had. It was certainly faster than my ’78 Rabbit, but to this day I can not say why, since it was basically the same (1.6 liter 4 cyl. engine, Bosch K Jetronic fuel injection,5 speed manual transmission) underneath the skin.
The only photo of my actual Scirocco
Of course, I immediately set about making modifications to the suspension and drive-train. Firstly adding a lower front strut bar, then a back strut bar to increase the torsional rigidity of the chassis. Next, I put on a bigger throttle body, lightened the fuel/air regulator plate spring, and added an engine oil cooler. After that, it was lots of little tweaks, but of course since I am so cheap I never did much that would cost much. So alas, no VR6 swap, no supercharger, or cross-flow cylinder head even. But it really did go like a winged mammal rapidly exiting Hades.
So what did I do with it? Race the fahrvergnügen out of it, what else? In fact I liked driving it so much that early one Sunday morning I just started driving South. I ended up in Sisters, OR, where I immediately turned around and drove back to Salem. I averaged over 80 mph that trip! How could I do that you ask? fahrvergnügen. Why would I do that? fahr…... Wasn’t that terribly irresponsible driving? Yes it was, and I would not repeat such a stupid thing today. But then I probably haven’t had as much fahrvergnügen since.
I had some pantsverscheissen too. Spin-outs, and three and two wheel experiments. I vividly recall one memorable incident. Rounding a 90 degree, 25mph corner at about 60mph. I was showing off as usual and came into the corner too fast. By the time I realized that fact it was far to late. As we started to plow straight toward the curb, àl a front wheel drive, I looked over and saw my friend in the passenger seat. He was holding onto the dash with white knuckles, and his face was the color of Alaska in December. I knew I was going to strike the curb but decided to try and power out anyways, what else could I do?
I pointed the front wheels the direction I wanted to go and pinned the gas pedal to the floor. To our shock we missed the curb, by maybe an inch. The tail swung around and kissed the curb and then swung back; I counter steered, pedal still floored, and we came out straght and alive. We exchanged looks of surprise and relief and my friend exclaimed to my surprise that I was the only person in the world he would trust to drive like that. So of course I let him think it was all part of the plan. He is a very trusting sort.
One problem I experienced most severely in that car was the red sports car syndrome (even though it was “Brazil Brown Metallic”). Thanks to Giorgetto Giugiaro It just looked fast, so even when driving down the street, obeying all traffic laws, and minding my own business ( it did occasionally happen!), any cop even remotely within view would immediately get behind me and start looking for a reason to pull me over. “I didn’t see you signal back there”, “your license plate light looks pretty dim”, etc. I got pretty tired of it and eventually just started parking or “low speed eluding” whenever I could. But I plead guilty when I was, such as the $300 ticket for going 80mph in a 45mph zone.
At one point I bought an 80’s BMW 318i thinking that it would be a step up from the Sirocco. It was not, in comparison it felt like a 1977 Chrysler Cordoba. The handling was much squishier, the engine had less pep, and the interior was also mush squishier. I sold it immediately to an Irish fellow who thought it would be a big upgrade for him from his Carolla.
During the time we had this car, we also had my first son. The Sirocco was my prime mover then so it was the car we buckled him into when we left the hospital. I remember thinking one thing, I have got to change my driving habits completely! And so I did, the Sirocco was the last car I got a speeding ticket in.
I drove that car until it began to smoke like a Siberian chimney and then I traded it straight across for a rusty 1968 International Scout. I still love that Scirocco, but I have no use for such a machine, nor for that matter did I then, nor does anyone really, but that was never the point of the Sirocco was it?
When these were new, someone threw me the keys to one for a quick spin ( they had it on loan while their Golf GTI was being serviced)
I thought they were good looking cars, but with a VW badge and minimalist interior I had very low expectations. I just couldn’t believe how good it was to drive – you really knew you were in a sports car. I never did get a shot at the GTI though….
My first car was a used ’79, which looked just like the ’80 in the advertisement above. It inspired in me the same kind of Cannonball Run aspirations as it did the CC author. One night I took an 85 degree turn at around 50, hopped the curb, and, possessed by some moonshiner’s ghost, somehow managed to pilot the car between two stands of trees until I could find an opening where I could hop back onto the road. My front seat passenger had to dig his fingertips out of the dashboard once we had resumed a more normal pace; my backseat passenger asked to be let out the car and swore he’d never ride with me again (he didn’t).
The car itself was a lot of fun to drive, but – hardly surprising for a VW – had electricals that would have shamed Lord Lucas. I was a college freshman and could not afford the never-ending repair bills, so traded in the car for an ’82 Scirocco … which was much worse. I have never considered purchasing a VW since.
I always liked these, but never got to drive one. If it was more fun than a contemporary Rabbit, then it must have been a blast. The single windshield wiper was fascinating to me.
All the Rabbit-Scirocco cars drove very well, in fact the only small car that can rate up with them is my 2008 Honda Fit. Up to that point I never drove a small car as good as a Gen 1 Rabbit. Problem with the Scirocco (actually there were many problems) is the car was scaled for the average dwarf. At 72 inches, I could never fit in one.
Yes, the cars were reliability nightmares but they were very easy to fix and parts were cheap. The rustbucketism consigned them to relatively early junkdom.
Sorry but my Citroen Xsara will out corner any VW made they were good but it was a long time ago and no HOnda will keep my car in sight on a twisty road
My first car was a 79 Scirocco as well, and you are so right, it was so fun. I really miss that car, someday I’d like to own another one…
My friend Jackie had a ’77 Scirocco. Same crappy brown color. That was a fun driving car but as mentioned above the electricals made it a tempramental SOB.
No worries…. as we did more damage when the car was parked. Woof!
A very good friend of mine had a Fiat X1/9 when we first met at university. He loved that car as it was a complete chick magnet, except when it would break down. Which was often.
So, in an attempt to get a more reliable ride, he bought a 1977 Scirocco, which I think was the first year for fuel injection. Remember this, it will be important later. Also, it had an aftermarket sunroof. Again, important.
He had the car in the early 80’s, about the time that gasoline went up to $1/gallon, and since it fit four, it was a great car to road trip with. Except when it would break down. Which turned out to be often. Almost as much as the Fiat. I think we pushed the Scirocco as much as the Fiat, but the Scirocco was heavier. It had lots of issues with the fuel injection and other electrical maladies that I’ve forgotten about in the last 30 years. But the most tickets he got was for malfunctioning tail lights. Repeatedly.
Fuel injection was still voodoo to most rural Ohio mechanics back in the day. So the only recourse was to take it to one of those ‘furrin’ car mechanics. The only one in town dealt mostly with British cars, and that poor b*stard had enough work for the next decade or so. The local VW dealer was just an extortionist. Every repair, no matter how inconsequential, was at least $100. $100 bought you a lot in the early 80’s, especially if you were a student…
Finally we found an import repair place in Akron that would work on the Scirocco, but it wasn’t “the” German repair place. It was a greasy little garage off Main Street that was run by an Iranian ex-pat who looked like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. He was impossible to understand when describing repairs, but at least he wasn’t charging $100 to change a frakin fuel filter, like the local VW place…
He bought the car in the Summer but as Summer turned to Fall and then Winter, we found out that the aftermarket sunroof wasn’t particularly watertight. During a particularly intense downpour in November on I-71 in Ohio, we were rolling down the road (with the tail lights shorted out again!) when a torrent of cold rain poured down on our heads. Which, also ran into the dash and shorted out the IP and the radio. Woo hoo! Nothing like a three hour ride to Columbus (OSU) in wet clothes (and wet leather seats), no tunes and no heat.
To top it all off, he was still paying a three year used car note on this thing. Back then it was something like 14% interest. Then the rust really took off the one spring and the tail lights were shorted out again and Abdul (or whatever his name was) was calling demanding payment for the last time he fixed the fuel injection…
He finally gave up on the idea of the ‘chick magnet’ Scirocco and found a nice boring Buick Regal coupe that he kept until 1990…
My daughter is in love with VW Jettas. She wonders why I’m hesitant to recommend one instead of her cockroach of the road Sunfire (which hasn’t missed a beat in two years of ownership)…
GREAT Story, brought back so many memories. I remember taking road trips in my Scirocco to go surfing on the east coast, we would fit me and my freind and 3 girls in that thing, surf boards on the roof, junk in the trunk, driving 3-4 hrs across the state. One time we got it buried on the beach (back then you could drive on Fernandina Beach), had to get yanked out by a big 4×4 truck. And my heat would go out a lot, headlights or taillights were only working occasionally, and yea, we got tickets for the taillights a lot! I remember one memorable drive back from college in Gainesville to Clearwater with a very hot blonde I wanted to impress… sure I can drive you home, no problem… and off we went. Whoever thinks it doesnt get cold in Florida is nuts, it was 40 degrees that night, and no heat in the Scirocco, from the car or the girl.
My first car was 1980 VW Scirocco, alpine white with red leatherette….31 years later for my 50th birthday I purchased a cherry, no rust 1981 Scirocco S, cosmos silver metallic…I just had it painted and it looks perfect.
It sits with my 07 BMW Z4 3.0si coupe.
Great car!! How much did you pay for it? They are so hard to find without rust/damage/rot etc… Do you post on any VW forums?
I post on vwvortex, my s/n is bufguy….The car is Dieter, purchased from a great guy in Dayton OH,
And he did a great restoration on it. Cant wait to see it!
I have an 81 in Mars Red with a 2L turbo and a 1988 in Flash Silver.
They are a blast to drive!
I had a yellow ’77 Scirocco purchased new as my third car. I still look back on it fondly,as it had an excellent power-to-weight ratio and handled really well for the era. And the styling was incredible. The ’77 looks much better than the later years with the heavy rubber bumpers. The empty weight was less than 1800 lbs. The interior was snug, but I am 6′-1″ and fit OK. Well, my hair did brush the headliner but so what. It is incredible that you could actually stuff real people in the back seat, and the trunk was fairly large and useful with the hatchback. This car was one of Car and Driver’s 10 best and the only one under $10,000 (way under).
Regarding the reliability- yes, the electrics were bad. The alternator was rubber mounted, and needed a ground strap that only lasted about a year. When your turn signals slowed down, you knew it was time to break out the piece of wire to rig a new ground. Eventually I just left the extra ground wire on all the time. The rubber mount for the alternator broke off. The battery only lasted two years because the alternator ground kept breaking and driving the voltage low. The fuse box shorted out and the car almost burned up, except I just opened the hood, disconnected the battery, and called a tow. Rust. Valve stem seals went hard and caused high oil consumption (recalled). Clutch cable broke. Traded it in for an ’83 for way more money than it was worth, but that’s another story.
I owned a 77 Rabbit for 3 years and then traded it in for an 80 Scirocco “S” which I traded for an 83 Rabbit GTI…bought them all new so and only kept them for 3 years and never had any major problems…I guess that was probably the secret with these VW’s…don’t keep them too long! Great cars to drive though and loved the looks of the Scirocco, it needed more power though thats why I got the GTI. I miss them all! I forgot…yes I had a problem with the tailight, side marker and front parking light all on the left side…every once in a while they would go out and the fuse checked OK. Don’t think I ever found out why they did that.
I’m glad I am not the only one who remembers the horrible electrics. It all looks good on paper!! I always wanted to rip out every wire and install a simple buss fuse block with toggle switches and big indicator lights. Thanks for the memories.
I had two Sciroccos in the 80s a a stock but rust 78 and a modified 81. The 78 was my first car purchase and while I checked the mechanicals I missed the fatal tin worm in the strut towers.I still got to take off the cylinder head to fix a broken exhaust manifold stud (the flanged manifold/downpipe joint was notorious for this) and try to bondo the fender. Then I junked it and bought the 81 which had a 16V engine swap and autocross suspension. This led to some occasional re-engineering where the conversion hadn’t been fully finished plus a lesson i diagnosing bad injectors. The electrics were “interesting” since the headlights were way overpowered and the switch melted once, plus my own contribution of a toggle switch to energize the radio.At the time I thought Sciroccos made a good starter car, good looks, good handling, enough power be entertaining, but not enough to get you in major trouble and mostly easy to work on. Compared to the mares nest of vacuum lines on my mom’s 84 Accord the K-Jetronic was simplicity itself.
Had the much maligned Mk II Scirocco. The 16v. No way the looker of Mk I. In fact, all the body cladding of the 16v model actually vastly improved the looks. But good God, did it move. Revved like a kitchen blender. Cornered as if on rails. But off the mark on the interstate; very twitchy. Alas, mystery overheating and battery drain problems did her in. But no better vehicle to carve up the roads that run through Bear Mountain State Park in NYS. Was acutally my second choice; I wanted a Jetta GLi 16v. Traded for an ’88 325iS: The GLi 16v all grown up.
Around 1982, I had had my drivers license for about a year. The only cars I really drive regularly were my parents’ 1975 Mustang II and their 1979 Seville. As a kid into cars, neither of these were my fantasy cars, but I was glad to have wheels available when I needed them.
My brother had a girlfriend with an early Scirocco, in good shape but with lots of dog hair (the car, not the girlfriend). I wanted to learn to drive a stick so badly, and she was cool enough to teach me. I learned quickly, and I would borrow that car whenever I could. I never forgot how great it was to drive that car. So simple and so perfect. Is there any car today that can give a similar driving experience? I don’t think so.
Did the Sciroccos really looked that exotic back in the day? Enough to get people thinking of Maseratis, Ferraris and such? Hard to believe looking at it now, with its blunt face, slab side and econo-hatchback proportion. I’m thinking that the Accord coupe or the Capri was what most people would associate it with. Damn marketing people, they love their hyperboles, don’t they?
Now the Fiero, the MR-2 and the Fiat X1/9, I can understand totally… Even today, when I caught a quick glance of a Fiero, I thought it was something exotic.
Those weren’t around yet, The only things like it were maybe the 240Z. Remember all the other stuff was K cars and Mustang IIs.
If you browse over to the 1982 Scirocco the poster has the ugliest one ever driven. It probably has a caulked over sunroof as well. No fair to compare a car without any topcoat and painted wheels.
The 1982 was the first year for a redesign, although with much left unchanged. Naturally bugs would exist. Half the fun is deciphering the 10 pages of schematics which also are different depending if the car was made in the USA or Germany.
Same basic design held up through the 1993 Cabriolet, which just has a more powerful 1.8L 8v with Digifant Fuel Injection..
No Sciroccos were built outside of Germany. Maybe you are confusing it, and it’s schematics with the Rabbit, which was built in Germany and USA. And for what it’s worth, VW never built Sciroccos either. Karmann Coachworks built every production car.
Yes I did make that mistake, likely due to using a 1980-84 Rabbit – Pickup – Scirocco Bentley manual. Loads of photos instead of drawings, with photos of the unibody changes mk1 – mk2. I especially recommend the description of the dual oil pressure senders operation – very different if USA, German or mk2 Scirocco.
My 1987 Karmann Scirocco does have a USA marked part on it: the 2nd taillight is a fog light that is uncut for the bulb, with ‘USA’ on the part to cut out.
The 1982 Scirocco post must be by a mk1 lover – see – https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/CC-72-130-800.jpg
This is my 1980, I’ve owned her for 18 years and she just completed a restoration.
Hey scott, beautiful car! I have a 1980 as well that is in the middle of a complete restoration… I am having some trouble locating an evap core…. any ideas???? please help if you have a second. thanks!
Might have a lead on one but check VWVortex first and otherwise shoot an email – scott dot turchin at Comcast dot net
🙂
Ah, Scirocco electrics. I don’t remember tail light issues (maybe I just didn’t notice them), but I do remember at least 2 occasions when the car just ‘turned itself off’. Completely and irrevocably. I seem to remember a large bill with the words ‘wiring harness’, and and at least one alternator.
And a completely new fuel system after one year (someone on the assembly line apparently forgot to connect the fuel tank pressurisation hose, conveniently located in a rear fender well, just above the spinning rear wheel). There turned out to be at least an inch of road crud at the bottom of the gas tank by the time VW figured out what was causing the engine to miss so much.
Never mind. It was stunningly beautiful to look at, made wonderful sounds, and was huge fun to drive.
My first car was a 1980 Scirocco, I have many great stories, i loved that thing but it was indeed a love/hate relationship. Fuel injectors, electrical, brake line, cracked header and many more! I was always broke when i owned this baby! At 16 years old I think we all were. I remember the brakes being out for about an entire summer, it didn’t stop me from driving though. I remember mastering the down shifting and operating the parking brake simultaneously. Then there was the starter..maybe? I couldn’t go anywhere without a buddy or I had to park on a hill so i could jump start in 2nd gear! Oh yes the cracked header, same thing to broke to fix it so I drove for quite some time you could hear me coming 3 miles away, sounded like a WWII Bi-Plane, I finally found a crafty welder that some how welded the thing back together. One really hot August Arizona afternoon I was attempting to change out a fuel filter in the parking lot of Advance Auto, Little did i know that when I removed the filter that fuel would spray in my eyes and sending me screaming and running circles in the parking lot. I had catalytic converter issues on and off the entire time I owned the rocco. One time while merging onto the freeway it had been bogged down with virtually no power some sort of blockage it suddenly let loose emitting a huge black cloud and regained all its power. I finally parted ways with her around the the summer of 89′. My dad had paid for his final repair and insisted on selling it while it was still running. I was sad that pops replaced it with a 88 Toyota Tercel, (Not too Cool) OH WHAT A FEELING! JM
I actually saw a first generation VW Scirocco driving down the highway in Washington State and was actually surprised to see one driving down a highway, the car appeared to be in good shape, always thought these cars were underrated and always liked the looks of the first generation Scirocco’s.
My first car was a 1980 VW Scirocco. I loved it, though it seemed to like winter as much as I did. I only put oil in it once during all the years I owned it, and that was because I was broke and skipped the spring tune-up (including oil change). I drove 800 km on a single 40L fuel tank. 5L/100km. Try finding mileage like that today. And it was fun to drive. There was an ‘S’ bend in a road I followed now and then at 80km/hr. I drove that bend in a Mustang at 60km/hr and felt like I was going to roll over. It was also great getting out into rush hour traffic after work at a stop sign, just leaping into traffic.
is this car for sale??was the exact car and colour i had about 40 years ago my first car i loved it . my son is 16 now and looking for same car for him
I too had a ’79 as my first car. It was turd brown with a totally trick louver on the hatchback glass. I only have very fond memories of this car. It being a sports car, I drove it like it was a race car. I drove this little car so hard that it eventually threw a rod and was unceremoniously retired to the junk-yard. Funny thing, when I blew the motor, the rod came out via the oil pan and bounced off the road into the brush, causing a fire!!!
I miss that car to this day….