GENERATION NEXT
It perhaps depends on the depth of your pockets, but the era of ‘affordable’ early water-cooled Volkswagens appears to be behind us. The 2010s brought us tribal politics, social media intrusion and game-changing emissions scandals for the auto industry, but it also fuelled nostalgia for a simpler age and made once-common machinery collectable. Putting your own spin on a still-standard product of the pre-digital age is an admirable sign of big cojones these days, so it’s never been more important to show what’s possible with the newcomers.
After all, this scene owes everything to its pioneers; the curious builders who operate fearless of cost, complexity or unfamiliarity – those who break things first so the rest of us don’t have to learn the hard (read ‘expensive’) way. It’s a brave mind that values individuality over warranty cover or breaks out the spanners before the new car smell fades, but some are cutting edges most of us haven’t even encountered yet. Case in point? Frankfurt-based Streetec not only turned out an impeccable Mk8 within four weeks, but they’re appearing in these pages before most of Europe’s motoring press – let alone its motorists – have got behind the wheel of the standard car.
“We like
