S EXPRESS

I magine, if you will, a garage from Lock, Stock and Two Barrels. A dark, dank, bleak looking railway arch that nobody would ever find, unless they knew it was there. Smoke billows out of the doorway, sirens wail not far from the Elephant and Castle roundabout and the general Friday night vibe is one of a slightly oppressive, gritty, urban underworld setting – one where unless you’re a local ‘face’ you could feel quite intimidated. This is the yard of Darren Francis, a VAG engine swap purveyor, head honcho at VW Enterprises and general three plus decade legend amongst London’s VW scene.

Why is he so well known? Let’s put it this way. The Mk1 Golf that’s he’s owned for the best part of 25 years is so well known amongst the London VAG fraternity that it’s nigh on mythical. One year, on the way to the Worthersee Treffen at the southern tip of Austria, he managed to detonate the bottom end of his big