Matter Golf cages are a known feature of German/European Golfs, dating back to the Mk1 / A1 chassis. Takeovers ruin the line of knowledge though, Safety Devices having gone bust once in the last 5 years also in the UK, and former MD Tony Fall passed away some time ago I think. Matter Germany, Matter France - ever so complicated. Believe Germany has gone and it is now in Japan!
Strange on my VIN then John as mine was registered nov '84 but my vin is 19ZFW036483, possibly built a month earlier then registered? You'd of thought if that was the case it would be a lower letter like C or D Scrap that, just taxed my car online, it was registered on 18/10/1984, a month older that I thought! Explains why the letters are different
yours was made in august 84 edit: doh! just realised I typoed the date above, the car was made in nov 83
Edited my post Jonny, it says on the info online that it was registered on the 18/10/1984 but my log book says Nov.
i think that must mean it was made 18/10/84, and registered in november, the timescales sound right to me anyway
Found some more info from a local. "It's probably one of the ones that used to be at Ponder Racing Services.. they were brought in originally by VWMSUSA. " "I believe that the other cars were actual VW pre-production cars that never got crushed (0's,Z's, and X's in the majority of the VIN) and were brought in for motorsports usage by an VWoA/AoA executive that later opened a VW/Audi Tuning firm. Hoppen Motorsport. The two other Golfs were used for road-racing and rally.. so they had safety equipment (4 pt roll bar and full cage)and along with various period correct VWMS performance equipment in them. I believe that the ABT Golf was built entirely by ABT to be a demo car. I know that when I saw it about 10-12 years ago.. it was sitting on 14" gold BBS wheels. The ABT racing seats were missing.. but the rest of the car was intact." It sounds like this our car except we were told the cage was pulled out a long time ago. I guess our car is not preproduction like the other two but it still has a little history. I pulled the tires off to get the wheels powder coated. I would give my left nut to know/have the VWMS performance equipment the other two cars had on them.
You're the devils advocate, It was not pre-production for a Euro models and its an Euro model. This car could have gone to the general public. It was pre-production for a US model but this is not a US model. Am, I misundersanding this concept?
Not all cars sold as an 84 MK2 were made in 84. You have to start producing before the year starts in order to have cars in stock. If the first Euro 84 MK2 came off the line in Aug 83 and our car which was built in Nov 83 it’s not preproduction for an 84 MK2. Example: My 2009 MKV was made in mid 2008. Despite its build date the model date is 2009 (TSI). My MKV is not a pre production 2009 MKV.
Early mk1 Golfs did not have the WVWZZZ on the chassis number. On those cars there was just a chassis number stamped onto the engine side strut top.
