My pride and joy. My dad bought this car 1991. For years my younger brother and I pestered him to buy a German car. When he laid eyes on this bright red beauty he instantly fell in love. I've never seen him buy a car so quickly. Being in high school, I had dreams of driving the sports car around, but three short stick shift lessons left both dad and I completely frazzled. I didn't drive the car again until after I bought my own stick shift car in late 1998.

 

My dad drove the car for years. Around 2007/2008 the headgasket sprung a leak. Now retired and on a fixed income, he kept putting off the trip to the shop; the car sat in disrepair for a number of years. On November 25, 2011 my dad gave me my very own "Ratty Rescue" and the car took a 25 mile journey to my house.

 

Beyond an oil change or two, I had never worked on a car before, but over the next few years I brought the 'Rocco back to life. Thanks to a trusty Bentley repair manual, some friends with mechanical abilities, and the amazing people in the Scirocco forum on vwvortex.com, I got this car back on the road. I won't bore you with the details, but I will say I learned a lot about cars during this journey. I also learned a lot about myself: have patience, walk away instead of forcing (breaking) something, look at things from a different angle, don't be afraid to ask for help.

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While this little fastback is far from perfect, it's a great driver. Yes it has some rust, and sure the seats are worn, and the exhaust doesn't fit quite right, but it'll all be taken care of in time. Or it won't, and I'll just enjoy the ride.