When I tell you I was excited, I mean I was like a high schooler asking their crush out and them saying yes, excited when I got to drive my new to me VW rabbit.
I threw out a trade offer that I had probably offered to 10-15 other sellers at that point. My 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe for a 1981 Volkswagen rabbit. I was expecting a no, as I had just a day prior made the offer to a very similar car, just a bit newer it I remember. Much to my surprise he was actually extremely interested as he was excited a kid in a few months. So we meet up that afternoon and check everything over on each other’s cars and decide to do the deal.
I did nothing but smile the whole way home. Well smile and plan my build. By the time I got home I had it all planned out on what I wanted to do with the car and the time line. While I have never been a big fan of the mk1, the mk2 and mk3 have my heart, I have always admired them, and have imagined what one would look like if I were to own one. So clearly I was excited to dive in, but first was going to Helen, GA for AVF.
So I got in my newly acquired Mk1, and proceeded to drive it 250 miles the day after I got it. To no surprise it made it without issue! I then spent the next 3 days looking at beautiful Mk1’s and getting more and more ideas brewing in my head about where I wanted to go with mine. At the end during the big show I had my mind completely set on how that car was going to look one day. The drive back was bittersweet, as I was so excited to drive around the car more but was sad to see my friends go. The car made it back without issue, and I was driving it around all the time.
Fast forward a month and I’m driving it from my mom’s place in Alabama, all the way back to Minnesota. Yeah I did that, 2 days, 1000 miles, and the car did it once again, without issue, so long as you don’t count portawalls exploding 5 minutes in. I then continued to drive the car some more as somehow that long drive didn't make me sick of the car. But quickly as time went on I drove the car less and less. Having 3 cars and living at an apartment don’t really go together. I was having to store a car at a friend of mine, and the rabbit was the most inconvenient to drive, leaving it to be the one to sit there most of the time.
I had grown tired of it being loud, riding rough, and being extremely hard to drive anywhere other than in town. The tight steering made it a work out to drive as well. The car was an absolute blast in Alabama, with small roads and tons of turns, but here in Minnesota, it’s all highway to work for me, and the closest fun roads like AL has is not close enough for it to be worth it. So the car sat, and it very quickly became 2 months since the last time I had driven it. Yes, it was all solvable problems, but it wasn’t in the plans till next winter as the legacy is my main focus this winter.
If you have known me for some time you will know that I have a history of car sitting in storage and very quickly becoming forgotten. The Mk6 Golf R and 1960 covair both were cars that I did not drive and ended up sitting for 2 years. Granted both of them needed work more than the Mk1, they both could have been easily fixed enough to drive like the Mk1. I was not going to let myself do that, but I also wasn’t ready to sell the car. Then a manual, rwd, Mercedes c300 showed up at work, and something inside me flipped. I wanted a rwd manual car and I wanted it to be that car. So I decided to toss the rabbit up to my friends and just see. Sadly nothing, and the car sold, but my heart was now set, I wanted a manual rwd car so I can build a drift car.
So I listed it for real. After countless trade offers, numerous plans to meet, followed by ghosting me, and messages just looking to start something, I found a trade I was happy with.
I said a sad, but completely welcomed goodbye to the right car, just at the wrong time. Learning from my past mistakes, ungodly expensive ones at that. No, it is not what i want to do, it is something I needed to do in order to save myself, from myself.
Surprisingly, one week in and I’m not upset, I honestly don’t even regret it. Now you might be asking yourself “but Gabriel, your new car isn’t manual, so how are you going to drift it?” And to that I say
I’m not. I am actually making it the permanent daily driver, retiring the legacy. I am now going to manual swap the legacy and most likely rwd convert it, and turbo it. Then that will become the drift car, so long as I can overcome the overwhelming love for that car and my fear of crashing it trying to learn… so I am both closer to my goal but also in the same boat. 
On the brighter side, the legacy is a manual swap and turbo from being my dream for it so that will happen either way I go with it. Who know maybe in 6 months I’ll be in the position to take on a 3rd car again and do a drift car then, or maybe I’ll just say *%¥+ it and drift the legacy.
On the brighter side, the Legacy is a manual swap and turbo from being my dream, so that will happen either way I go with it. Who knows, maybe in 6 months I’ll be in the position to take on a 3rd car again and do a drift car then, or maybe I’ll just say *%¥+ it and drift the Legacy.
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