In 1993 there was a strike at VW's Mexican assembly plant in Puebla that plagued the introduction of the then new generation Golf. It hurt so bad that in that year several VW dealers went out of business. In 1994 things got a little better, but there was wide spread talk of VW leaving the US market. Other things contributed to this besides the strike. Flight 803, if I remember right, was shot down over Lockerbie, Scotland and on board were several key members of VW of North America executive board. This sent VW of NA reeling and it took Ferdinand Piech a few years to right the ship. But I digress, in 94 and 95 VW built the Golf Sport, a 2.0, two door Golf in sporty trim, ie: alloys, different seats, etc. , kind of a pre-GTI without the ABS. In 96 the 2.0 GTI was introduced with ABS and 99.95% came with a sunroof. Part way through the year the sunroof was a standard feature on the GTI. I do like these cars, and I do think that there is good potential for them, but the question remains where? In ITA, outclassed by the 16v, in ITB looks like it would be a very strong car.... the crossflow 2.0 has better low end torque than the 1.8 and more at the top end. Not to mention a stiffer chassis. I'm going to stop now before this becomes another hijacked thread. I'm still unclear though... where's this car going to race in '03...'04? JOE
