Fully refinished in RAL Pink 250bhp 2006 Volkswagen Golf GTi Mk5

It’s like Barbie has spent a heavy night in Wetherspoons, necked a few Jägerbombs, snogged some strangers and then got herself an ASBO and an STD whilst fighting over a Doner Kebab, only in Polo GTi form… Words: Jimbo Wallace. Photos: Tony Matthews.

SINK THE PINK

Rebellion is a refusal for the obedience of order. Why settle for the accepted norm when you can choose something others won’t abide by? As Alex Freeland once famously penned, “We Want Your Soul.” While the war for our minds and surveillance capitalism monitors our every consumer action, there’s still space to express ourselves through automotive culture and make choices that are truly independent of ‘the system’. There’s no need to buy the latest model, the newest version or the latest release because car culture has always, and will always, revere the retro, celebrate the creative and eulogise the unconventional with a flair for spannering, welding and painting. Take Aaron Hews for example, he ain’t no sheep and he definitely hasn’t followed the flock with his 9N3 GTi.

Aside from the fact that you hardly see any of the 1.8T 20v powered Polo GTis on UK roads nowadays, his ongoing style and performance upgrades have resulted in a car that really challenges everyone’s perceptions of the norm. To be yourself in an increasingly targeted world is becoming ever more difficult, but we reckon Aaron has smashed it with this metrosexual modified machine. What’s really cool about this build is it’s almost entirely produced in the unit that he shares with his pals. “My mate Ron built the Mk1 Caddy with the VTEC engine in that you featured a few months back,” Aaron explained.

Aaron’s earliest memories of being around cars stem from his parents who ran a garage near Barnstaple when was a nipper. He’s still only a spring chicken now at 26, but he has gained much automotive wisdom, “I quickly realised that German cars were the ones to have, particularly Volkswagens! I think I’ll always own German now. I guess when you grow up around influences like mine it’s really hard to resist.” Having passed his driving test, a Polo 6N2 found its way onto the drive, where Aaron started to get a taste for the stance vibe. “It was an alright car, nothing special really, but I lowered it and made it my own – y’know how it is when you start out – any car is great.” Having made that into a GTi rep, It wasn’t until 2013 that he took delivery of this one lady owner, completely standard, 32k from new 2006 9N3 GTi as a natural progression up the VW performance ladder, “Seems almost a shame that I got my hands on it and f*$%ed it right up,” chuckles Aaron. “Really though it was when my mate put his VTEC engine into his Caddy I knew I needed boost to try and keep up,” Aaron laughs. One things for sure, it’s no slouch now thanks to, “a couple of lads from Birmingham remap”, a RamAir induction kit and an Airtec intercooler out front that nets a seriously impressive 248hp and 300ft/lbs of torque when those 185/35 and 195/40 x 17" Nankang NS-2s allow it to hook up.

Still, we’re getting ahead of ourselves there, the build started with a few subtle tweaks to what was once a Tornado Red GTi, Aaron using it as his daily driver for a couple of years, dropped sensibly on some coilovers and a set of 17” BMW Tiger Claw wheels. He seemed pretty happy with the point and squirt hot hatch, but all the time his car show attendance was increasing as he started venturing further afield with those pesky “unit mates” to embrace new trends – a quick glimpse at his Facebook page confirms they certainly know how to party. Nonetheless, with a built not bought mentality firmly nurtured between his peers, the car soon morphed into more of a project than he probably bargained for.

“A set of RH ZW2 wheels came after that, but something still wasn’t quite right about the car,” Aaron surmised, continuing, “It needed more lows to bring it to life, so I bought and installed an Air Lift V2 air ride kit in my garage at home. I’d never attempted anything like that before so it was a steep learning curve, but it completely transformed it and made it look 100 times better.” But there was more to come in Aaron’s whirlwind world of upgrades, and his ‘unit fwends’ were always a constant source of bad influence and good ideas. After a short year on the RH wheels a dream set surfaced for Mr H in the form of those 8 and 9x17" BBS RF wheels – now complete with anodised purple hardware and a set of the uber tough upstepped Schmidt Radinox stainless dishes. However, big things were ahead.

“Because those wheels were extremely ‘pokey’ we needed to pull some major camber on the back end to tuck them within the arches, and when I needed a couple of new rear bags a Rayvern hydraulic install came up at a price I couldn’t refuse. It just made total sense to get the stance I wanted and pull those wheels in.” Now juiced and rocking the rims he’d always wanted, things were looking fresh.

It wasn’t until Aaron got himself a daily driver (Mk6 Golf GTD) that the Olop really started taking shape. Things started to get very serious indeed when he opted to shave and smooth the engine bay — rerouting, tucking and deleting as much excess plumbing, wiring and componentry as possible with plenty of tea and late nights spent at the lockup.

“We put the battery in the boot, lost loads of loom and even relocated the ABS pump by running new brake lines front to back to tidy up the bay that little bit more, it was a slog and progress at the start was painful, but it was totally worth it.” Cleaning up a 20vt is no easy task given the mass of sensors, wiring and plumbing throughout, but when backed up by that Rubystone red paintjob in the bay this is one BBU lump where the K03s turbo most definitely lives up to its eye searing surroundings – it’s hot with a capital F and as Aaron rightly points out, “It’s not a bad job for a bunch of pissheads in a shed.” With a little bit more practical knowledge and on the job training under his belt Aaron went to just three shows before deciding he fancied a switch up. “I just got fed up with the red and decided a full repaint was in order.”

«When my mate put a VTEC into his Caddy I knew I'd need boost in order to keep up with him»

That’s when a fresh coat of orange was applied, again largely thanks to the “Violent crew” as they shall now be known. Pretty content with his lot, Aaron went on to crush the whole of the 2019 show season in this guise before he started to get an itchy trigger finger and fancied hitting Ultimate Dubs 2020 with a complete makeover once again. This time though, it was to be influenced by unicorns, My Little Pony and flashbacks of a misspent youth watching Care Bears and Trolls – or perhaps we just made that bit up?

“Everyone told me I didn’t have the balls to paint it pink, which only made me want to do it even more. I found a RAL colour chip that wasn’t too bright and knew straightaway that was it.” While they were at it the lads also went to town smoothing out the front plate recess, colour coding the side skirts and rear valance and fi tting the honeycomb lower grills with a Bluemotion lower splitter. At the rump the bootlid was completely smoothed and a custom rear plate recess was grafted into the bumper to perfectly complement those 6R style rear lights. The eagle-eyed Polo pervs will no doubt have clocked the pop rear windows as well, which are apparently like hens teeth as all 9N owners lust after them. To the untrained eye this Olop might just look like a project of frivolous extravagance, but there’s years of development, time and hard graft behind that extrovert paintjob. Hell, after UD 2020 Aaron even decided to graft in a Lupo Open Air fold back roof, “I let Ron cut the hole out for that one though,” so that onlookers could get an even better glimpse of his Mk5 GTi interior, “I’ve had loads of fun with this car and we definitely don’t take the whole ‘scene’ thing too seriously. Were it not for Ron, Ken and Matt there’s no way this car would be where it is and I literally can’t wait to get back out there and start showing off again.”

So, there you have it. A home brew Polo that’s had almost every job bar the remap carried out by a bunch of pissheads in a shed. What’s not to love about that? If it’s a case of the smallest details make the biggest impact, this Polo is all about showing off its pink bits, and as Aaron quite pragmatically recognises, “It’s okay not to like it, not everyone has good taste.”

«It's not a bad job for a bunch of pissheads in a shed!»

DUB DETAILS

• ENGINE: 1.8T (BJX) 20 valve, RamAir induction kit, K03S turbo, Wagner Intercooler, standard injectors, couple of lads from Birmingham remap, Full stainless turbo back exhaust system, full wire tuck and smoothed bay painted in Rubystone Red
• CHASSIS: 16” BBS RFs stepped upto 17” with face-mounted stainless steel Radinox dishes, 185/35 and 195/40 x 17" Nankang NS-2 tyres, Rayvern Hydraulics system, Marzocchi pump
• EXTERIOR: Fully refinished in RAL Pink, Gloss black Honeycomb lower grilles, Bluemotion splitter, front plate recess delete, side skirts colour coded, rear valance colour coded, custom rear plate recess, smoothed bootlid, 6R style rear lights, Lupo Open Air roof conversion, pop out 9N rear windows, carbon fibre wing mirrors
• INTERIOR: Full Mk5 Golf GTi interior, carbon fibre interior trims
• SHOUT: All the boys down the unit – Roy, Ken, Matt. Any of the suppliers who have helped me out over the years. My family for not thinking I’m nuts

WHAT’S WITH THE LLAMAS?

They’re Alpacas you divvy and they’re part of the Hews family that live in the garden. Aaron’s family have kept them for years so they’ve become accustomed to seeing the car and also favour RamAir induction kits as a regular part of their diet.

«We needed to pull some major camber in order to tuck the wheels within the arches»