We forget the excitement when the VW Scirocco was launched in 1974, now that so many examples are shabby castaways. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and built by Karmann, the sport coupe arrived underpowered but still sold over half a million units worldwide, thanks in part to its good looks. The advent of Japanese competition threatened to relegate the Scirocco to the dustbin, until a tuning company called Oettinger revamped the engine with a 16-valve head. Once adopted for production, output rose 37% to 123 hp, giving the Scirocco a few more years of sales in the US. Here on craigslist is a 1985 Scirocco 16V looking for a new owner to restore its mechanical prowess. The seller wants $4,999, and the car is in Mullins, South Carolina. Jack M. sent us this tip – thanks, Jack!
The Scirocco and the slightly later-arriving Rabbit/Golf represented Volkswagen’s shift from economy-oriented, air-cooled vehicles to a more conventional but sporty portfolio. The Golf has sold millions of copies over its decades of production, and though the Scirocco wasn’t nearly as successful, it led the Golf to market and provided a test bed for validation of mechanical and market experiments. The first GTi was a Scirocco, and VW installed its first 16V four-cylinder engine in a Scirocco. This example doesn’t run, a major drawback – but also an opportunity: Sciroccos are great raw material for vintage racing, with nearly endless parts supplies and plenty of headroom in the performance department. Factory merits included a five-speed manual transaxle sending power to the front wheels, disc brakes all around, bracing to stiffen the suspension, and a curb weight of only 2300 lbs. Sounds like a race car to me.
The interior is ripe for ripping out. This is what I have in mind. But hey, if you’re not ready to hit the track with a full roll cage, you can repair or disguise this Scirocco’s interior faults without much trouble. The seller is representing the car nicely: it’s been cleaned up and even the driver’s side carpets are protected with plastic.
The second-generation Scirocco was redesigned to offer more interior room and a lower drag coefficient. The spoiler and skirting were hallmarks of the 16V. Cosmetically, this car is average, with a few noticeable flaws in the front bumper and generally faded paint all around. Setting aside appearances, if I have to apply mechanical talent to get this guy running, I’m going to want to pay less. That said, vintage Scirocco prices are on the rise. Not that the $38k paid for this example is anything but crazy – even lesser cars are selling for mid-teens nowadays.
Check the fuel pump relay. My GLI had rainwater follow a lead through the firewall and onto the relay at the fuse box. Always had to keep a spare!
Fahrvergnugen, you’re absolutely right. The Achilles heel of the Sciroccos, Jettas, and Golfs, was the fuse box on the left side of the dash . I replaced several, at least one on a Jetta and a Golf GTI. The culprit was the seal of the windshield directly overhead. When I replaced the factory shield with better molding along with a very strong adhesive that you had to literally grind away, there were no leaks. Subsequently, a dry fuse box. I missed on a 82′ Scirocco, but scored rust free 82′ Wolfsburg Jetta from Utah. These were great cars.
I drove a 16V Scirocco when it was new. The little thing was a real canyon-carver with a rev-happy engine and superb build quality. Better than average for more sedate driving, too.
Granted, it won’t perform like a modern car, but it was definitely a case where numbers (like horsepower, acceleration, skidpad, etc.) were meaningless. It was a delight in every driving situation.
I regret to say $5K doesn’t strike me as a terrific deal considering the not-running status. It could be as simple as Fahrvergnugen suggests — in which case I’d certainly make an offer — or anything up to and including a ventilated engine block. Plus, who knows what sitting idle has done to other vital systems?
Still, the Scirocco was a nifty piece. I’m a fan.
These were a fun and crazy car! I think it was an 81 that I had back around 85. Had great manuvering, styled basically the same, and it was SUPER fast. I’ve always regretted letting go of it.
Something’s fishy here. The VIN shows it was born with an 8V engine. An owner in its history must have come across a wrecked genuine 16v and swapped over SOME of its goodies.
Oettinger designed a 16v cylinder head for the VW engines long before VW itself made a 16v head and did not participate in the latter’s design. The Oettinger head, on a VW 1.8L made about 150hp, compared to the VW-designed 1.8L 16v at 123.
The genuine VW 16v engines appeared in the US in mid-1986 in the Scirocco, followed by the GTIs and GLIs the next year.
I recall years ago reading about a VW official criticizing the Oettinger head’s “square combustion chambers”, and some other engine guru pointing out the “lazy engineering” of the VW unit’s valve angles– in particular, the vertically-positioned exhaust valves.
Looking at HP/L, the power proof appears in the proverbial pudding.
Counterintuitively, it’s better to be a square than to stand tall.
1985 is also too early for a stock 16v head in the American market, where AFAICT it debuted in the Scirocco as a 1986½ midyear update, soon followed by the Golf GTI 16v for ’87.
Definitely a swap on this one!! Missing 16V body cladding.
Clean Rocco though!!
I have owned a few 16V Sciroccos and they are a blast to drive!!
I wonder if a white Starsky and Hutch stripe down the sides would help it sell? 😝😜😝
A friend of mine had one in the 80’s and he ran it in 24 hour Monte Carlo style rallies in Southern California – I navigated for him once. He was a very good driver and it was a very fast car.
Another piece of Volkswagen crap – the Rabbits, Foxes, Dashers and Scirocco were never fully invented and are examples of poor German engineering – these problems still plaque VW today.
The one to get was the G60 version, with a supercharger in addition to the 16 valve head. If I recall correctly, the supercharger boosted the horsepower output to about 160 hp.
Lovely looking car. Although I was way too young at the time to drive a car, I remember this version of the VW Scirocco.
Giugiaro didn’t design these ’81-92 Mk2 Sciroccos, but he did design the prior ’74-81 Mk1 Scirocco.
Lore has it he did have his own proposal for a Mk2 Scirocco in the works when he found out VW already had their own design in development, so he pivoted his work in progress on that to a different client, Isuzu, who’d contracted him to design a replacement for their 117 Coupe that he’d also designed. This eventually came to fruition as his Asso di Fiori concept prototype, which Isuzu then fast-tracked into production nearly unchanged as the Isuzu Piazza (aka Impulse here).
I had a 10 yo ’79 Scirocco in high school…over 180k miles, ran like a champ except the starter bolts would wiggle out…what’s a poor HS student do, after thread lock did nothing and the second one dropped…park on hills and pop the clutch…BEST CAR I HAVE EVER DRIVEN IN SNOW!
Another fine example of VW engineering.
This used car dealership isn’t afraid to carry some out-of-the-ordinary inventory. I clicked on the “more ads from this seller” link and was kind of surprised.
They even have a Catera – I should submit that to BF. LOL.
Who is Lisa Caterra anyway?
After the wonderful design before these, this one was quite the let down.
VW was attempting to create their own version of the Ford Pinto
I had two second-generation Sciroccos, and loved them.
Survival rate seems very low, and I suspect that most had tough live with hard driving a few garages. And VW repair costs can be high, compared to other imports.
Not certain that “parts are readily available.” Like most 1980s cars, the plastic trim and fastners are failing with age. A friend has a Rabbit Cabriolet from the early ’80s, and it was off the road for a few months while he tried to locate a NLA brake proportioning valve
Personally, I much prefer the looks of the first generation car, designed by Giugiaro. It did not sell as well as expected, leading VW to use an in-house design that looks like a mini-928