This 1983 Volkswagen GTI Is a $140,000 Masterpiece

Derek Spratt’s story starts like a lot of collector car stories: He had a GTI in college but eventually moved along to another car. After nostalgia got the better of him, he chased down a similarly built Volkswagen Rabbit GTI and went to work building the ultimate Rabbit GTI. While he could have just gone out and bought a museum-quality example of his beloved Rabbit and called it a day, Spratt says “he wanted to take an old car to the point where it operates like a supercar.”

That pushed Spratt to spend more than 12,000 hours working on his Volkswagen and invest around $140,000. He chronicled the build on his YouTube channel, meaning you can watch most of his journey with the car as it happened. Unfortunately Spratt’s series starts with the engine already removed and the process of stiffening the body already underway.

Alongside a reinforced body shell, this GTI sports an upgraded … well, everything. The brakes have been meticulously modified to perform better without jumping up to massive rotors. The heavily reworked engine no longer produced enough manifold vacuum to operate the brake booster, forcing Spratt to use an ECU-controlled vacuum pump. This also helps him control brake feel on the fly.

Spratt’s 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI might be the world’s nicest custom first-generation GTI, ever.

The low manifold vacuum? Well, that’s because Spratt’s hot-rodded inline-four-cylinder is high strung with a lot of camshaft. In driving trim, the 2.1-liter I4 makes 220 hp without the help of forced induction. The engine is stuffed full of name brand components, which happens when you throw your pocketbook to the wind and just want the best.

It might be hard to believe that Spratt threw six figures and more than seven years of his labor into a Volkswagen GTI but when he breaks down everything he did to this VW in his final video, it checks out.

Much like his original GTI, Spratt did sell this heavily customized, track-focused GTI, too. He lost money, sure, but that’s what happens when you sell a labor of love. The financial loss hasn’t pushed Spratt away from cars. He’s planning his next build: an electrified ’61 Beetle. We can only imagine he’ll give his new project the same attention to detail as his incredible Rabbit.

If you want to see all seven years of his GTI build, you can head to Spratt’s YouTube page, here.

Wesley Wren

Wesley Wren has spent his entire life around cars, whether it’s dressing up as his father’s 1954 Ford for Halloween as a child, repairing cars in college or collecting frustrating pieces of history—and most things in between. Wesley is the current steward of a 1954 Ford Crestline Victoria, a 1975 Harley-Davidson FXE and a 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie. Oh yeah, and a 2005 Kia Sedona.