When you paint your Mk2 GTI in Lamborghini orange, you better be sure of two things: you like attention and you do it right. Fortunately, Peter Amaral from Berkely, MA is a professional autobody technician working on high-end exotic cars, so he had the skills to pull it off.
But it hasn’t been an overnight sensation for the 32 year-old. He’s owned the car since 1996, going out with his father to buy it when he was 17: “I’ve always been a VW fan and had fallen in love with the 2.0L 16v but it was way out of my price range at the time,” he told us. “So I settled for the 1.8L 16v that was about half the price with its small bumpers and Teardrop wheels.”
It was more than a year before he’d start ripping into the car, developing his taste in Euros as he learnt the body trade. “I took the car apart and painted it Porsche Polar silver,” he recalled. “At the time I thought it was an amazing job, but looking back now I realize it wasn’t the best in the world…” Yet it maintained his enthusiasm for the Mk2, even after he lost his license for a year.
With the car sat in the garage unable to be used, it presented Pete with another opportunity to work on it. He tore into the GTI, stripping it fully and discarding many parts that needed replacing. However, he also got distracted by a string of other cars, including a Rabbit, some Jettas and a VR6. He bought a house along the way and found the project dragging on almost five years. “I told myself to finish or sell it but, since I didn’t want to part with it, I got to work.”
Over time, parts he’d thrown out had become difficult to find and Pete spent months trying to source things: “There’s very few aftermarket parts on the car,” he told us. “I spent most of my time waiting for OEM parts to arrive so I could build it the way I wanted it.” The “big” bumpers, for example, were imported from Europe along with the G60 fenders flares. He chose to retain the stock headlights, but dressed them with a badgeless three-bar grille and eyebrow. He also deleted the rubbing strips, rear seams, badges, rear wiper and washer nozzle.
The body was sprayed Lambo’s three-stage Atlas orange after Pete painted a friend’s GSX-R the same color. “I liked the PPG paint but, dealing with exotic cars all day, I knew it would look better on four-wheels,” he told us.
The grille, bumper trim and flares were then painted in a catalyzed black base coat to avoid the unsightly fading that occurs when the plastic is left in the sun.
Once painted, Pete drove the car for a year or so with its stock 1.8L CIS engine. “I cleaned the motor and it looked immaculate but I struggled to keep up with friends. I needed more power, so removed the engine and had it rebuilt by Rui Mauricio at RM Pro Tune (before the company apparently closed). He installed 9:1 forged JE pistons, custom I-beam rods and an OE forged crank. Up top, a Euro intake cam was fitted along with a Bahn Brenner intake manifold, fuel rail and 440cc injectors.
The built motor was in preparation for the Garrett T3/T4 57-trim turbo Rui pulled off his shelf along with a cast exhaust manifold and front-mount intercooler. He then fabricated all the plumbing while Pete helped rewire the car to OBD2.
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