Shaken, not stirred.

I first met Will almost three years ago when strangely enough I was taking photos of the Scirocco in its first guise. Back then it was “only” a set of 18” Fifteen52 Tarmac wheels, Forge big brake kit and H&R Ultralow coilovers with a few small exterior modifications. Over the past three years I got to know Will and we became really good friends. I’ve watched and passed comment on every modification he has done since then, some I thought “This is never going to work”, but somehow, Will always managed to pull it off.
Will is the type of person who will get an idea in his head, no matter how crazy it may be, then go out the following day and do it. It’s this attitude which has left us with 3 different looks for his Yamaha R6 (something we’ll touch on a little later) and various different modifications to the Scirocco.

The Yamaha started out in championship white and was left fairly standard other than a decat exhaust, stubby brake and clutch levers and lowering of the front end. One day Will was leaving work and he drove past the Sunderland Air Museum. He then had his first idea of painting the full bike camo green with US army decals in place. The owner kindly let us shoot the bike in the museum and Will could not have been happier. Once the bike theme had started to wear off (it will become apparent as you read on Will gets bored very easily) it was stripped of the plastidip ready for the next look, arctic camo. Will wanted to carry on with the army theme but wanted to change it up a bit. After getting bored again pretty quickly, the arctic camo was ripped off and the bike was put to rest for the winter.

This leads us to the car. Whilst the bike was getting a lot of attention, as was the car. Will decided to drop the coilovers (see what I did there?) in favour for a combination of Accuair management and Airlift bags. I remember him telling me he had bought the air ride and couldn’t wait to fit it. Surely enough, the next day, the MDF was bought, cut and in place ready for his boot build, and the air ride was fitted. This guy does not hang about. The best part is, he has built and fitted almost everything himself (obviously with a little help from friends).

For me, fitting your own parts to your own car is a big deal. There’s nothing more satisfying than putting the tools away after hours of hard work and frustration to witness the final product, and I know Will shares the same opinion.

With the air ride now fitted, it was time for some serious wheels. Will decided he wanted a change from the Tarmacs so decided on some OZ Racing Superturismo wheels, 8.5x20 et30, with some rubber band Falken 215/30/20 tyres. At this point it’s worth noting Will still had the Tarmacs and regularly swapped them over depending on what mood he was in. With the car sitting how he wanted, it was now time to focus on the interior.

The front seats were no longer up to scratch. They were swapped out for a pair of Recaro CS’ with the rear bench re-trimmed to match. It was then that Will caught the carbon fibre bug. It started out with a few small items such as the interior door handles, DSG surround and dash strips. This then escalated (quickly) to the creation of a custom eLevel control panel fitted into the cup holder, media surround, arm rest, a one-off fire extinguisher, the hardlines for the air ride were then skinned, as was the full tank… You get the idea. All of this work wasn’t done half-hearted either. Like everything with this build, it was done to the highest level. The carbon fibre skinning came from his good friend Paul of C6 carbon. Even with Paul doing his part, Will still wanted to get involved. For this, he went straight down to C6 headquarters and started sanding away, complaining about the cold at every opportunity.

Now the interior was to a level Will was happy with, it was time to focus on the exterior, wanting to carry on with the carbon fibre theme, he made a few subtle changes. Sit comfortably and prepare yourself..

Standard front bumper with 3 slat grill and fog light deletes with carbon splitter, standard rear bumper with custom carbon rear diffuser, carbon side trims, carbon headlights with custom projectors and carbon supports, carbon front grill, smoked rear lights with carbon tops, carbon rear spoiler with extra custom lip bonded then skinned, carbon wing mirror bases and finally carbon rear window trims. And breathe.

But it didn’t stop there. There was also a carbon battery and fuse cover, Audi TTS engine cover with, you guessed it, carbon inlays. These all matched perfectly with the ITG intake kit with a stage 2 APR carbon intake pipe. To follow suit, Will fitted a decat exhaust with a full straight through (and I mean straight through, there was not a box in sight) custom stainless system finished off with two 6x4 tailpipes! It was at this point where I thought “this is going to be crazy loud”, and I wasn’t wrong, yet somehow, it worked with the car so well. The hardware modifications were all tied in nicely with a stage 2 remap so there was ”go” to match the “show”.

Will felt it was getting to a point where there wasn’t a lot more that could be done to the car. After 4 years of ownership, I can’t blame him. I struggle to keep hold of a car for more than 6 months. It’s with this; he decided to do one last modification. Something he had wanted to do for a long time now.

With the rise in popularity of motorsport style liveries, Will wanted to go out with a bang and create the perfect Martini Racing style livery for both the Scirocco and the R6. We had been planning a joint photoshoot for a long time, so it had to be done. Will found some universal decals on eBay, not really designed for applying to cars, but again, it was one of those moments where he said “I’m going to do this”. The following day, the decals were ordered and as soon as they arrived on his door mat, he was outside, prepping the car to apply them. I know Will, and by this point I knew it was going to be perfect, despite the “universal eBay” purchase.

As expected, the car and bike looked amazing together. We waited for the perfect day to grab some photos and snapped away knowing it would be the last time the Scirocco was getting any time behind the lens. The car has since been split with a full list of parts up for sale to fund Will’s next crazy adventure, which I personally cannot wait to see and be a part of.

Words and Photography: Jonny Elliott.