[Doldonics]

Not many of you know this, but Dave’s original German fascination was not with Munich’s finest. His interest started in Niedersachsen, with Volkswagens, back in the 1980s. Yes, you read that correctly: with Volkswagens! When we met him in 1986, he was driving a VW GTI MKII, the original 8-valve version.

Wolfsburg’s finest was our shared passion back in the day. We met and bonded at the local Washington, DC-area Volkswagen Club meetings. Held monthly in the basement of a library, we would meet and chat about the latest and greatest performance mods while teasing our older club members, all of whom invariably drove ancient air-cooled machinery. There were so many topics we touched on and argued about: expensive lubricants (Synthoil, anyone? Good for an extra 5% horsepower!), overly complicated and pricey oil filters (Mecca…add another 2%!), anti-roll bars, Bilstein cup kits, Euro exhausts, Weber throttle bodies, reworked cams, short-shift kits, metallic brake pads, rear disk conversions, nitrous injection, four-puck clutch discs, wheel upgrades, radio upgrades…you name it. As proof of this insanity, we’ve posted below of our brush with national fame in 1988 from European Car magazine’s coverage of Dave’s 2.0 Techtonics big-bore upgrade in George’s garage (attached pdf).

We argued endlessly, we bought parts continuously, we raced on the street recklessly (Who remembers the Vericom VC-200?), we got speeding tickets consistently - and we had a damn good time.

Dave at some point bought a Callaway GTI MKI. Yes, you read correctly, he went backwards in his chassis selection. But he had done his homework. Callaway was making a custom turbo kit for the original GTI, including intercooler and assorted goodies. It was probably the coolest and rarest Volkswagen this side of the Atlantic, and it was Dave’s. It was monochrome white, with a full Zender spoiler kit, if remembered correctly. The car was fast, fun, and unique – it ticked all the boxes.

Dave then moved forward with other upgrades: a GTI MKII 16v, a 1990 G-60 Corrado, a VR6 Corrado, and, his final US car before decamping to Germany, the beloved Porsche 944 Turbo. While technically not a Volkswagen, it indeed sprung from the same family tree. Dave remained on the tuner path the entire time: exhausts, smaller G-lader pulleys, and, coming into the age of electronics with the 944, custom ECU tunes.
My memories of this time were of a lot of talk, endless wrenching, as well as debates over the performance specifications for all the of parts, lubes, and tweaks that Dave had read about and could recall in excruciating detail. There was a *ton* of ribbing around missed shifts and brake points and turns at the track (Dave had started racing with a mechanic friend, and was an instructor at Summit Point Raceway), and we can remember the full chuckle Dave had when recounting how he had just squeezed someone off the right line or nosed past them on the straightaway. Dave’s first visit to Germany involved taking the VW rental car to the Nürburgring, where we managed to slide off the track. The rental was returned with a slightly bent rear suspension, not noticed by the rental company.

When Dave left our Washington orbit, we stayed in touch, but not as often as before. He was clearly in nirvana, being so close (at least for our American sensibilities) to his favorite manufactures and museums and tracks. The pictures and stories he shared always made us envious, and the times we could accompany him on some of the tours were *phenomenal*. He “graduated” from the VAG to the BMW family, finally buying a 135i to burn up the Autobahn. He also found his found his groove online, as you all know, sharing the technical knowledge and passion with everyone who spent the time to read, creating a family abroad that is shockingly large.
While geographically distant, he generosity never waned: care packages of specialty tools, souvenirs from his various road trips, toys and Kindereier for our kids, and model cars arrived on our doorsteps. We still chatted with him for hours around Bangle Butts, 135i tweaks, which Porsche was better (mid vs. rear-engine?), his trips to Stelvio and all the other famous mountain passes, and a ton of other car topics.

When he fell ill a few weeks ago, we were worried and frustrated, not being allowed to fly to be by his side due to the Corona restrictions, which is what we would have done under normal circumstances. We held out hope until the end and were devasted to get the news when he passed.
We are mulling over the best way to send him off into the great racetrack in the sky. While we cannot do anything in the near term due to all the complicated travel restrictions, we’re thinking about bringing him to one of his favorite places (Stelvio?) for a final celebration with friends and extended family, probably next year. We will post on this later if we can make it happen and his family approves.
RIP, dear friend.
George and Seth (2/3rds of the original VW Three Musketeers)

p.s. Apologies for starting a new thread.....