With a lot of people following the trends for big wheels, big subs and big kits these days, it's refreshing to see someone buck the trend. One car that has done exactly that and has been causing quite a stir at cruises and meets recently is this stunning Euro style Lupo, owned by Riles from Aspatria. A well known character on our forum, Riles managed to keep the project secret until his Lupo in Wolfsburg clothing was ready to to be unveiled. Even a wet weekend in Carlisle, which meant we had to creep out between showers to grab a few pictures, wasn't able to dampen it's subtle good looks. Who better to describe the car than the car's proud owner, over to you Riles:

It took me a while to decide upon a next project car. After owning my previous Audi TT for 7 months I decided it was time for a change, but such is the trend of modifying cars these days its hard to create something that not many people have seen. After visiting a lot of car shows last summer and seeing a lot of modded cars I was drawn to the Veedub scene, the Volkswagen scene basically. After going to Edition 38 I realised what I wanted to do, something not really seen in Cumbria very much; a euro style Lupo.

Two days later and I owned the car you see here albeit a very standard looking thing and drove it straight to the garage to order my bits and get the project rolling. When it came to body mods I'd seen a kit made by Reiger that looked sweet. The first part was the front lip spoiler, then a rear apron with centre exit exhaust moulding and a pair of side skirts, a badgeless grille was added to tidy up the front end, and to fill the gap in the centre exit exhaust slot is a custom made letterbox design 6x3” system.

The biggest choice for the car was the wheels. It needed a set to blend well with the body mods and a set of Schmidt TH Line 8x14” 3 piece items were chosen, wrapped in Uniroyal 195x45x14 tyres, stretched to give them the euro look.

Suspension was also needed as it sat too high, so a set of Weitek coilovers were ordered and fitted. I have no idea how much its been lowered, I just know that the Lupo and speed bumps don’t mix too well!

It now has a GTI interior slightly different to the one shown here. Zippy is also a must have accessory.

I also purchased a few Wolfsburg Edition goodies including mats, replacement rear badge, aerial and the tax disc holder. A set of pressed steel German plates were also ordered to give a more euro look and I’ve added a Polo Mk 6 rear wiper which looks way better than the standard one.

I'm not a big fan of massive installs so I just added a Pioneer CD player and some Audiobahn front components for some decent sounds.

It took a total of 4 weeks from start to finish on the Lupo, and many more things are planned for it yet. It will be appearing at most shows this year, so keep your eyes peeled and pop over for a chat.

Spec list:

1999 Volkswagen Lupo 1.4 16 Valve S.

Reiger kit front lip spoiler, rear apron centre exit moulding, side skirts.

Badgeless grille.

Schmidt TH Line 14” 3 piece wheels.

Custom centre exit exhaust with 6x3” letterbox tail design.

Pioneer head unit, Audiobahn front components.

Lupo GTI interior in cloth.

Wolfsburg Edition mats, rear badge, aerial and tax disc holder.

Pipercross induction kit.

Polo Mk 6 rear wiper.

Update 15/8/07: Riles has been making a few more changes since the original feature, with smoothed bumpers front and back giving the car a cleaner look. Its amazing the difference a slight change like that can make, and there's more to come, though not everything that's planned will be quite as subtle....