The day a kilometre once again flows erratically under the tread of my blue Series 1 Golf seems a lifetime away. It has been 10 months since I drove the Mk1 and I'm starting to be a little anxious to get behind the wheel again. In a bid to speed things along I have started accumulating all the bits and bobs needed to finally complete this life-long project.

The purchase I am most proud of this month has to be the custom-made CAE Racing H-pattern motorsport shifter. The shifter is essentially a super lightweight cable-shift tower (400mm in total height) weighing 1.2kg. Created out of aviation standard billet aluminium, the shift tower is operated by heavy-duty adjustable cables. These cables are fed through the bulkhead and mated to the rod-change Type020 5-speed Volkswagen transmission, via an equally nifty billet aluminium adaptor plate that sits on top of the standard VW gearbox casing.

Gear selection is now short and precise and, I've been told, it is now very easy to accidentally select first gear instead of third, a sure fire way of blowing up my rather expensive engine I'd say.