Ralphy's Special | eurocrewpr

The way that we get into this hobby is usually the same. We started with hot wheels, then a family member usually had an older VW or european car that we learned to drive in and we fell in love with it and all things car related. Well for Ralphy, the way he got into VWs was through his Uncle Myron who had a white on white 1975 Beetle with the iconic foot shaped gas pedal and he caught the bug from there at a very early age, pun intended. Once he turned 17 and was able to legally drive, the first car he purchased was a black 1984 Rabbit GTI on Fittipaldi Monolithic wheels. Later on, he joined the Navy after graduating high school and the next car he purchased was a 1993 Corrado SLC in classic green pearl effect. And all of us know how this story goes. We usually see a little bit of cash in our pockets and immediately sank a bunch of money into that car. Well, that’s exactly what Ralphy made and sadly one winter he crashed it with no insurance. With a head full of anger, he left the car and it was never to be seen again, what a huge mistake that was.

Fast forward a couple of years and his brother bought this Cabby we see here from the original owner who was going to gift it to his daughter, but she didn’t want it. At some point, he swapped an ABA into it but never finished the restoration. At that point Ralphy was looking to get into another project. So, when his brother found out he was looking for a project, he offered it for a really good price.Since the vehicle purchase in 2011, he began saving my money for the restoration and sent the car to Eric Shivley in Franklin, VA in December of 2015 for all the paint and body work. That old 2.0 ABA wasn’t going to cut it so he sourced a 1.8T motor to swap it into the soon to be sexy convertible and sent it to his good friend Russ Davenport who did the motor tear down, engine painting, reassembly, initial mockup of the engine bay. When it came to the stance and fitment department, Ralphy opted to go with an Airlift air suspension with a v2 management helping those gorgeous BBS RS sit perfectly in the Cabby’s arches.

The interior of this project recieved a lot of love too thanks to a pair of Recaro LX seats re trimmed Recaro gradient fabric with matching door cards and air tank. A polished Scirocco MK1 steering wheel dresses up the cockpit with the help of a custom three-gauge radiodelete panel with VDO gauges and a re-trimmed leather dash with red stitching. In May of 2017 the car went to Matt Morrison, owner and operator of Eurokraft Performance in NJ, for wiring, fabrication work, tuning and overall final changes that need to be made for the car to be 100%. And finally, the car made its debut at Alpine Vag Fare last May where it got a Top 20 award.

Let me tell you guys, we’ve been planning to shoot this car for months, and finally we made it happen at Helen, GA. This car is absolutely PERFECT, the attention to detail is insane and the car is an absolute head turner. This Cabby with its green color is a tribute to what Ralphy’s Corrado should’ve been and proves that anything is possible when you put your mind and dedication into it.

Thanks to social media, we’re able to meet people around the world that share our same passion. And often, that passion unites people and founds real friendships even when we’re not even in the same country or state. With that being said, we would like to thank Ralphy for letting us shoot his amazing project and forming part of our EuroCrew family in the states with that Boricua flavor with some 90’s hip-hop jams pumpin’ while he cruises down the highway.

Pictures by: Gabriel González/Gabriel Rodríguez

Written by: Gabriel González