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Hello, my name is Jamie, and I'm going on a stupid 3,000 mile trip to buy a junk car, and then drive it 3,000 miles back, within 5 days.
A couple of months ago a 1996 VW Golf Harlequin blew up a weird corner of the interwebs, when it was spotted going into a central California junkyard. The person who had owned it since new had evidently donated it to a charity, who thought it was junk, and promptly sold it to the yard. Lots of people tried to buy it, but no luck. It went into the yard, got stripped and vandalized, and that was the end of it. Except I had called their corporate office as a member of the media, and I kept perusing it..
Then I went to Europe with a couple of US cars for the Worthersee GTI Treffen, and came back to a voicemail. The car was mine, I just had to pay, do paperwork, and get it out of there.
To pause on the Worthersee trip for a moment, here's a quick video from the opening stages of it, in case you're interested..:
So.. The Harlequin.
Here's photos of the car a few days after it went into the yard:
and here's the 'now' photos, that a non-car enthusiast friend took for me this week:
Battery cables cut out. All fluids removed, by drilling or draining. Seats, and lots of other parts are gone, not least the wheels. Back window smashed.
So.. my plan is to fly to San Francisco this Saturday. I will then fix the car on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, and then drive it back to Pennsylvania before Friday when I have a hard deadline to be here in the morning. Seems flawless.
I love documenting my projects on TCL / VWVortex, so i'm going to try and do so here. Otherwise, social media links are:
Instagram.com/xjamiexoe
Facebook.com/therealJamieOrr
https://www.youtube.com/user/british16v (at least until I have enough followers to change the channel name :laugh
If anyone's in the Bay Area and wants to hang out, I'll be there this coming Sunday to work on the car. Here's the FB Event page with details: https://www.facebook.com/events/162554380950847/

A couple of months ago a 1996 VW Golf Harlequin blew up a weird corner of the interwebs, when it was spotted going into a central California junkyard. The person who had owned it since new had evidently donated it to a charity, who thought it was junk, and promptly sold it to the yard. Lots of people tried to buy it, but no luck. It went into the yard, got stripped and vandalized, and that was the end of it. Except I had called their corporate office as a member of the media, and I kept perusing it..
Then I went to Europe with a couple of US cars for the Worthersee GTI Treffen, and came back to a voicemail. The car was mine, I just had to pay, do paperwork, and get it out of there.
To pause on the Worthersee trip for a moment, here's a quick video from the opening stages of it, in case you're interested..:
So.. The Harlequin.
Here's photos of the car a few days after it went into the yard:


and here's the 'now' photos, that a non-car enthusiast friend took for me this week:





Battery cables cut out. All fluids removed, by drilling or draining. Seats, and lots of other parts are gone, not least the wheels. Back window smashed.
So.. my plan is to fly to San Francisco this Saturday. I will then fix the car on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, and then drive it back to Pennsylvania before Friday when I have a hard deadline to be here in the morning. Seems flawless.
I love documenting my projects on TCL / VWVortex, so i'm going to try and do so here. Otherwise, social media links are:
Instagram.com/xjamiexoe
Facebook.com/therealJamieOrr
https://www.youtube.com/user/british16v (at least until I have enough followers to change the channel name :laugh
If anyone's in the Bay Area and wants to hang out, I'll be there this coming Sunday to work on the car. Here's the FB Event page with details: https://www.facebook.com/events/162554380950847/