This one’s a bit personal. I’ve been shooting and writing for PVW for a while now. However when Elliott reached out last February to see if I would be willing to tackle a special project, I had to pinch myself. He sent me a message asking if I’d be willing to shoot a car from Germany the mag has been chasing for 30 years. ‘Huh, that sounds interesting. I’m in.’ were my thoughts… and then Elliott finally dropped the magic words: Michael Koordt’s K-Tech Mk1.
I couldn’t believe it. You see, back when I was a teen, I had admired this very car in German scene mags like VW Scene. I’m pretty sure I had a poster of it on my wall. And *I* would get to shoot it. And that’s when Elliott dropped another bomb on me – it would go on the cover of our 30 years anniversary issue. And I’d get to be the one to tell it’s story, too. ‘What in the world is happening’, I remember thinking. There I was, just some random dude from Germany who happens to be obsessed with silly old cars, getting to shoot what is arguably one of the most influential Mk1 Golfs ever put together, over 30 years after the car was first built.
When we set up the shoot together with Michael, the car was far from ready to being photographed. Michael still had a lot of things he wanted to do. I travelled over there anyways, just to scope out the location and get a feel for the car in the flesh, so to speak. The first time I rolled up on K-Techs parking lot and walked through the door it felt like I was entering hallowed ground. I had seen so, so many pictures of this car over the year but nothing prepared me for the sheer perfectionism, for the sheer insanity poured into it over the years. Sure, today there’s a lot of cars that reach a similar level or even go above it. But none that quite hold the same meaning. This car was built over 30 years ago, after all, and you could still just roll it up to any meaningful show and it’d easily win best of show.
I visited multiple times to scout out the location beforehand – we knew we couldn’t get the car out of the shop just yet, so the shoot had to happen inside. The shop is definitely not the biggest, so I opted to bring a wide angle 13mm lens alongside my usual 27mm and 56mm lenses that I usually run on my Fujifilm X-T5. The wide angle was exactly the right call as it allowed me to get in some context of the shop, too. On the day of the shoot all the conditions lined up – Michael had cleaned the shop beautifully, the light streaming through the big skylights in the roof provided for some epic, smooth lighting and everything went off without a hitch.
The car was one thing. Getting to finally meet Michael Koordt however, was another. I’ve met many cool people in the car scene now after having been in it for about 20 years myself, but Michael has to be one of the nicest and most genuinely passionate people I’ve ever met. You can give him a random topic and he will start pulling stories out of his head that will make you listen attentively until he drops in something so ridiculous that you can’t help but bust out laughing. He’s not only one of the most genuine people in the scene I’ve met, but also one of the funniest.
He’s also just a bit obsessed when it comes to this car. I felt absolutely gobsmacked when Michael pulled out a ledger full of handwritten notes about the actual build of the car in ‘93/’94. Pages upon pages where he had jotted down how many hours he spent on each task, how much money he spent on each part and so on. It’s borderline obsessive.
The shop around him also does it’s part to tell his story – there’s trinkets and memories tucked away everywhere. Whether it’s remnants of his past with RC cars, gifts he got from satisfied customers and friends (like a calendar from AP Car Design with a handwritten note that says ‘No split wheels without Micha’), random knick knacks that hold memories or even just carbon fiber projects Michael has done.
Once the shoot was wrapped up and I had written a ton of notes about the car’s story, the next thing was crafting it. Once that was done and sent off, just in time to go on the printing press it was a waiting game. When it finally showed up, it felt like a dream. I had come full circle. I remember reading PVW sat at my mom’s kitchen table almost 20 years ago when I first started out with my own cars and photography. I never once thought I’d have my work featured here one day. But here I was – holding the 30th anniversary issue, with my photos and words inside, rambling on about a car that shaped my automotive tastes to this day. I still can’t quite believe it.
Credit for the behind the scenes photos goes to Tim Kilian
