The Golf skin works fine for me. This may be pointing out the obvious but are you sure you're saving them into your current lfs folder? and not in the cmx viewer or another lfs install you might have?
"Aston - The Aston race track has several long and short configurations within a setting patterned after the English countryside, full of forest and small hills"
Not sure if there is a specific city/area it is based on.
You can upload it using the same file name as when you connect to a server lfs checks the date of the skins and re downloads them if they have been modified
Maybe he just enjoys skinning cars? he has posted it in the skin thread stating he just uses the cmx viewer. At least he's contributing something to the community
Have you tried using the hotlap analyser on lfsworld? It will give you a full comparison of your hotlap against any other uploaded one.
Link > http://www.lfsworld.net/rafa/. pick the combo, then select your hotlap and someone elses (clicking the red and blue raf buttons top left to select them). It will show your lines, brake and throttle inputs side by side so you can see exactly were you are losing time.