GOLF GTI - EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES

Mr Clarkson is usually good for a quote, but as soon as you scrape anywhere below the surface of the hyperbole, you'll often find little in the way of substance. The Golf GTI story is one that runs a course of ups and downs but try to keep pace with a 228bhp GTI Mk5 in a 108bhp GTI Mk1 would, to quote the King, leave you All Shook Up. Here's the truth behind the Golf GTI story.

Mk 1 - The Legend



Volkswagen does little to dissuade the belief that the Golf GTI started the whole hot hatch story. Although pedants may point out that although it had a boot, the Alfasud Ti offered much the same basic ingredients as the Golf and arrived fully three years before the left-hand drive GTI Mk1 hit the market in June 1976. It took over three years before right-hand drive cars were offered in the UK, by which time the Renault 5 Gordini had been making itself popular. Nevertheless, there's no denying that the GTI was a fantastic thing - taut, responsive, affordable and most importantly, huge fun to drive. The 108bhp engine wasn't the last word in refinement but the Golf's body control was leagues better than the lardy 'sports' saloons and coupes that keen drivers had been weaned on. A kerb weight of just 830kg meant that the Golf GTI could accelerate to 60mph in just 9.6 seconds, which may not sound staggering in modern terms, but for the £5,135 Volkswagen was asking, it wasn't a bad return.



The Golf's price had crept up from the £3,372 charged for the first 1976 model year left hand drive imports, and by 1983, Vee-Du...