Alan Judd

On the driving range

The Golf GTI was unveiled in Frankfurt 34 years ago this month.

The Golf GTI was unveiled in Frankfurt 34 years ago this month. If the ordinary Golf saved VW — ailing because Beetle sales were in long-term decline — then the GTI was the icing that made millions more want the cake. Planned as a limited edition of 5,000, it has gone on to sell 1.7 million worldwide (217,214 in the UK). Its effects spread well beyond itself. It wasn’t only that there were numerous buyers for the fashionable sporty version of what might otherwise have been seen as a humdrum hatchback (unpromisingly called ‘Rabbit’ in the US), but that the existence of this fashionable extra cast a glow of desire across the entire range. Celebrities such as the late Douglas Adams were given them on extended loan so that they could be seen in them. (I once had a lift in his but not with him and not, I fear, because my presence added a spark plug to its sales.)

And they weren’t just toys. They set the pattern for the sporty hatch, the car that every other manufacturer tried and usually failed to beat. The Mk1 GTI gave you sports car performance (113mph, 0–62mph in 9 seconds and markedly better handling than most contemporary sports cars) with 35.2 urban MPG, four genuine seats and — something you couldn’t take for granted in the Seventies — reliability.

The Mk1 begat the Mk11 and so on, and now we’re into the sixth generation of this biblical breed. The one I tested for a week was the latest diesel equivalent of the GTI, the 2.0-litre GTD — and, yes, in these days when diesels can win Le Mans, it does make sense to talk of equivalence, even if it doesn’t have quite the performance of its petrol sister.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in