My Golf GTI and a GTI overview Steve Crispin.

As I travel around shows, it becomes increasingly obvious to me that cars of my era are a little maligned by other VW enthusiasts because: 1) they are watercooled 2) they were made at a time when no VWs came to Australia other than Kombis, and 3) they are too new to be considered classic. The Golf had a remarkably different reception in Europe. In the 70's, the Golf single handedly revived VW as a financially solvent company, whose dogged reliance on the success of the 40 year old Beetle was causing sales woes in Wolfsburg. The Sport Golf was a concept which did not receive company support for until it was shown as a concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Until then it was a group of dedicated mechanics exploring the possibilities with their new platform. After huge interest at the show, VW decided to run with it and gave it the final designation. In 1976, the Golf GTI was released to rave reviews from international motoring press, and a legend was born.

The GTI represented dazzling yet frugal performance in an era when oil prices were skyrocketing and larger capacity engines were unviable and frowned upon. In its day, the GTI could stick it to a naturally aspirated 911 on the right roads, and humiliate bigger performance cars with larger capacity engine with blistering acceleration and nimble confident handling. It was the Mini Cooper S of its day, only faster. By the early 80's, the GTI was an automotive icon, with other manufacturers borrowing the formula, and the designation in an attempt to keep up. Meanwhile, VW was well into developing the Mk2 Golf.

The Mk2 Golf was a huge step forward in refinement, however its increased size and weight dulled down the performance in the GTI. The 8 valve model shared the same engine as the runout model Mk1 GTI, but put on an extra 100kg. By this time competitors were matching the Mk1s performance, in an effort to stay ahead of the game, VW introduced the 16 valve in 1986. This car remained the quickest GTI made by VW until they supercharged the 8V to make the G60 in 1989, and the rechipped 147kw anniversary GTI of 2002. (not forgetting the supercharged AWD Rallye of 1988 and the G60 Limited of 1990 with AWD and a supercharged 16V engine and 210bhp) Subsequent GTI's got heavier and bigger and despite getting increased power, did not get any quicker.

Australia never got any real GTI's because the Deutschmark was too high to import the performance model. The DM was so high that by the time VW pulled out of the Australian market in 1981, the Golf was only $300 less than a Commodore. We didn't see any more Golfs until 1991, when a Mk2 GTI arrived which weighed more than the early Mk2s, and put out a paltry 90bhp sourced from the Japanese market.

So, what makes my Golf different? Reuters in London purchased mine in 1985 as a company car. Factory options were a sliding sunroof and the VW commissioned Pirrelli made alloys colloquially called P-slots because of the P shaped cutouts around the edge of the wheel. The engine generated 112 bhp, with huge amounts of torque available from only 1700rpm. This, combined with a close ratio gearbox, ensured excellent performance for its day, and it's handling, with stiffer suspension and sway bar carried on the tradition from the Mk1. One advantage over the Mk1 was its brakes, which were discs all round Braking was the originals only flaw especially in rhd guise as the servo was operated by a lever and remained on the left side of the car.

I have recently had the opportunity to pitch my car, with 125000 miles on the clock, against some standard and modified Mk4 GTI's on the track and was surprised by the results. To 90km/h the cars were side by side until I changed to third. After this, the turbos pushed the heavier cars along a little better and I started dropping off. Handling comparisons saw my car more than match the newer models through corners much to the other driver's surprise. I am overjoyed to know that there are only a few naturally aspirated hot hatches which can boast better performance than my car, and nearly 20 years on it still receives curious looks from other motorists with visually more sporting pretension. The other thing that makes it special is its originality. Other than the alloys (which are optional genuine BBS alloys commissioned by VW for the Mk2 GTI), stereo (which uses all factory apertures), and rear muffler (which isn't my fault!), the car is standard. I intend to keep it this condition on its way to becoming a classic in a few years time.