You might be surprised to know that the Volkswagen (VW) Golf GTI is Irish. Well, partly Irish anyway. Let’s say it has an Irish uncle, which is generally all one needs to be able to count oneself as Irish, even if you were born in Wolfsburg…
Imagine trading in a VW Beetle – a 1930s design but still on sale in the 1970s – for a sharp-edged, front-wheel drive Golf. The mind must have boggled. But in 1976, when the new Volkswagen Golf was riding high in the European sales charts, it wasn’t enough for a cadre of VW engineers. They wanted to create a faster, sharper sort of Golf.
Working in their spare time, they took a VW 1.6-litre engine, added a Bosch fuel injection to replace the old-school carburettors and gave the bodywork a mild massage with pencil-thin red highlights and sportier wheels.
The GTI was born – GT for “Gran Turismo” (years in advance of PlayStation), and I for injection. Suddenly, the traditional sports car was old-hat, and now you could have your sporty driving cake, but eat it in a practical, family-friendly manner. Motoring has never been quite the same since.
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The Irish connection, though?
Let’s come back to that in a minute, and first off let’s take a look at how Volkswagen is celebrating that auspicious 50th birthday. Thankfully, cake and candles have been dispensed with and instead here we have a special Golf GTI EDITION 50, which is a rather more specialised creation than even the regular Golf GTI, let alone a humbler Golf.
With the added-extra Performance Pack, you’re getting a car with tuned and tweaked suspension and steering (the suspension sits 5mm lower down than standard and uses clever adaptive electronically-controlled shock absorbers); a muscular bodykit with a larger rear spoiler; stunning 19-inch alloy wheels behind which lurk large brakes with bright red calipers; and a 2.0-litre engine tuned to deliver a large 325 horsepower.
You’ll be thinking that the brilliance of this Golf GTI EDITION 50 is all about that power, but it’s not. In fact, much of the time the power is all but irrelevant – we live in a land of speed limits, after all. No, the true magic of this Golf GTI EDITION 50 is just how brilliant it feels at perfectly legal speeds.
The tuned and lowered suspension certainly is firm, but not excessively so and it keeps the car’s body resolutely level through corners. The steering – and it helps that this car has been specified with the optional man-made suede grip for the steering wheel – feels stunningly informative about what’s happening underneath those 19-inch Bridgestone tyres. If you’ve been used to recent swathes of dull-to-drive SUVs, the way this Golf plugs you directly into the road surface will arrive with the jolt of an electric shock. It’s brilliant.
When it’s safe and legal to let that mighty engine have its head, the gruff song it sings sounds like Joe Cocker chewing on steel beams. And the clever front differential helps to keep the nose tightly on track as you drive through corners.
Then you remind yourself – this is still a Golf, so it’s comfy up front (those fabulous tartan-trimmed bucket seats help), roomy enough for adults in the back, and has a dog-friendly boot. That has always been the Golf GTI’s genius; it deftly mixes the superlatives of a performance car with the ability to undertake humdrum tasks at other times. You can do the shopping, drop the kids to school, and then go to a trackday and activate the “Nurburgring” mode in the on-screen set-up menu. This humble hatchback is officially the fastest front-wheel drive production car around that famous German racetrack, which is quite the kudos.
At last we must come to that Irish connection. You see, at first the VW engineers created the Golf GTI in left-hand drive only. The various modifications simply wouldn’t work with right-hand drive, they said. Rubbish, said Robert McBurney, a VW dealer based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. McBurney, an accomplished rally driver, wanted a new GTI in which to compete, but wanted it in right-hand drive. With the factory stalling, he decided to simply order the necessary components and build one for himself. When he did so, the VW people in Wolfsburg demanded to see the car. Once presented with it, they figured this was a whole new lucrative market they were missing out on.
So, if you buy one of these astonishing Golf GTI EDITION 50, or any Golf GTI model, take a drive north of the border, into the town of Ballymena, and doff your cap to Robert McBurney. Without him, we’d have missed out on all the fun.
With so many enthusiasts having similar stories to tell about their GTIs, there is sure to be interest in the new Golf GTI Edition 50. For more information or to book a test drive visit volkswagen.ie
