INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH
VW GTi — not the quickest but it’s the all-round best
More power, new interior bits and more fun for Volkswagen’s warm hatch, writes Michael Taylor
The GTi version of the Volkswagen Golf has been around for 42 years. It doesn’t just have a cult following; it’s got entire generations of cult followings behind it. And well it might. It’s good. It’s always been good. And now it’s better in the new generation, which will arrive in SA in May. Sure, there are quicker hot hatches out there (even the more expensive R bearing the body of the same name), but none of them are as all-round good as the GTi. As the Golf gets the upgrade from Mark 7 to Mark 7.5 (which anybody else would call a facelift), so too does the GTi, complete with a 7kW power hike in the stock model and 10kW in the Performance Pack (which still gets a mechanically locking differential). With 169kW of power in an unnaturally wide spread from 4,700 to 6,200r/min, the stock GTi 2.0l turbocharged four also fleshes out the torque curve with 350Nm of torque from 1,500 to 4,600r/min. Read that again. It means the Golf is giving its best in either torque or power across a 4,7...
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