Volkswagen. Das Auto.

CO

NTE

NTS

CO

NTE

NTS ACCIDENTAL GREATNESS1-2

10-11

13-15

6-7

12

16

SPECIFICATIONS

ON THAT BOMBSHELL

HENS TEETH

FREEDOM HAS FOUR WHEELS

HOT HATCHBACK

A brief history as to how the Volkswagen Golf GTI came about.

Whats under the hood.

Taking a look at what the great Jeremy Clarkson has to say.

The search for OEM parts becomes extensive.

The GTI paved the way for the boom of hot hatchbacks.

My personal journey with a VW.

1

Accidental Greatness

The GTI was born from the vision of these two men but you could describe the project as an accident

In March 1975 a sports variant of the Volkswagen Golf, called the Golf GTI was introduced to the world. It made its first appearance at the Frankfurt Motor show. A young engineer named Alfons Lowenberg and the company’s PR director Anton Konrad saw the potential for something greater in the standard car. They believed they could make the ordinary Golf faster and more fun yet still comfortable.

A brief history as to how the Volkswagen Golf GTI came about.

In 1974 Lowenberg pitched the idea to Volkswagen management, sadly it was rejected. Volkswagen was too busy occupied with the roll out of its new model line up; so special projects such as this were discarded. Nevertheless the two men carried on and stuck with their vision of a performance Golf. The secretly began working on the project and dubbed it the “Sport Golf”.

2

The prototype was seen by management and was then labeled un-drivable. This did not stop the pair. It created a fever with a few other VW employees. In addition to Konrad and Lowenberg, four more keen employees joined the crusade. Development and Golf Project Leader Hermann Hablitzel, Jürgen Adler (Department Head – Interior Engineering), Herbert Schuster (Head of Passenger Car Testing) and Horst-Dieter Schwittlinsky (Marketing).

Meetings were held in private to discuss the finer details of the car. During the coffee and cake sessions, the Wolfsburg team decided that the car should be based on the two door Golf in order to keep to the true vision of the projects sporting aspirations. It was also paramount that the Sport Golf remained cost effective, so the steering wheel was lifted from the Scirocco, the Ferdinand Piech developed 1.6 engine from the Audi 80 GT and the seats from Recaro.

The project became the biggest homework task the world had ever seen

3

Wolfsburg is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony. Wolfsburg has been the home of Volkswagen since 1938.

Wolfsburg is often referred to as ‘Golfsburg’ due to an advertising campaign that ran from the 25 August to 10 October 2003.

In order to differentiate it from the standard Golf, the car featured a chin spoiler, as well as black plastic wheel arches, black side stripes and a thin red stripe than ran around the grill. According to one of the team-members, the black and red colour combination was seen as ‘very sporty’ for the mid-1970s.

The team also changed the ‘Sport Golf’ moniker to GTI, with ‘GT’ meaning Gran Turismo and ‘I’ meaning injection in reference to the Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injector that was fitted to the car’s Audi engine.After a story of defiance, a healthy dose of belief and a clear vision, a legend had been born and the first Golf GTI went on sale in its native Germany in June 1976.

1500SOLD IN FIRST YEAR

1500SOLD IN FIRST YEAR

SPEC I FICATIO NS

7

110BHP0-100km/h in a cool 9.2 secs

Engine

Max. PowerMax. Speed

Drive

Transmission

1.6 Litre

1.8 Litre

110 Bhp

112 Bhp

193 Km/h

196 Km/h

FWD

FWD

4 Speed manual

5 Speed manual

The Volkswagen Golf GTI must have been a great car in it’s time seeing that one of the most respected automotive journalists praised it as one of the most influential cars of the 20th century. There was a poll recently to find the most important car from the 20th Century. “ I went for the Golf GTI because it was fast and practical and classless but none of the subsequent models have managed to capture the magic of the original. The original Golf GTI was, peppy, practical, cheap and above all huge, huge fun.” The Golf GTI was a contending nominee in the running for the most influential car of the 20th Century.

110BHP0-100km/h in a cool 9.2 secs

7

110BHP0-100km/h in a cool 9.2 secs

Engine

Max. PowerMax. Speed

Drive

Transmission

1.6 Litre

1.8 Litre

110 Bhp

112 Bhp

193 Km/h

196 Km/h

FWD

FWD

4 Speed manual

5 Speed manual

The Volkswagen Golf GTI must have been a great car in it’s time seeing that one of the most respected automotive journalists praised it as one of the most influential cars of the 20th century. There was a poll recently to find the most important car from the 20th Century. “ I went for the Golf GTI because it was fast and practical and classless but none of the subsequent models have managed to capture the magic of the original. The original Golf GTI was, peppy, practical, cheap and above all huge, huge fun.” The Golf GTI was a contending nominee in the running for the most influential car of the 20th Century.

On that bombshell

Peppy, practical, cheap and above all fun

Taking a look at what the great Jeremy Clarkson has to say.

110BHP0-100km/h in a cool 9.2 secs

11

HENS TEETH

The Volkswagen GTI came with many stylish yet sporty parts. The Wolfsburg steering wheel resembled a wheel that had been pulled out of a sports car. The gauges in the centre console added to the feeling of driving something sporty. The golf ball gear knob let you feel as if you were still out on the golf course but rather doing doughnuts on the green than trying to sink your bogey. The interior definitely complimented the exterior.

These days the GTI parts are greatly sought after. A trend of finding and restoring GTI and normal golfs has struck a large portion of VW enthusiasts. An influx of build threads and photo-shoots of restored GTI has risen. A lot of people would rather drive a restored classic than a new car these days and the Golf GTI is certainly one of the most desired. The only problem is that the parts are like trying to locate hens teeth.

The search for OEM parts becomes extensive.

Freedom has four wheels.

HENS TEETH

13

Since I was about 15 I have loved Volkswagen Golfs. My first exposure to them was when my mom bought a Citi Golf. It was a 1.3 Carb. When she bought it in 1996 I was 3 at the time so I didn’t take much notice of it. But when I was just entering high school my appreciation of it grew. I viewed myself driving it one day being a student. I liked it for its clean lines and appealing aesthetics. I enjoyed its simplicity. I also felt that the Citi Golfs had this persona of youth. Whenever I drove it in it I felt happy, in a way the feeling is indescribable. I remember whenever we went into a bookstore or a garage, that stocked magazines, I would find the Speed and Sound and try and see how guys from all over South Africa would modify them. Swapping engines out for bigger ones, new plush interiors and sound systems that could blow your ear drums, the works. It was then passed on to my gran as a run around car. She would pick me up from school every afternoon with it. I knew that if I was to get a car I would want my first one to be a Citi Golf. Unfortunately our Golf was sold and a hope of receiving it disappeared.

The Citi Golf resembled the GTI but was modified for the South African market. I had never seen a Golf GTI at all, I just knew about the Citi Golf. Until one day I was given some magazines from the UK from one of my moms friends. In the stack was a Max Power magazine. It was inside this magazine I saw old retro Golfs for the first time, both GTI’s and normal Golfs. I then did a bit of research and learnt that the South African spec Citi Golf was a descendant of the original euro Golfs. All of this helped me become a true fan

of Volkswagen cars. At a later stage my mother then bought a Beetle which fueled the love for VW even more. These cars were and still are seriously cool. Luck must have been on my side with the events to come. I was told by my girlfriends dad if I pass my license he will give me their Citi Golf. Obviously with an incentive like that I hit the K53 book immediately and booked my test. Unfortunately I failed my first test but I definitely was not going to give up so I booked another one immediately. But I would have to wait a whole month until I could repeat it. The car was in Mossel Bay so in that month we went down and picked it up and brought it back to Richards Bay. I repeated the test just two days before we left to go back to Durban, so I had to pass or I was going back empty handed.

F R E E D O MF R E E

Luckily I passed with flying colours. The feeling of knowing you are getting a car that you have wanted for years is unreal. The feeling of having to not depend on other people for means of transport was a relief. Driving it back down to Durban was the first and best drive I have driven in my life. There was nothing that could wipe the smile off my face. My journey of freedom began. This freedom had four wheels.

With the knowledge that the Citi Golf was a descendant I wondered if it could be reverted back to what the Golf GTI looked like. I began researching it and found that you could buy replacement or OEM parts and turn your Citi Golf into a replica of the Golf GTI. At this point I couldn’t even change a spark plug. I decided that this would be good for me.

Pulling the car apart and getting my hands dirty would broaden my knowledge as well as keep me out of trouble. I found an article that gave you a step by step process of how to convert your Citi to look more like a retro euro golf written by Gavin Haywood, now a close friend of mine who shares the path of converting his Citi Golf to this old school look.

Many people ask me why I am converting and I respond with: It’s an appreciation of an icon. I like the look of the GTI so much that I have gone back in time and reverted my Citi Golf to look like it. Among car enthusiasts the car is praised for looking old school because the GTI was such a success. A trend across South Africa has begun. Many VW enthusiasts have converted their Citi Golfs. The look of the Citi Golf is cool but the Golf GTI is cooler.

F R E E D O MAt this point I couldn’t even change a spark plug

15

HatchbackThe Volkswagen GTI wasn’t the original ‘hot-hatch’. Renault’s 5 Alpine was released slightly before the GTI. The GTI’s concept of everyday performance, relative affordabilty and practicality appealed to buyers and made it an instant classic. Within a few years the Golf GTI had caught the imagination of other car manufactures. We saw the release of the Ford Escort XR3, Vauxhall Chevette 2300HS and the Alfa Romeo Alfasud Ti. 1983 we saw the Vauxhall Astra GTE released. The Peugeot 205 GTI arrived shortly after. All these vehicles and more were arguably due to the effect of the Golf GTI. No matter how many ‘hot-hatches’ are made or sold the GTI stands to be one of the worlds best without a doubt.

The GTI paved the way for the boom of hot hatchbacks.

H TO