Volkswagen Golf: Can the hottest new Golf GTI ignite passion as well as desirability?

摘要

No matter how ubiquitous the letters 'GTI' become, they are synonymous for much of the population with only one car. This has less to do with their original placement and more to do with serious, unbroken longevity. There has been a Volkswagen Golf GTI on sale for as long as any of the current Autocar road test team has been alive. Although other manufacturers have been dabbling in hot hatches for close to four decades, none comes close to imprinting a single model identity on the segment in the way that VW has done. But while it may stand alone as a recognisable icon of the class that it pioneered, the Golf GTI has been acknowledged as its leader only sporadically. Instead, VWhas sought to stretch its 'hot' brief as thinly as possible so that it might be pulled down over a car of incredibly broad appeal. In a bid to drag it back towards the eyeline of those of us fixated on the Renault Megane 265 and Ford Focus ST, VWhas opted - for the first time - to sell a Performance version of the Golf GTI. We test it here to see if its extra power and prowess make it worthy of top billing once again.