Model Tested:

• 2009 Volkswagen Golf GTI Pirelli, 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, six-speed DSG, three-door - $47,490 (RRP)

Moving a lot further down the price spectrum we come to the humble Golf GTI, a model that has been around since 1976. Stop and think about that for a moment, how many other performance cars do you know that have survived for 33 years?

There are a lot of reasons for the Golf’s success story. It’s more than a pretty face for starters. Like all true affordable sports sedans, the project began with a few keen engineers interested in making their company’s ‘every-day’ car into something special.

The Golf GTI was first seen at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1975 and quickly gained approval from Volkswagen with an initial build order of 5000 units to qualify for motorsport competition.

The engineers had decided to take a tiny 1.4-litre engine out of an Audi 80 GT and bore it out to 1.5-litre, add a few more bells and whistles and drop it into a small Golf. The first generation Golf GTI managed a mighty 80kW of raw, ground shaking, neck-twisting power, and 0-100km/h came up in 9.2 seconds.

Admittedly none of these figures are even remotely interesting today - 80kW out of a 1.5-litre for a sports car? There is a reason I wasn’t born in the ’70s!

We are now about to say goodbye to the fifth generation Golf, better known as the Golf MK5. But before the sixth generation joins us in a few months, Volkswagen has decided to bring back a classic from 1983.

The first Golf GTI Pirelli was based on the first generation, second series Golf GTI. In all 10,500 were sold and until now, the Pirelli name had not been revived.

Fast forward a quarter of a century and the Germans are giving Golf lovers a chance to own another special edition GTI.

Article key :  Volkswagen, Volkswagen Golf, Behind the Wheel, Volkswagen, 2009