Golf GTD a real eye-opener

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Saturday, August 07, 2010

The Golf GTi is, quite rightly, a motoring icon — having single-handedly created a market niche and then gone on to dominate that segment for decades.

Performance, however, has become a bad word in our modern world, – particularly when it comes to cars, and unless you can demonstrate clearly that the machine in which you drive actually promotes better health and clean living in man and beast alike, then you will find yourself shunned by society and taxed to the oxters by the exchequer.

Thankfully there are ways and means to sidestep this sad sociological development and Volkswagen is one company which has succeeded in doing so.

Diesel, as we know, is now where it is at in terms of fashionable and proper motoring and the good folk at Wolfsburg have reacted to this seismic shift in customer demand quite neatly.

Having produced a raft of new, clean and economic diesels down the years — one being bettered by the next as development has ratcheted up — VW has now been enticed into the sporty end of the market with the entrancing GTD version.

They did, of course, made a GTD years ago, but production was halted as the public had not yet seen the light and demand was fairly slack, except among young trendy farmers.

But now the GTD is back and I have to say that this is a car that grabs you by the lapels and won’t let go until you admit that, yes, this engine really is something.

I don’t have to waffle on about how the Golf itself is now and always was the flag bearer for the small family hatchback market. Others have come and gone and challenged brightly for a while, but the Golf — generation after generation of them — has remained the class of the field.

That being the case I was quite looking forward to driving this car for some weeks before I got it and I have to say it did not disappoint.

The actual powerplant is quite a familiar one in that it is shared by many Volkswagen family members — such as the Audi A4, the Skoda Octavia and so on an so forth — but that does not in any way detract from its capabilities.

It is a regular four cylinder turbodiesel, but it outputs some 125 kW (170 bhp) and, in six speed manual format, will reach a terminal speed of 220 kph and achieve the 0-100 kph dash in 8.1 seconds while also returning an impressive 5.3 l/100 km over the combined cycle, and for old geezers like me that means a return of nearly 55 mpg.

Those figures in themselves might be reasonably impressive, but it is not until you get to the nitty gritty of actually driving the thing that it really blows you away.

While the suspensions — front and rear — have been lowered by 15 mm to cope with the engine power and to allow for a very sporty driving feel, it is the overall excellence of the chassis itself which impress.

Undoubtedly, too, the addition of VW’s XDS electronic differential lock and the ESP both help in making the car as pin sharp as it is.

As with many diesels, it is the mid-range grunt in this thing which really gets you, and once you adapt to the correct driving style for the diesel it rewards you considerably in return.

Much like its GTi sibling, the GTD has oodles of grip, practically no body lean and wonderfully precise steering. Given that the addition of a heavier diesel unit can sometimes completely unbalance a car of this nature, the VW people have done an excellent job in providing us with a machine which is as balanced and enjoyable to drive as it is.

The test car was fitted with stuff which included front sports seats (with GTD specific upholstery for all you anal retentives out there), a GTD steering wheel with multi-function controls, 18” alloys, GTi/GTD fog lights with a cornering light, a front centre armrest, cruise control and so on.

As for the rest of the car — well, it’s a Golf and I don’t feel there is much more that needs to be said. Quality is everywhere in the interior and the solidity of all the switchgear, allied to the overall practicality of the car — even in three-door guise it is quite capable of coping with the school run, although the five door version is better, obviously — adds up to a seriously good product.

One thing I would say, however, is that VW have priced this car very high and it is something of a salutary thought to realise that an A4 will only cost you a few grand more.

But, the bottom line is that this is a fine machine and one which will surprise even the most virulently anti-diesel drivers out there.

It truly is an eye-opener.