When passion trumps logic
GTI TCR: CYNICAL PLOY BY VW TO SQUEEZE AS MUCH AS IT CAN OUT OF THIS GENERATION
If you can still find a limited edition, go buy it – but don’t kid yourself that it’s a sensible decision.
Limited edition, “performance” or “homologation special” versions of “ordinary” cars are often seized upon by petrolheads for two reasons: the immediate boost to the ego and the belief the vehicle will be an “investment”.
The reality, though, is that, short of a Ferrari or Lamborghini, not much in the automotive world ever holds its value enough to be regarded as an investment. Australian motor journo and motor-mouth John Cadogan ( www.autoexpert.co.au) proved this recently with his assessment of a limited model Toyota Celica GT4 from 1992.
Brand new, the car cost 50 000 Oz dollars (about R595 000). It now has a book value of $8 000, meaning it has lost $42 000 in 28 years.
In addition, keeping the car on the road, even for minimal driving, would have cost about $2 000 a year, or another $56 000, bringing the total loss to $96 000.
Cadogan then calculated that if $50 000 had been invested in bank shares in 1992, the sum would be worth $450 000 today in share price appreciation and dividends.
His advice to those thinking a limited edition hot car is an investment: Do it because you love it, but you will never make any money on it.
That’s exactly the same argument for the much talked-about limited edition VW Golf GTI TCR, only 300 examples of which were released in South Africa.
Most of them are probably sold – even at the R675 000 asking price. Others are probably changing hands at a premium to that as SA car aficionados prove, once again, that they have more money than sense.
If you look at the TCR (Touring Car Racing) dispassionately, then what you might see is a bit of a cynical marketing ploy by VW to squeeze as much as it can out of this generation Golf, which will be replaced next year.
Sure, the car has 213kW, making it the most powerful and fastest front-wheel-drive Golf GTI. Our tester, Mark Jones, got a 0 to 100km/h acceleration time of just under six seconds which, at altitude, is a huge achievement.
The TCR is also equipped with clever electronics up front, which mimic a limited-slip differential and reduce torque steer as well as improve turn-in. That helped it acquit itself well as one of the fastest FWD cars around the iconic Nurburgring in Germany.
And the TCR delivers on the road, too, with mind-numbing acceleration and amazing grip and control for a front-driven car.
Like the rest of the Golf range, it is also brilliant when it comes to accommodation and ergonomics.
Yet, for an ordinary mortal like me, the Golf TCR makes you only all too aware of your human failings. Perhaps one in a thousand drivers out there have the ability to fully exploit the potential of a car like the TCR – and then only on a racetrack.
And, even though the TCR is an immensely safe vehicle, with all the latest life-sparing systems, it can bite you if you are a fool. That’s simply the result of mixing aggression and over-confidence with lack of talent.
I say this because, the week I had the TCR (numbered 300 of 300), I saw a pic on social media of an identical car smashed up in a ditch. Without number plates, it had allegedly not even be insured yet by its football player owner.
I enjoyed my time with the TCR, short though it was. But it never moved me or gave me an eyebrow-raising moment like the original Golf 5 GTI did in the early 2000s. That car moved the bar so high that its competitors got nose bleeds trying to compete.
Since then, in keeping with VW standard operating procedure, the car has been developed – more than evolved, really – into a formidable road and track weapon.
If you’ve got the money – and if you can find one – then by all means go and buy one. But don’t kid yourself that it is a sensible financial decision.
When it comes to cars, passion trumps logic any day…
It’s the most powerful, fastest FWD Golf GTI