Volkswagen Golf 8 GTI impresses with its sophistication
I’M NOT sure how it happened, but the Volkswagen Golf GTI, the original hot hatch, is the darling of the masses and has reached an almost cult status on our shores.
Under the hood is the same engine that did duty in the Mk7 and 7.5 but VW have sprinkled some magic dust to tune it to deliver 180kW and 370Nm of torque coupled to a refined and quick-changing seven-speed DSG automatic transmission.
The interior is button-free with almost every function now on the touchscreen infotainment system. The steering wheel also has touch sensitive buttons with haptic feedback.
The rest of the interior boasts premium finishes including the sporty looking seats with typical VW attention to detail all round making the
Golf 8 GTI the benchmark in the segment.
VW has improved on the underpinnings of the previous generation with a new aluminium front subframe, structural upgrades and stiffened rear suspension.
We took it on the usual Sunday Cradle of Humankind round trip towards Hartbeespoort that included gentle turns, sharp corners, potholed roads and hard braking for speed bumps.
The new GTI doesn’t mind being thrashed at all and especially in Sport mode it revels as a GTI should.
Power delivery when pressed is quick and reassuringly linear with no nasty surprises as it races to the red line before smoothly changing cogs.
While many people think that the GTI is perhaps a bit of a hooligan, this new rendition is very much a sophisticated piece of machinery. Even when driven hard it remains well mannered and stable when changing direction quickly. It’s fast too but it never seems to let its hair down completely which probably isn’t a bad thing if inexperienced drivers suddenly think they have a licence to race on public roads. And vrrrpha?
There’s that too but it’s not as pronounced as I suspect some owners would like and I have no doubt that tuning shops have already worked out how to allow for more loud blips and pops to flood social media timelines.
PRICING
The Volkswagen Golf 8 GTI starts at R669 300 before options and comes with a three-year/120 000km warranty, fiveyear/90 000km EasyDrive service plan and a 12 year anti-corrosion warranty.