‘To be discreet is of course one of the successes of the Golf GTI’
Current head of Volkswagen Group Design Klaus Zyciora joined the company during the transition from MKI to MKII Golf GTI. Here he recalls the original, its successor’s arrival and reflects upon the model’s continued success
The Golf MKI was not the only Volkswagen that drew me towards the brand, but it was an important one,’ explains Klaus Zyciora, speaking from the company’s Wolfsburg HQ. ‘A doctor friend of the family had one of the first MKI GTIS. He took me for a test drive and of course, it was one hell of a ride – I needed some time before the grin on my face disappeared. It was quite an experience, and experiences are what draw people to products.’
Just like Klaus, hundreds of thousands of others would have similar encounters and elevate Volkswagen’s range-topping newcomer to icon status. This, he puts down to a number of factors, explaining ‘Giorgetto Giugiaro designed a masterpiece. It was the first super-compact sports car that had genuine every-day usability. It was so clean and clear in its identity, which made it the hero product or segment owner.’
That it happened at all is, perhaps, the biggest achievement. ‘The birthplace – Wolfsburg – at that time was a complicated place. If you could enter a time machine now and go back to these years I think you would be surprised how hands-on and craftsmanship-like design was at this point in time. It was a very small group of guys that had dreamt of doing this, working in a small space, and they held it back until they convinced the board it would be a good idea to do. The belief of the few can create really great cars.’
Come the early Eighties and Volkswagen no longer had the hot-hatch market to itself – although it had taken time, competitors now had the Golf GTI firmly in their sights. A new car was needed. ‘I was in the company design department completing internships during my studies, so I watched the development of the MKII GTI as a spectator. Giugiaro had designed the genetic codes, but at some points in time roads or life streams connect and they disconnect again.’
As such the design of the MKII GTI was penned in-house by design boss Herbert Schäfer and his team. ‘I can remember there were quite a few discussions within the design team, which I followed, suggesting we jumped too far away from the original approach. Don’t forget there were quite a lot of changes in society and politically; there was of course the oil crisis and the company had gone up and down, but the GTI was still something that people wanted. Again, you had to be a believer, and the team followed what was decided. Of course as a young designer I had my own thoughts on what was going on, and when I saw the car I was stunned. I thought, that’s cool – it’s now a more modernistic interpretation.’
‘Don’t forget there were quite a lot of changes in society and politically at the time’
If competitors had been closing in on the GTI before the MKII’S arrival, then within a couple of years it was in danger of being left firmly behind. Volkswagen responded with the faster and more powerful MKII GTI 16-valve, but once again it did so in its own understated style. ‘This was always a big fight,’ explains Klaus. ‘The Volkswagen marketers saw other brands putting huge spoilers and stuff on their cars and they said, “Let’s write it in big letters, WOW 16v! It’s too shy.” These though are an attraction, but not attractive. To be discreet is of course one of the successes of the Golf GTI – it’s a car full of style and not of styling. Consider the usability and social appearance, you can drive to the front of an opera house in one – you can’t do that in any other hot hatch.’
Given the outstanding success of the MKI Golf GTI he says the design team would have faced pressure in following it, but not necessarily the kind you’d expect. ‘This is a business case. Over each generation in large companies you have to fight for investment for design. It’s a red line that goes through all years, and you have to be a believer to make it happen. Once the MKII was out on the road all the evangelists were happy, because the team had won the fight.’
That’s a feeling that Klaus and his own team recently replicated with the launch of the Golf 8 GTI. ‘It keeps alive the idea of a super compact everyday sports car. It’s contemporary and powerful but still adventurous in a much more safe and engineered manner – the Golf has always been a mirror of time. Our aim is always to reincarnate it to a certain degree – to recreate the spark that was put in the first generation. It is most important to stick to the idea, sharpen it up and come up with contemporary features. You have to think, “How can I elevate this without destroying it?” and understand the preciousness and treasure you have in your hands.’
His favourite models are, he says, MKI and 8 – the original masterpiece and the generation that’s just come to market. ‘I’m always interested in new stuff, because my job is to create new things – for me the Golf 8 is already three years old. That said, I have to say that I admire the MKII GTI more and more the older it gets. It’s a great piece of design. The jump in technology and design, and also what happened on the safety side, interior, comfort and driving ability, from I to II, was incredible. However if you look back in the mirror maybe we have to admit that the strengths of MKI are not in the MKII, but it still has quite a presence.
‘On a more contemporary side, of course the MKI GTI will sit in a museum and the MKII maybe not. The development has been incredible over the years and these models laid the foundations. Today every child knows the Golf GTI, and now we have had eight. The legacy is carried on to the next generations. There are only a few sports cars in the world today that have the same history and achievement.’
‘You can drive to the opera house in one – you can’t do that in any other hot hatch’