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Written by Stephen Dobie
Forty years ago, Volkswagen launched a little car called the Golf GTI. You may have heard of it. But a car that"s now seven generations and two million cars old - and with a N rburgring lap record on its mantelpiece - had quite a humble start in life.It was the work of a six-man team headed by Anton Konrad, who was head of the press department rather than an engineer. And he was technically disobeying orders, working on a fast version of the recently launched Golf hatchback while VW was meant to be avoiding performance cars altogether.That"s because it had caused controversy with the Beetle GSR"s racy appearance. "VW as a company was criticised for using this aggressive talk to sell this car," recalls Konrad. "People said no more of this". It was discussed at German parliament. And it had just 50 horsepower!"The cheekier among you may wish to draw parallels with modern day VW making it into government discourse. But hold that thought, because our story"s still in 1976, where the intrepid Konrad had eyed a gap in the market. "I thought that it is possible to attract young drivers, get them closer to VW, with a car like the GTI."The regular Golf had up to 85bhp. My idea was to come up with a car with more power. We wanted a category of car to attract young people, and also to attract private people and make them more interested in motor racing. Give the car all the genes that are necessary in motorsports.
Date written: 5 May 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3316
Forty years ago, Volkswagen launched a little car called the Golf GTI. You may have heard of it. But a car that"s now seven generations and two million cars old - and with a N rburgring lap record on its mantelpiece - had quite a humble start in life.It was the work of a six-man team headed by Anton Konrad, who was head of the press department rather than an engineer. And he was technically disobeying orders, working on a fast version of the recently launched Golf hatchback while VW was meant to be avoiding performance cars altogether.That"s because it had caused controversy with the Beetle GSR"s racy appearance. "VW as a company was criticised for using this aggressive talk to sell this car," recalls Konrad. "People said no more of this". It was discussed at German parliament. And it had just 50 horsepower!"The cheekier among you may wish to draw parallels with modern day VW making it into government discourse. But hold that thought, because our story"s still in 1976, where the intrepid Konrad had eyed a gap in the market. "I thought that it is possible to attract young drivers, get them closer to VW, with a car like the GTI."The regular Golf had up to 85bhp. My idea was to come up with a car with more power. We wanted a category of car to attract young people, and also to attract private people and make them more interested in motor racing. Give the car all the genes that are necessary in motorsports.
Date written: 5 May 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3316