Comparison test Volkswagen Golf I GTI vs Golf II GTI – Special

What made the Volkswagen Golf I GTI so special?

The Golf I GTI kicked off with a 1.6 injection engine of 110 hp. Injection, so injecting the fuel under high pressure into the cylinder, made it special because almost all cars drove around with a carburetor at the time. The abbreviation GTI stands for Grand Tourer Injection. A new term was born.

The 1.6 came from the Audi 80 GTE, but that was a larger car than the Golf. A new formula was born. A big engine in your sportiest C-segment hatchback. Some tweaking to the steering and chassis and bam: you had an ideal car with which you could just as easily do your shopping, make business trips or go on holiday, but at the same time it was a very fast thing that you could throw and throw.

An early Volkswagen Golf GTI. Before the facelift, he had no spotlights in the grille.

Was the GTI much different from a regular Golf?

Furthermore, such a GTI did not look too striking. Steel wheels, a red border in the grille, black around the rear window inside a black headliner, a diamond trim and the gear knob that looks like a golf ball. The car in the video is already a Golf I after the facelift, so with the large taillights, a different dashboard (without the ‘tit counters’) and it is already a GTI with the 1.8 engine. So with 112 hp.

How fast was the Golf I GTI?

The VW Golf I GTI was fast for its time. From 0 to 100 in 9.1 seconds and a top of almost 190. You really needed serious machines for that in the late 1970s. A BMW 323i, the fastest 3-series you could get at the time, had its hands full with a Golf GTI.

What were the Golf GTI’s competitors?

The 1.6 with 110 hp lasted until 1982, in the last year of its existence the Golf GTI received a 1.8 engine with 112 hp, but above all more torque. That was necessary, because the competition was increasing. Opel had made a GTE of the Kadett D (the C-Kadett GT / E was a coupé and not a real hatchback), with 115 hp and so all major manufacturers came up with an answer. After the Kadett GTE came the Kadett GSI and that would become an arch rival, but what about the Peugeot 205 GTI!

When did the Volkswagen Golf II GTI arrive?

The first series of the second Volkswagen Golf GTI was barely recognizable as such.

The 1.8 with 112 hp was also allowed to return in the Golf II GTI. However, it was heavier and larger than the Golf I and that caused some commotion in 1984. It went from 0 to 100 in just under 10 seconds, although the top speed was higher due to the better streamline. Incidentally, Volkswagen initially dressed the Golf II GTI very sparingly. Initially, it had no spotlights in the grille, very simple steel wheels and not even a low lower lip.

But there was also a Golf GTI 16V, right?

The enthusiastic GTI driver may have been a little disappointed, which is why the Golf II GTI 16V came in 1986. A sixteen-valve head helped the 1.8 block to 139 hp, without a catalyst. A year later the exhaust system really had to be cleaned and the cat came on both the 16V (power dropped to 129 hp) and the 8V. This beautiful red II in the video is an eight-valve from after the first facelift of the second Golf GTI, you can see that, for example, in the missing bar in the door window and it was only available with ‘cat’ in the Netherlands. That means that the eight-valve in the video only delivers 107 hp.

Is the Golf II GTI 8V fast?

Is that fast? No, not like that any more. The sprint from 0 to 100 went in 10.3 seconds. Now that doesn’t feel fast at all anymore, but how does such a GTI from 1988 feel? Well, like a nice smooth, solid feeling classic. A car that you can drive very well every day. Good-natured, lots of torque at the bottom. A nice hum, but the sound sensations are no longer as strong as in the Golf 1 GTI, which does feel like a much older car, by the way. For the really intense experience you had to save for a GTI 16V, which still delivered 129 hp with cat, or for the brutal GTI G60, which came in 1990 and had 160 hp. That was the engine with G charger that you also had in the Corrado, for example.

What about the Golf GTI and the thick bumpers?

The Golf II GTI in the video is from after the first facelift but before the second. At the end of 1989, the so-called thick bumpers (from the Golf with trim level GL) were introduced. This entry-level engine with 107 hp remained available until 1991, when the Golf III came.

Need more videos with 80s cars?

It’s not the first time we’ve had a Golf II GTI in a video double test. In 2018 we made this comparison test with the same version (107 hp) and an Opel Kadett GSi with 115 hp 1.8

We also put a Golf I GTI next to a BMW 323i, in this video the owners of those legendary cars have their say.

A showdown between a BMW 323i and a 2014 Volkswagen Golf I GTI.

In terms of real hot hatch experience, the Peugeot 205 GTI is the successor to the VW Golf I GTI. From the legendary 205 in 2013 we took a 1.9 for a little romp with such another delightful 1980s hot hatchback, the Renault 5 GT Turbo.

The Volkswagen Scirocco II was based on the Golf I, but it largely paralleled the Golf II in terms of life. That’s why you could also get it as a 16V. We put such a Scirocco GTX 16V next to another coupe from the 1980s: the Alfa Romeo Sprint.

The Volkswagen Scirocco with 16V from the Golf II GTI next to an Alfa Romeo Sprint 1.7 QV.