The VW Golf GTI, the Reinventing of a Icon

It's a car that has everything. Space, practicality, comfort, great build and affordability too. And then, just to show you that the impossible is attainable, it also offers performance. Bags ad bags of it.. That has been the essence of the VW Golf GTI over the years – the car that has almost everything.

And it's the reason almost two million of these VW Golf GTI editions have been sold to date. VW has now taken the game even further. The engine used is a 2-liter TSI unit that pushes out 210 horsepower. 0-100km is expected to take 7.2 seconds only and the GTI can manage a top speed of 240km/h, heady performance for a hatchback.

The Golf GTI's suspension has been lowered and stiffened considerably, you can get adjustable shock absorbers and an electronic, limited slip differential, to help put all those horses to the road. Visually the VW Golf GTI is clean and 'add-on' – free.

Except for the rear-lip spoiler, there are no hot hatch-like add-ons and the design team of Walter Da Silva, Klaus Bischoff and Marc Lichte have created a design that is full of character, yet free of mere stylistic details.

Of course the GTI has that solid VW look and an even stronger build. The doors open and shut with submarine-hatch precision, the design lends to that solid, 'hen from a single block of metal' look and the interiors are really something – sparse but gorgeously finished. Details that stand out are the telephone dial wheel rims, the wide lower intake... Red Golf GTI piping on the grille and interiors adds some excitement as well.