VW Golf GTI celebrates its 40th birthday early in 2016 with the GTI Clubsport

The Volkswagen Golf GTI will be celebrating its 40th birthday early 2016, to be celebrated by VW along with millions of GTI fans across the world.  For this very special event, a special car is needed – the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport.

Continued tradition of GTI anniversary editions

Exclusive special editions marked the exclusive special editions also marked the 20th, 25th, 30th and 35th birthdays of GTI.  We did not get all these special editions in South Africa, though near the end of Golf 6, to celebrate 35 years of GTI in 2011, the GTI Edition 35 was made available in limited quantity, in early 2012.  Outputs for the Golf GTI Edition 35 was raised to 173kW and 300Nm.

Most powerful GTI ever

A popular candidate for conversion, the Golf GTI is often tuned for performance.  For the GTI Clubsport, which will be based on current Golf 7 GTI, the engine will be the most powerful ever on a factory GTI – power is upped to 195kW, but for about 10 seconds when accelerator is pressed to kickdown function, it is boosted to give a full 213kW.  Acceleration is 5.9 seconds to 100 for the DSG, and 6.0 for the manual.

Revised looks and aerodynamics

As standard, the Golf GTI Clubsport is painted in Oryx White, though other colours will be available.  A contrast roof area is created in black.  A new front bumper, side sills, rear diffuser, a new multi-part roof spoiler and exclusive forged alloy wheels are all part of this anniversary model, making it stand out immediately and unmistakably from the familiar GTI models.

Styled to remember the original GTI

The profile of the Golf GTI Clubsport is based on the original GTI.  The 1st generation Golf GTI was characterised by a black trim stripe on the side between the front and rear wheel arches, and is to this day a popular addition to VW personalisation.  On this special model, it is enhanced with the lettering Clubsport.  In modern VW style, this car sees generous use of gloss black and dark black-red LED tail-lighting.

Tartan fabric upholstery pays homage to the original, and insignia golf ball gear selector, red stitching and black headliner create the perfect GTI world.