Golf GTI fans, this week I have been testing the latest 210PS Golf 6 model.

And where have I been spending most of my time in it? Why, scooting around town, of course, accelerating moderately from 0-40mph.

It’s not yet another example of me taking leave of my senses (I hope). Rather, it’s because this GTI is fitted with the mighty DSG gearbox. Technology I’m amazed with, every time I sample it.

Quite something for a self-confessed lover-of-synchro-interaction (and a man who has had a screensaver of a Honda Jazz gearlever), this. It’s because, unlike regular slushyboxes, DSG rewards the car enthusiast.

Particularly in town. Listening to the engine note flash in an instant with each gearchange is something I will never tire of.

Also, each ratio selection ping is never felt; no jolt, no hiccup, nothing. The sense of classic Germanic precision (as also heard in, say, the door-shut-click of a MkI Golf GTI) is all-encompassing.

Even better, use  a bit more throttle. Don’t boot it, but keep it a bit spicy: then, back pressure increases in the exhausts and there’s the most delicious snap-woofle from the pipes at each change. Wonderful.

(Yet more reason to choose a 5-door GTI, incidentally: you can crack the rear windows and enjoy this inside.)

I hope it’s not a sign of age, my choice Golf GTI (5dr) thus being DSG over manual. Hey – you’re not even missing out on a racy gearlever, as the DSG’s stick is easily a match for a manual!

No, the Golf GTI has always been about all-roundedness. DSG, for me, simply enhances that, rather than detracting from it, by using technology to positive effect and adding yet more to the car’s considerable talents.

Agree or disagree? Feed your thoughts in below!

Golf GTI have usually been The Supercars That Rule for we real(ish)-world folk.

Give me a mint Mk2 and I will do anything (anything) for you. I cherish/Tweet Mk1 sightings, would love a Mk6 and often browse Autotrader for cheap Mk5s.

OK, the Mk4 wasn’t ace, but still desirable because of its interior/steering wheel/wheels. I’m that obsessed, I even see the merit in the Mk3 (neon metallic green, please).

But I’m also a bit of an eco nut. An mpg obsessive. (Incidentally, I blame my Mk2 for this: it was my first car to have a trip computer.)

Although the Mk6 does 38.7mpg, and emits 170g/km CO2, that’s still too high for an everyday preacher like me. What to do?

Well, Volkswagen has a solution. Create a new sub-brand, infuse it with GTI-style marketing distinction, make it desirable and wantable in its own right – and continually develop and hone it as you go along.

Golf Bluemotion. The Golf GTI for greenies

Bluemotion is exactly that. Indeed, it is the longest running eco sub-brand (since joined by SEAT Ecomotive, Ford Econetic, Vauxhall ecoFlex… you get the idea). Like GTI, VW invented it as an engineering-led challenge-fest.

How eco, you imagine the tecchies musing, can we make a standard production hatchback? Without hybrids, new-gen engines or special techniquery demands?

The Polo Bluemotion was the first, soon followed by the ‘Mk1′ Golf Bluemotion (Mk5). Now, we’re on the ‘Mk2′ Golf Bluemotion, based on the Mk6 (with me?). It is this car I’m running as a long-termer.

It is this car that gets admiring glances thanks to its lowered suspension, its body styling aero tweaks, its characteristic Bluemotion blue paint.

Those in the know notice the badge on the grille, situated in the same position as many a GTI moniker. They’ll admire the wheels, but also be able to reel off the stats: 99g/km CO2, 74.3mpg. Up (and down!) from the 62.8mpg and 119g/km of the Mk1Mk5, you know. And it uses the EA111 1.6 TDI instead of the EA111 1.9 TDI. And it’s still mated to the 02J gearbox. And… etc…

All of this is GTI-style: the same things that attract there also apply here. That’s the beauty, see. A GTI uses efficiency to hone what’s there and create more speed. The Bluemotion does the same, but to yield more mpg.

It’s just that the route to both – lowered suspension, bespoke body and a new ‘That Badge’ – presses the same buttons for car fans who like their supercars hot hatch sized.

In the future, then, will the Bluemotion become The Supercar That Rules? There’s a thought. See, partly, it already does…

I have but one worry. Will this mean the Bluemotion badge is to be nicked off my Golf, as it was on the GTI?

+ Has hp had its day?
+ Nice dials, mate
+ BMW, you cheeky chaps, you

HOW fast can cars with speed limiters go if the speed limiter is removed?

I mused on this when looking at the VW Golf R’s 200mph speedo. (VW likes to play around with the scale of its speedos; my long-term Golf Bluemotion shows 160mph top; this weekend’s Eos test car splits both with 180mph.)

Limited to 155mph, what would she do with it taken off?

Enter vehicle dynamics God Damian Harty. He sorted the Ford Mondeo BTCC car’s handling, turning it into a race winner, and has done plenty more stuff NDAs mean he can’t talk about.

‘Try this formula,’ he said, in response to my thought on Facebook. The formula being…:

New_Vmax = Current_Vmax*(New_Power/Current_Power)^(1/3)

Damian started with the basic Golf GTI’s 210PS, which saw it good for 149mph. ‘This suggests the R would do 162mph unrestricted’

Dang, that’s a bit far off 200mph! What to do, Damian?

507PS, was his answer, with the gearing set to match, too. ‘Big power gains give small VMax changes; always a little disappointing but there you go…’

Indeed, but it gives a challenge to the VW tuning world. Who’ll be the first to take a Golf R up to 507PS – and who’ll be the first to then break the double-ton?

+ If you’ve ever tuned a car, what have been your findings?

+ Is it realistic to tune a 2.0-litre turbo to 507PS..?

+ How fast would YOUR car be with more power?

GIVE a motoring journalist a van and he’ll be your best friend.

Particularly if you are Ford’s Bob Wright, who controls the press fleet, and distributes said vans to house-moving journos who just so happen to also have a pressing need to get a van out on test.

But, why? Just why is it we love driving them? Is it their simplicity, their great visibility, their excuse for you to drive like an arse, the fact they’re just plain different, the fact they’re always so surprisingly good? Well, probably all of that.

There’s another to add in too, though. They’re stiffly sprung, to help manage those heavy house-move loads. And, thus, handle like big GTIs. Yes, really. The latest Ford Transit is an absolute riot through the lanes; a Mercedes Sprinter is an utter class act.

They’re chuckable, accurate, precise, lithe and fun. And why is this set-up such a welcome surprise, when GTIs and sports cars are so commonplace? Because, reckons a chassis pal of mine, car makers are getting scared of sticking stiff springs on.

Particularly the Japanese, he reckons. Car makers don’t want to offend with the initial thudder of a ride, so will go down on the spring rate to give response frequencies to bumps that are, well, pleasant. Trouble is, they forget to perfect the damping to deal with the after-effects of this – meaning as soon as surfaces worsen, so does the ride.

None of this worries van drivers. They need a set-up that will compensate for their gregariousness both on the way to and from picking up those 12 200kg generators – so, spring rates go up, handling benefits accordingly, and chassis engineers are forced to carefully consider the damping rates to deal with this huge variation.

Vans are stiff. But, because vans are stiff, vans are actually far more intricately engineered than you first may think. Making them a blimmin’ riot of a test car.

If only I could shift my house…

How Ford put the boot into the Sierra

Ford code read

Why Ford Econetics break the rules

IT all started after I loved a Golf GTI for a weekend.

You know, I mused in the office, I might even go for DSG over manual. GET OUT came the command. Call yourself an enthusiast, and eschew a manly manual?

Yup, and I’ve been thinking why. See, when I change gear, I’m always (forlornly) striving for the perfect gearchange. I like metering clutch precisely, going off and on the throttle with metronomic timing, savour the happy synchromesh, err, thanking me for saving it some work.

Thing is, it becomes an obsession. I tend to concentrate on it unduly; which makes the pain of a joltly 2-3 shift disproportionate. Which, because I’m no Jackie Stewart-like driving God, can ping up a bit too often at times.

With DSG (and other twin-clutch gearboxes), though, you’re guaranteed perfection. The satisfaction of a delay-free shift from a tricky high-revs 1st to a mid-range 2nd is removed. It does it perfectly, every time. Which means the rewards, even though I don’t have anything to do with it, still tangible.

Cheat, some still say. Yup. But while (and stay with me here) hand-writing a letter and maybe, just maybe, getting every letter just so is uber satisfying, usually it’s just a scrawl. Far better to use a word processor, take the effort out, and get the satisfaction all the same. I love technology, embrace it for the rewards it brings. That’s how I view DSG – brilliant, Apple-like tech that, well, just works.

Every gearchange gives me the feeling, the satisfaction of perfection – and, although it’s nothing to do with me, the sensations are enough for it to win through.

Automatics are different, as they’re slurry cop-outs. Clutchless manuals are, by and large, an ugly disaster. But twin-clutch DSG-style units? You know, PDK and their brethren? It’s technology that rewards me. And why I’m in the pro camp.

(Of course, if the manual alternative were a brilliant Ford or Honda-esque gem, rather than VW’s slick but detached equivalent, my decision may be different. Nothing like a motoring journo sitting on the fence, aye…)

(Oh, and on the subject of cheating, I know the Ferrari F430′s gearbox is robotised manual, not twin-clutch. But the image IS cool, isn’t it…)

Why Ford Econetics break the rules

Oil be: It’s back

RenaultSport past to inspire turbo future

How cool is this? The Golf GTD. Like a GTI. But green and eco, too. Even PR genii are rarely this on message.

On the eve of the 211PS Golf GTI arriving in the UK, it risks stealing some of that car’s thunder, which is an unusual thing for Volkswagen to do. Why go for that one, when you can get 15mpg more here, and almost as many thrills?

I reckon it’s a bit of a ploy. For, Volkswagen has done this before. The brilliant, iconic Mk2 Golf GTI also spawned a GTD cousin. Again, it was a pretty high-spec diesel for the time: turbocharged, intercooled, properly whizzy by contemporary Ford Escort 1.8 D GL standards.

It had the looks of the GTI, the steering wheel, the dials; the two were really hard to tell apart. Not that you had to bother all that often, mind. See, the Mk2 GTD hardly set the world alight. It struggled to sell.

Blame an unenlightened public. Fuel was cheap. Diesel something for trucks. Wot wud yer want a DEESEL GTI for? Hairshirts, not designer hairgel, came to mind. It lagged, then quietly disappeared.

And the Mk6? Well, it’s got the looks, the steering wheel, the dials… yes, it really is three-quarters of the way to a GTI. Just like the old one. Only, this time, it will sell. The world’s ready for it.

For the record, I’ve listed the big differences here:

•    GTI: Red tartan seats. GTD: Grey tartan seats
•    GTI: Red stripe on the honeycomb grille. GTD: Chrome stripe
•    GTI: GTI badge. GTD: GTD badge
•    GTI: red stitching on the flat-bottom steering wheel. GTD: black stitching…

… get the idea? Of course, instead of the gem-like 2.0-litre turbo petrol, it’s got a common-rail 2.0-litre turbodiesel, producing 168bhp, for 8.1secs to 60mph. That’s a second down on the GTI. More torque makes up for it.

It’s got a quasi-GTI chassis, too – which is available with the very same pneumatic adaptive suspension system. This trick setup is said to work brilliantly. A so-equipped GTD sounds quite a thing.

Indeed, it’s looking so good – and so ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’s-not-a-GTI’ (VW dealers should prepare for the GTI badge orders), that I think the company who invented the GTI may just have reinvented it.

The GTD is, however, preferable, for one reason above all. GTIs have ridiculous twin exhausts poking out of the rear bumper. GTDs have proud, GTI-tradition dual pipes, poking out the left hand side. Just as it should be. None of this two-side nonsense.

That it also does 53mpg and emits 39g/km less CO2 is but the icing on the cake. Eight-tenths a GTI’s driving talent? Given how brilliant CJ here tells me that car is, it sounds like a pay-off well worth making.

Volkswagen was ahead of the game with the original GTD. The world wasn’t ready for a hot diesel hatch. Now, it is. This June, hot hatch hot cakes will be diesel-powered, mark my words…

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What I learnt… from Autocar, 11 March 2009