Volkswagen Golf looks to history for GTD inspiration

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