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Resurrecting the GTIs of yore
New VW GTI has same jump, styling that made Sciroccos, Corrados wonders to drive
David Booth
National Post; CanWest News Service

For an entire generation of sports car fans, impoverished in their university years and nurtured by the pages of Road & Track, Karmann-Ghias, Sciroccos, GTIs and, my personal Veedub fave, the Corrado, were attainable near-exotica offering European sophistication and flavour at an almost affordable price.

In most recent years, however, Volkswagen lost its edge and, it must be said, some of its loyal followers. The sedans became heavier, the hatches much less hot and, thanks to the direction of former CEO Ferdinand Piech, the sticker tags became seriously bloated. Volkswagen's solution was to try to foist the S-Class wannabe Phaeton and an eight-cylinder Passat on a North America that still saw Volkswagen as "The People's Car."

The most recent rendition of the Passat was the first indication things were back on course. It might still be 10 per cent more expensive than its direct competitors, but at least it offered tangible advantages in the luxury and performance arenas.

The all-new GTI is of a similar ilk. Its most obvious competitor is the Civic Si, the high-revving V-TEC-powered Honda that, at 197 horsepower, offers almost as much power as the 200-hp GTI with a price tag almost $5,000 less wallet-busting.

And, while I'm on the topic of advantages the Volkswagen gives away to the Honda, consider that high-speed handling, once the exclusive purview of European compacts and the bane of Asian models, is now a Honda forte. Oh, the GTI is sweet-steering, balanced and all that, but its suspension is surprisingly looser than the Honda's.

It's not limp or underdamped but simply calibrated for more comfort than the Si. Pitch it into a corner and, while it'll hold a line well enough, there's more body roll than one expects from such a sporty car.

In virtually every other department save the radio's reception, the Volkswagen reigns supreme.

The engines, for instance, both displace about two litres and develop roughly 200 horsepower apiece. But, apart from those basic specifications, the Honda and Volkswagen four-bangers are as different as night and day or, more accurately, normally aspirated and turbocharged.

The Honda gets all its power by adding variable valve timing and then revving those four tiny little pistons to the moon. Max power for the Si doesn't arrive until 7,800 r.p.m., and the torque peak occurs at a similarly lofty 6,200. Even then, it's only producing 139 pound-feet, barely 10 more than the base 1.8L EX.

The GTI's 2.0T, though, is lifted from the larger, heavier Passat as well as the Audi A3 and A4. Not only is its horsepower peak at a much more reasonable 5,100 r.p.m., but the turbocharged four has a relatively King Kong-like 207 pound-feet of torque available as low as 1,800 r.p.m. Response in the relatively light GTI (1,406 kilograms) is instantaneous at virtually any r.p.m., the GTI surging ahead like there's a V6 under the hood. Acceleration is also accompanied by a snarl that wouldn't be out of place on a race track starting grid. Most four-bangers sound flatulent when seriously revved. Not the GTI, which generates sounds that are positively electric to sports car aficionados.

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