Remember when cars were all about driving fun and no one cared about fuel emissions and safety standards? It may sound peculiar and possibly dangerous to our younger crowd, but the rest of us already have a favorite model in mind.
If one of the cars you have in mind is the one that started the whole hot hatch segment, original Volkswagen Golf GTI, you’re in for a treat as this is an owner’s take on it.
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The main star of the short film put together by South Africa’s Cars came to life in 1984 and is a five-door model. No typos here, because while the rest of the world got their Golf GTIs with three doors, it was sold as a five-door in South Africa, where the front-wheel drive hot hatch was made for one more year after 1983, when production officially ceased up north.
The 1.8-liter inline-four that’s coupled to a five-speed manual transmission produces 110 HP at 5,800 rpm and 113 lb-ft (153 Nm) of torque at 3,500 rpm, and loves to be revved up to 6,500 rpm. That might not seem like much by modern standards, but it is still very rewarding, especially on a twisty road, where the whole car comes to life. The throttle response is great, yet the short gear ratios will make you work for it.
Now, we will let the owner take it from here, so if you want to find more about the original GTI you can watch the following video.