1983 Volkswagen Golf Mk1 GTI
There is a particular generation of petrol-heads that, in amongst the posters of the Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari BB 512, would have undoubtedly had a piece of wall space allocated to the original Hot Hatch, The Volkswagen Golf GTI.
1983 Volkswagen Golf GTI
There is a particular generation of petrol-heads that, in amongst the posters of the Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari BB 512, would have undoubtedly had a piece of wall space allocated to the original Hot Hatch, The Volkswagen Golf GTI. The infamous pocket rocket made its debut all the way back in 1975 and has been attracting fans ever since.
We at HERO are also big admirers of the instantly recognisable hatch, and it is with great pleasure that we have just added our very own 1983 Golf GTI Mk1, to the fleet of HERO arrive and drive machines, this particular example being presented in sumptuous Mars Red. This iconic vehicle is now classed as a modern classic and will no doubt bring back memories to lots of people from their formative years.
Indeed the GTI even has routes in motorsport, and some of us may remember the likes of Pekka Eklund and Jochi Kleint campaigning the Group A spec GTI to modest success in world championship rallies, and whilst VW’s main motor-racing triumphs came much later down the line with the Polo, it is testament to the popularity of the model that it achieved homologation at all, something that VW didn’t expect to realise when it originally debuted the model at the ’75 Frankfurt motor show.
Although lots of cars came after the GTI this is the one that started a new sector in the automotive history and is still thought of by many as the original “Hot Hatch”. This car is sure to be fun to drive, with plenty of useable power coming from the easy breathing 4-cylinder powerplant, comfortable across distance and a great introduction to the sport of regularity rallying and a perfect match for our events. You could do a lot worse than use this as the vessel for your next rallying challenge.