I thought it would be a good to have a ‘though time’ series on the blog that looks back at all of the previous models of a car all the way up to today’s incarnation. I was going to start with the Beetle given that the new 2012 car has just been released, but then I realised that I knew nothing about the older ‘oval’ etc Beetles and would only get slated in the comments.
So, to start us off I have decided to play it safe and go for the most popular and highest selling VW of all, the Volkswagen Golf.
Mk1 Golf – 1974 to 1984
Mk1 Golf
The Mk1 Golf was first manufactured in May 1974 and was a front wheel drive replacement for the classic VW Beetle designed by the famous designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. The Golf was sold in the US and Canada as the VW Rabbit and in Mexico as the VW Caribe.The Mk1 Golf came in a number of different forms, including the GTI which was introduced in 1976, the Diesel-powered version also in 1976, the VW Jetta saloon in 1979, the Cabriolet in 1980 and a Golf-based pickup, the Caddy. The GTI Golf is well known for being the first ‘hothatch’ with a 1.6 injection fed engine driving 112bhp through the front wheels. The GTI was born from a ‘pet project’ of a couple of enthusiastic VW engineers who decided that it would be fun to stick more power in the popular little hatch. Once the car was finished the VW board decided that they liked it so much that they would develop a production version and the GTI was born.
There were a number of limited edition cars, but one of the most interesting Mk1 Golfs was the Oettinger tuned 16S that was only available in France. The 16S was created due to arrival of the Renault 5 Turbo to the hothatch scene and VW feeling like they needed more power to compete with the tiny turbo-ed pocket rocket. The inlet manifold alone is beautiful and worth the extra money for the car.
Oettinger Mk1 Golf 16S
Mk2 Golf – 1983 to 1992
Mk2 Golf
The Mk2 Golf was introduced in 1983 to replace the 10 year old Mk1. The Mk2 Golf was slightly larger than its older brother with a longer wheel base (by 75mm) and larger overall exterior dimensions. The mk2′s design was kept in-house at VW and was overseen by the design director Schäfer, who kept the overall look of the Mk1 with a more rounded look. The new Mk2 GTI continued where the Mk1 GTI left off with a 1.8 8v K-Jet injection fed engine producing 112bhp. In 1986 VW released a 1.8 16v version of the mk2 into the UK market which boasted a whopping 139bhp. The US and Canadian market were later given a 2.0l 16v version of the mk2 powered by the same 9A ‘bubble block’ engine found in the Corrado and Passat outside of the US.
Similarly to the Mk1 Golf, the Mk2 had many limited editions including the Fire and Ice, Golf country, Golf G60 and Golf Rallye. One of the last special editions that VW created using the Mk2 chassis was the Golf Limited. The Limited was created by the VW Motorsport division with only 71 cars ever being made (all of which went to staff). The Limited was based on the Golf Rallye with 4 WD and a supercharged 1.8. The difference between the Rallye and the Limited was while the Golf Rallye was powered by a supercharged 1.8 8v engine producing 160bhp the limited was fitted with a supercharged 1.8 16v engine producing 210bhp. The Limited was only produced in black with 5drs (there was 2 3dr cars made, one of which is in the VW museum and the other is written off, as far as i can research) with BBS RMs, small bumpers and a very distinctive blue strip around the grille instead of a red stripe.
Golf Limited
Mk3 Golf – 1991 to 1999
Mk3 Golf
The mk3 Golf was put into production in 1991 in Europe and 1993 in the US and is considered by many to be the start of the Golf ‘getting fat’. The Mk3 Golf featured new smoother styling than the previous two Golf models and put on some extra weight taking the Golf from just under 1000kg to 1155kg (for the VR6).
The Mk3 Golf was the first Golf to include the now famous VR6 engine. The VR6 engine was designed by VW with the purpose of being able to produce a FWD car with 6 cylinders. VW achieved this by taking a normal V6 engine and narrowing the V to only 15 degrees. this allowed for a smaller block and only one head instead of two (one for each bank of cylinders). This allowed for an increase displacement and more power within a relatively small area without using forced induction.
The Mk3 2.8l VR6 produced 174bhp and propelled the chubby Golf to 60 in 7.1 seconds. Mk3 VR6′s are still sort after today with the VR6 being the fastest Mk3 available and the engine delivering an addictive sound when on full chant.
The Mk3 Golf had many different special editions, including the 20th anniversary GTI edition, which was a limited run of 1000 cars built to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the GTI. Out of the 1000 cars built 600 8 valve models, 150 16 valve models and 250 TDI models. Other special editions include the Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, New Orleans, Europe, Avenue, Movie, Joker, Savoy, Special and Harlequin edition.
The Harlequin edition was based on the Golf GL and included limited edition Harlequin paint scheme, limited edition Harlequin sport cloth seats, and silver-faced gauges. They were offered with several different wheel options. Only 600 were made available in Europe.
Mk3 Golf Slammed Harlequin
That’s all for now, find the Mk4 to 6 sometime soon.
) I found something a little different in both the VW and HotRod world. The following video is of a GSXR motor bike engined VW Beetle HotRod that has been built by Hudlow Axle in Georgia.
