VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI CLUBSPORT
IT IS SAFE TO SAY THE LATEST GENERATION of fast Volkswagen Golf has not been accorded the rapturous reception its creators may have hoped for and, given the breed’s recent past, expected too. And not without reason: it’s been 18 years since the fifth generation of Golf GTI made its public debut and if there’s been a duffer since, I’ve not driven it. By returning to first principles and creating a car that was as easy to live with as it was fun to drive, the Mk V GTI banished the memory of the awful Mks III and IV to history, cementing itself firmly as the thinking man or woman’s hot hatch. It was a position the Mk VI and VII GTIs merely reinforced.