BBC TV - 'The Car's the Star' - VW Golf GTi - 1997 (Old Top Gear)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] imagine you had to design the ideal car it would have to carry four people and their luggage be economical handle precisely and safely be value for money he's so well engineered it could cover a hundred and fifty thousand miles it would also have to be formidable if fast fashionable and fun to drive and own well it's already been done a couple of decades again and you're looking at it let me introduce you to the world's most complete car the original Golf GTI because we see something every day we take it for granted what's familiar becomes commonplace with the passage of time we've forgotten that VW's boxy little roller skate was a car apart the first to give power to the people the biggest thing that GTI did was to sell car enthusiasm to people who didn't even know they were interested in either cars or driving [Music] I would summarize the GTI by saying that it was the best car that I've ever driven [Music] in the future I think that we may try a mark 3 Golf GTI but I'll still keep my mark 1 because I think that it is actually the best crackerjack hot hatch in the world this is the story of one of the most influential and widely imitated motor cars in the world and one that kick-started an entirely new motoring craze from a culture of Prussian perfection came a trend-setting pocket rocket that gave birth to that eighties phenomenon the hot hatch and it's a car that very nearly didn't happen [Music] in the beginning there was a man who dreamed of a car for the people a man who nearly always got what he wanted the only good dream Hitler ever had that beaker went on to become the most popular car in the world but but the late sixties VW realized that they'd relied on their pensionable cherub a decade too long so in desperation they launched a modern beetle the 411 which promptly bombed then they tried their calamitous k70 which also bombed spectacularly but the early seventies they were seriously in the sherbet dip their model range was dull there was a worldwide energy crisis and they were bleeding 800 million Deutschmarks a year it was time for something completely different [Applause] [Music] VW never imagined that their light strong and sensible golf would become the perfect platform for a hot rod as early as 1969 they commissioned an air-cooled front-wheel drive beetle replacement the prototype of which was startlingly ugly VW tried again not all together successfully eventually German pragmatism gave way to Italian flair it was Giorgetto Giugiaro of eco design who came up with the shape of the car that was so perfectly in tune with its times [Music] he's up in that new car again when catch me in a Volkswagen it's not exactly big is it actually it's bigger than that no hocks he'll never get that lot in there anyway I don't like rear engine cars the engines in the front it's water-cooled back seats down - yeah you seem to know all about his car you've been in his car [Applause] for Volkswagen in the mid seventies with the boom years they had a message success on their hands the world was buying the golf as if it was the only car on the planet and two and a half years later they'd sold a million the golf put Volkswagen back into profit but there were a few enlightened souls who reckoned it was capable of even more a team of six of VW's motorsport engineers came up with a brilliant idea they would soup up the golf they would make it go like lightning they spent their evenings weekends and spare time stiffening the car stripping it out adding petrol injection and they instantly created a classic but they had one big problem convincing everybody else you could buy cars with high acceleration but these high acceleration cars always always have been connected and offered very brand with a specific image like BMW and Porsche what the brand which is called Volkswagen people's car and to offer people's car with such an advantage in in performance was somewhat for us that didn't fit together and the engineers finally convinced us and so what we tried it and it was one of the W's better decisions because the new hot golf caused apoplexy and the motoring press here was a car that was all things to all men yet without those determined engineers VW would have let one of the world's greatest cars slip through their fingers a potential error rivaled only by the bloke from Decker who said no to the Beatles but mercifully VW backed it all the way and the first GTI squealed on to German autobahns in 1976 it Wow everybody I know because I was there in 76 I was going out with a German girl who had one of the first GTI's our member was sitting in a set of traffic lights in downtown Munich when up pulls his bloke in a merc I looked at him he looked at me he looked at the car and we both knew my girlfriend egged me on saying go on you can do it you can take him so there I am my first ever drive in a GTI about to burn off this fat Merc boy races stuff but that was the thing about the GTI it made your hair fizz gave you a high and real buzz the lights changed I dropped the clutch and we sports down that road leaving the Merc for dead trouble wars it would take two years to get right-hand-drive GTI's back home one of the things people really liked about the Golf GTI was its simplicity it had everything you needed and no junk and that made it into a really essential tool it was made for going and it really did effectively go I remember finding out pretty soon after the launch just how fast the Golf GTI was some of us were in Wales testing a Ferrari 5 litre v12 180 mile an hour car and I was going to drive this thing pretty fast on some of these deserted roads and I set off for about 20 minutes driving as fast as I could being chased by somebody in a Golf GTI and I remember being severely embarrassed by just how quickly he he arrived on the scene as soon as I'd stopped it's back in 1984 one of these mark 1 GT eyes came into the garage I was working at as part of a path exchange and I had the job of checking the car over prior to it being resold and obviously part of that was to take it out for a road test it ended up being one of the longest protists that ever given any car it was quite a an interesting experience it was a revelation really I've never driven anything like it I've driven a lot of cars at that time and thought I knew what a good car was all about but it wasn't until I drove one of these that I realised just how good they really are in my view they over engineered the car from the factory and it shows by the fact that so many of them have lasted so well in the condition that you still see them today whereas the equivalent Ford would probably be on the scrapheap by now one of the most memorable things about motorway driving was how frustrating other drivers found the GTI I remember that you know you could very gently persuade BMW drivers to move out of the way as you steamed up behind them and also one day chap in a Ford Granada just threw his hands up and moved aside in complete frustration at the fact that he couldn't shake me from his tail next to the GTI and the competition were like diesel locomotives they were fragile noisy uncomfortable and rusty the GTI was the undisputed leader of the pack [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there were two really great things about the GTI first it could dance rings around cars that cost ten times as much and secondly it flattered you it made you think you were a good driver changing gear was like spooning honey the seats just hugged you like a lover the steering was a delight and it went round corners like a banshee on a skateboard in the 80s I drove little else I had six marked ones in a row and love them to bits and then getting back into one ten years later you can see why they were just so remarkable they really were the next best thing to Michelle Pfeiffer [Applause] suddenly the GTI was the happening car of the 80s thrusting and quick-witted it became an achievers car the ideal accessory for decade obsessed with designs style and assertiveness she told us to work hard while she told us to pose hard the GTI did both [Music] even the Americans who usually preferred their cars the size of super tankers wrote an open letter to Volkswagen begging them to sell GTI's in the States give Americans a reason they implored to leave their Porsches at home but other car makers were chewing at VW's coattails in nineteen eighty four dimm press but the GTI's success came up with a clone of their own the XR 3 I think Ford definitely did copy the GTI concept with the XR 3 they would probably admit it if they weren't you know talking publicly it was a very good idea they could see the way the market responded to it and they they went at it as hard as they could go the XR 3 duly became the top-selling GTI car in Britain even without fuel injection the XR 3 was turning heads but the GTI seemed to be turning too many it was a victim of its own success if you couldn't afford one you simply helped yourself those three emotive letters had become a liability [Music] [Music] GTI now stood for guaranteed theft item [Music] from juveniles and joyriders two captains and Colonels the GTI's appeal was universal middle-class professionals admired its intelligent design and almost military precision on a barracks in North London we found three each fiercely admired by every age sex and rank [Music] when I first joked drove the car the acceleration is quite phenomenal compared to my previous Ford Escort and I loved it it's absolutely amazing and they're also top speed as well that's quite high but then I sort of thought about the cars engine and keep it nice and changing the oil every few thousand miles and all the rest of it there so rather than what sedate pace these days it was very fashionable amongst the military in the early 80s to have a Golf GTI and any sort of guards mess you walked into was had a line of black golf GTI's lined up outside I think they were popular because they had a bit of an image they were the sort of first hot hatchback they were sleek they were nippy and they would just go fast a car my wife who's carried actually is I suppose in theory is very keen on the appearance but and I'd like that too but the performance is its main claim to fame always was it had terrific reviews as you know and it's lived up to all of the expectations I had even to the breaks which are as you know distinctly iffy I've had about nine GTI so far and most of them have gone to family so my brothers have ended up with him when brother's got one the other brothers got to my brother-in-law's got one his girlfriend's got one my wife's got one I've got one and here's a small selection from the family fleet Peters obsession means that ownership is almost compulsive amongst his nearest and dearest they all agree it's a fine car but it's one that can rule your life probably that chief drawback of the car is they're such fun that you really do get hooked on them and the enthusiasm just takes off and so when Pete and I get together we just tend to end up talking about nothing else yeah do something with the pulling like you're anticipating marry them you know the main topic of conversation is gonna be gulfs and the magazine's come out you know and it's just so boring I don't really think they last that long well the problem with that is they're noisy ya know if you don't change the engine mounts like crackin all is really when you realized that the only thing that goes on in their heads that's the priority our GT is like Athena she got the 13 inch nine specs on you know cuz she changed it you know one super LEP wheels on yeah yeah but if you think that's obsessive behavior you haven't heard the half of it [Music] modifying mark-1 GTI's has become a Street cult you name it they change it but why Gilda Lily that doesn't need gilding I think really start a basic sadness in my makeup initially a bombing mark on Golf GTI as a cheap durable quicker just together by a race armor system unfortunately I fell in love with a car and what it could do and I wanted more it has its own individuality there are even with say X or threes or such other vehicles they just don't have the individuality because I like to improve the car in every aspect and it just looks so much better and handles better when you lower it make it go faster stop better the mark 1 GTI is the original and best of all hot hatchbacks I just try to make something that's already the best better but some reckon that the best should not be bettered that the original GTI in its purest form is an emergent classic this car is a classic car three reasons classic car magazine listed as an insurable classic I have insured it as a classic because it's over ten years old and they are now becoming very hard to get and people come up to me in the street and say will you sell it that is a classic car to their credit Volkswagen never lost sight of what made the GTI great they spent a whole hill of money making the mark - more refined but managed to keep most of its personality and panache and the latest city slick mark three might use modernity but it can still trace its bloodline all the way back to that matchless mark one of 76 the mark 1 Golf GTI was the first cheap performance car that you did not have to suffer to own and that is why it started a trend which endures today and it will endure for another 20 years I don't see why not the GTI revolutionized the way we think about little cars it was the first the finest and the most widely imitated small fast car in the world it gave high tech handling and budget performance to millions of motorists it might not have wire wheels or leather seats below snorty or multi can be rented but it's a real classic in the truest sense of the word you didn't really think we were going to drop it did you if only all cards were as enduring as a GTI a car that's small but perfectly formed next week at 10 past 10 the Fiat 500 is the star [Music]

Channel: gud6y

Views: 2,137

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: BBC, top gear, quentin willson, vw, volkswagen, golf, gti, golf gti, volkswagen golf, volkswagen golf gti, vw golf gti, vw golf, the cars the star

Id: mdF0g7YNlaM

Length: 18min 57sec (1137 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2020