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35 Years of Golf


35 Years of Golf

Author: Trent NikolicDate: 3 August 2011
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Back in 1976, Volkswagen planned to build only around 5000 Golf GTIs, and yet now, it’s just about to pass through two million units. Impressive. But not as impressive as the new anniversary model, called the GTI Edition 35 it’s more powerful and better looking than any other Golf GTI.

Visually, the GTI Edition 35 stands out thanks to its new front-end, which cops bi-xenon headlights with dynamic cornering and LED daytime running lights. The car’s aerodynamics have been improved upon with the addition of winglets (air flow surfaces) positioned at lower outboard areas in front.

Around at the side, the Edition 35 runs gloss black wing mirror housings, while the side steps are body coloured. There’s a 35 Edition badge on the front wing. All Golf GTI Edition 35 cars are also equipped with smoked LED rear lights, an LED-illuminated license plate at the rear and smoked rear windows. In Australia, the Golf GTI Edition 35 will only be available in a five-door body style.

Volkswagen has developed new, standard 18-inch "Watkins Glen" alloy wheels for the Golf GTI Edition 35 (named after a US racetrack in New York). The wheels, fitted with 225/40 R18 tyres, are available in one light-coloured version ("Silver") and can be ordered in one dark-coloured version ("Grey Metallic") as an option. The five spokes on this wheel are painted black, while the rim itself is machine-polished.

In terms of colours, Volkswagen Australia is offering this Golf in two gloss colours "Candy White" and "Tornado Red", one metallic paint, called "Carbon Steel Grey", and one in the pearl effect "Deep Black".

Inside, the gear shifter has been styled in the classic golf ball look of the original. New decorative strips in the cockpit area and the door trim panels ("Black Array"), special door sill plates with worked-in ‘35’ logo, safety belts with red stripes and a ‘35’ integrated in the front of the head restraints at the top of the sport seats ("Jacky" style). As an option, customers can choose "Vienna" leather appointed seat upholstery in "Titan Black" combined with active-breathing microfibres (also in black) for the centre seat panels.

The ‘35’ logo appears on the backs of the seats, and all decorative seams of this seat design are in “Flash Red". Also always in red there are decorative seams around the three spoke sport steering wheel, the hand brake and gear shift trim as well as the borders of the floor mats.

Lurking under the bonnet is a detuned version of the current Golf R’s turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, making 173kW (up 18 kW compared to a standard Golf GTI) and 300Nm (up by 20Nm). Acoustically, the GTI already sounds pretty good, but tuning of the sound actuator makes it even sportier in this special edition.

Despite its performance, the Golf GTI Edition 35 is also very fuel efficient, offering a combined fuel consumption of 8.3L/100km with a manual gearbox. In the DSG version, this is improved upon, returning 8.2 litres per 100 km.

Like all GTIs, the Edition 35 is equipped with a sport chassis; the body sits 15mm lower than on a conventional Golf. Working in front is the familiar MacPherson suspension with helical springs and telescoping dampers. At the rear, the multi-link suspension ensures that the ESP system seldom needs to be activated. The Volkswagen’s four disc brakes are also extremely strong: braked from 100km/h, the Golf GTI Edition 35 reaches a standstill in just 35 metres.

The Golf GTI Edition 35 is a very limited offering. Pricing starts at $43,490 for Golf GTI Edition 35 with six-speed manual transmission and from $45,990 for Golf GTI Edition 35 with six-speed DSG transmission.

 

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