RE: Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport: Driven

[andrewparker]

EVO video review here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wfr6Ge_XHE&fe...

"The best quick Golf on sale today"

[j90gta]

Case of "The Emperor's New Clothes"; it's a limited edition Golf so it must be good!

JMF894 said:

Frankly VW should be embarrassed tagging this with the 'clubsport ' moniker. The stripped out, two seater, caged Megane is how to do 'clubsport' and the new Focus RS is how you do proper mega hatch fun for the family man.

Absolutely right. This is more of a Gentleman's Club-sport!!

[CS400]

Mojocvh said:

How well do the headlights work when in the face of oncoming traffic in dipped beam on a wet and dirty Norfolk B road at speed?

These things mark the usable from the merely mundane ..

I realise this is somewhat off topic but why do you mention this?

[CS Garth]

Totally wasted opportunity in my view. Not offering the Michelin Sports on the lighter wheels is madness.

This is a marketing exercise pure and simple. They should have gone the R26R route, junking the backseat etc.

[h5lrw]

That'll be people like me.
Paid for a build slot back in September.

Was looking into an "R" would kick myself if i missed a chance for a special edition from new.

[Scottie - NW]

Dion20vt said:

If you bought one of these, you would feel as though you'd have to explain why you bought it??? "oooh i bought it because it's exclusive.... and better than a regular GTi". That may be true, but the R is the elephant in the room.

Buy one of these and you'll be one of "those" who has to explain why its better and costs more than a regular GTI... And why a Golf R wasnt "the right choice" for you.

I pity the sadness of life of the person you describe who feels like they have to justify their choices to others. I buy the car I want that best fits my needs/wants/budget and frankly don't give a st what anyone else thinks.

[T1berious]

I'm missing the point here, but surely a stripped out R would have made more sense as a "special edition"?

Lower the weight, trick dampers, new seats, 3 door only, a little more power, pared back interior and a special edition plaque? And get the guys on the GT4 Chassis work to give it a proper going over.

Oh and a couple of "unique colours" star mist blue and nuked orange burst..

VW my consultancy fees invoice is in the post....

[SuperchargedVR6]

hufggfg said:

SuperchargedVR6 said:

Losing 100kgs is a big task in a road car VW want to sell to a wider audience. It's easily doable, but you'd be left with a bare skeleton of a car inside, which will be noisy. Typical German car buyers expect a certain level of quality, and they would walk away from Perspex windows, flimsy plastic wings and cosmetic bracing in place of rear seats.

But that's the whole point of a "Clubsport", it's not supposed to appeal to the "typical German car buyer" or "wider audience", it's supposed to be a stripped back more focused machine.

If they'd lost 150kgs, purposefully set it up to be much more playful/adjustable at the limit, produced it in limited numbers, but at a higher cost, then I think they would have got a lot of positive press reviews about how they'd really created something great. Sure, there would be people that would complain it wasn't £10k cheaper and available on a 0% lease, but it would have been a great halo, and fitting of the name - Clubsport.

Says who? Clubsport is just a sticker. It is not a set of directives all car manufacturers must follow in order to use said sticker.

Ignored the fact it has a better 'proper LSD' than a Quaife ATB, you have. Ignored the fact it is as fast as the Golf R on track, you have. Ignored the fact it is a lot quicker than a regular GTI, you have. How much more 'clubsport' does it need to be? If all 'Clubsport' means to people is binning the interior & stiffening the ride, I can do that myself with some basic hand tools.

You know it, I know it, everyone knows it - VW will never sell a car to the public that is built like a Megane Trophy R. If people want bugger all sound deadening, orange wheels, ugly bodywork & rock hard suspension that makes it a terrible road car, they know which dealership to walk into.

[MrBarry123]

T1berious said:

I'm missing the point here, but surely a stripped out R would have made more sense as a "special edition"?

Lower the weight, trick dampers, new seats, 3 door only, a little more power, pared back interior and a special edition plaque? And get the guys on the GT4 Chassis work to give it a proper going over.

Oh and a couple of "unique colours" star mist blue and nuked orange burst..

VW my consultancy fees invoice is in the post....

People bork at the idea of a £30k Golf, let alone what'd be a £50k+ Golf.

[Dion20vt]

Scottie - NW said:

Dion20vt said:

If you bought one of these, you would feel as though you'd have to explain why you bought it??? "oooh i bought it because it's exclusive.... and better than a regular GTi". That may be true, but the R is the elephant in the room.

Buy one of these and you'll be one of "those" who has to explain why its better and costs more than a regular GTI... And why a Golf R wasnt "the right choice" for you.

I pity the sadness of life of the person you describe who feels like they have to justify their choices to others. I buy the car I want that best fits my needs/wants/budget and frankly don't give a st what anyone else thinks.

Good way to be sir! Hence why I love driving old Volvo's and the rest of my mates are driving "mapped 535d's"! But you get the feeling this car is just about the "look at me in my special edition!"

[graeme4130]

Those are Audi's RS bucket seats as fitted as an option to RS4's old shape R8's TTRS and RS3's - They were about a £2.5k option on the B8 RS4, so I suspect they'll be similarly priced on this golf, no ?
Also, very steal-able, so make sure you get one with a good alarm


Golf



RS4;
|http://thumbsnap.com/qP3ylV5r[/url]

Edited by graeme4130 on Thursday 26th November 14:57

[aka_kerrly]

hufggfg said:

If they'd lost 150kgs.

Quick question for you, have you ever taken a standard road car, stripped all the interior leaving just 2 seats, removed all the sound deadening, electric gubbins like windows/stereo/air con?

I ask because I have had a couple of track cars based on standard road models and shifting 150kg of weight is no where near as easy as you are making out.

Given the mk7 Golf GTI 3 door manual weighs in at 1,348kg (source VW press release 2015) removing 150kg is not as simple as taking the rear seats & stereo out!

For reference a Renault Megane 275 Trophy is 1376kg (source Renault Technical spec 2015) and a Trophy R weighs 1297kg (same source) - R has no air con, no stereo, no rear seats , polycarbonate front seats, titanium exhaust but offset against bigger wheels/brakes so it's weight distribution in worse than a standard model (+1%)


So taking a Golf and removing 150kg takes it's weight below 1200kg!

[Guvernator]

Yep 150kg isn't really achievable without getting drastic but 50-70kg is which would have been enough to be noticeable.

I wish people would stop talking about ripping out the rear seats on a hot hatch though, totally pointless.

[CS Garth]

The main problem for me is that it is called a Clubsport. This conjures up images of a car which could be enjoyed for clubman level motorsport and so brings to mind optional cage, aggressive weight saving (150 is punchy yes but 80 would have been achievable).

So yes, a good car. It does not deserve a clubsport moniker to me. People will enjoy saying that have a GTI Clubsport though sounds good

[thiscocks]

Looks st

[motor mad]

I like the styling, but why make a more track focused Golf GTi with standard brakes and more power. The standard brakes on all GTI's I've driven haven't been the best, so to up the power and retain standard brakes is not a smart move.

[chedixon]

MrBarry123 said:

People bork at the idea of a £30k Golf, let alone what'd be a £50k+ Golf.

I'd have probably agreed with you until I see how much RS3's are costing specc'd up!

I think an R400 would sell around that figure based upon the RS3 sales.

(as crazy as I'm sure we all think that is!)

[hufggfg]

TBH, I just used 150kgs as an example. You're totally right of course, 150kgs is probably not realistic, but I assume you get what I'm saying. This can is not a clubsport in the normal ethos of lightweight, communicative (but of course less refined) car. I'm sure there will be lots of people who want one, but its not something that gets my blood pumping.

SuperchargedVR6 said:

Says who? Clubsport is just a sticker. It is not a set of directives all car manufacturers must follow in order to use said sticker.

Of course, they can call it whatever they want, and we can all argue semantics, but I think most of us were hoping for something a little bit more towards the "involving" end:

Article said:

Clubsport or not, it's still a Golf GTI and a more mature, rounded, street-biased car than its looks and brief might suggest.

[Guvernator]

When I first heard about a "Clubsport" Golf, it certainly conjured up visions of something other than a Golf with a remap and a bodykit. However what we've got is closer to those embarrassing "special editions" that often get churned out when cars aren't selling so well.

[bigvanfan]

graeme4130 said:

Those are Audi's RS bucket seats as fitted as an option to RS4's old shape R8's TTRS and RS3's - They were about a £2.5k option on the B8 RS4, so I suspect they'll be similarly priced on this golf, no ?
Also, very steal-able, so make sure you get one with a good alarm


Golf



RS4;
|http://thumbsnap.com/qP3ylV5r[/url]

Edited by graeme4130 on Thursday 26th November 14:57

They were £925 on my mk5 gti so maybe £1400 now ??