Fifty years after the Golf GTI established the hot hatch formula, Volkswagen is celebrating with its most powerful production GTI yet – the Golf GTI Edition 50.
But with a price starting at around £48,000, does this 325 PS anniversary special genuinely represent the ultimate evolution of the GTI, or has Volkswagen pushed its famous hot hatch too far upmarket?
Vicki Butler-Henderson gets behind the wheel to find out.
What is the Golf GTI Edition 50?
Created to mark five decades of the Golf GTI, the Edition 50 turns up the performance with 325 PS and 420 Nm of torque, making it the most powerful production GTI Volkswagen has offered.
Performance is suitably serious. Volkswagen claims 0-62 mph in 5.3 seconds, while the Edition 50 can reach a top speed of 168 mph.
Those figures put it well beyond the performance territory occupied by the original GTI – but Vicki isn’t simply taking Volkswagen’s numbers at face value.
Using launch control, she carries out two timed acceleration runs to see just how close the Edition 50 can get to that claimed 5.3-second benchmark.
Nürburgring record breaker
The Edition 50 also arrives with some serious Nürburgring credentials.
Volkswagen says the car set a front-wheel-drive production-car lap record around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, beating the previous benchmark established by the Honda Civic Type R by just 0.3 seconds.
That’s an exceptionally narrow margin, but it demonstrates just how far Volkswagen has developed the GTI’s front-wheel-drive chassis and performance potential.
Driving the Edition 50
Straight-line speed and Nürburgring lap times only tell part of the story.
The Golf GTI has built its reputation by combining performance with everyday usability, so Vicki takes the Edition 50 onto the road to discover whether the additional power and sharper focus have enhanced the familiar GTI character – or compromised the qualities that made the car such an enduring success.
And then there’s the price.
At around £48,000, the Edition 50 is a very different proposition from the affordable performance hatch that started the GTI story five decades ago.
So, after 50 years of evolution, has Volkswagen finally created the best Golf GTI ever?
Vicki Butler-Henderson finds out.
