Motor-Vision has driven the new seven-gen VW Golf and it’s a pretty sweet-chassis-starting place so far. But, no GTI yet. So, this new Golf GTD hot diesel is the quickest new Golf around right now, all 182bhp and a ton of turbodiesel torque of it.

VW GOLF GTD Feature

So, you want your performance cake, and you want to eat it? Every last juicy crumb? Fair play, I can’t blame you, and in these troubled times when budgets are tighter than Kylie’s squeakiest hot pants, it’s a welcome relief for petrol-heads, sorry, diesel-heads, to get word of VW’s latest Golf GTD. The hot diesel Golf. And here she is ahead of her full public debut at the Geneva Motor Show in early March.

The Golf GTD not only looks pretty tidy in its own right, it also gives us a bit of an early window onto what the new Golf GTI will look like. While we know that VW rarely go wild with their GTI styling – preferring menacing subtly – Golf fans, of which there are many, will be pleased to see the latest generation of one of the world’s best selling cars looking performance-edgy in its new GTD suit.

This new GTD outfit consists of smoked-lens LED taillights with LED numberplate illumination, along with twin chrome exhaust pipes, five-double-spoke 17-inch alloys, deeper side skirts, a cheeky dash of a rear diffuser, lower and stiffer sports suspension and a bigger roof-tip spoiler. So, yes, subtle over psycho, but it’s always been the on-road go-go that talks loudest with hot Golfs.

Acceleration to 62mph comes in a pretty pokey 7.5 seconds in the (optional) 6-speed DSG (double-clutch) Golf GTD, while the top speed is a plentiful 142mph. And, with a full fat 380Nm of turbo grunt on tap from just 1,750rpm, the dark-oiled one is likely to impress on back lane dashes; short shifting all the way on a juicy wave of torque. Lovely stuff.

All of this dreamy, 2-litre, 182bhp back lane fun comes at a palatable fuel-price too, with the 6-speed manual GTD hitting an almost incredible 109g/km of CO2 output – there are feeble little city runabouts out there with the same CO2. With the manual car bringing 67.3mpg to the table too, I think VW deserve a slap on the back for this one. If it drives as well as the new Golfs I’ve already tried – but with a little preferred – for me – stiffer suspension and a lower stance, then this could be a right little cracker of a jazzy oil burner.

The Golf GTD will cost around £25k in the UK, with sales starting in April and deliveries in the summer. Naughty and nice…


Golf GTD gets Tartan sports seats

 

By Dan Anslow

 

Like What You’ve Read?

For more articles like this, receive our weekly e-newsletter, including partner deals and all things motoring, register your email below.

Please note: You cannot subscribe to Smart-Motoring unless you put a tick in the checkbox below to indicate have read and agreed to our privacy policy.

Leave a Reply