sra (04/01/83)
I recently bought (8 days ago) a Rabbit GTI, and it is definiteny the best buy in the market. It cost about $9K with options: deluxe radion opening vent windows and floor mats (no AC). You get a choice of four colors: black, white, silver and red. I got black with a blue interior - the most pleasing color combination I have seen. It comes standard with all kinks of good stuff: Pirelli racing tires, light alloy mags, rear wiper/washer, front air dam, Scirocco-like seats (imported from Germany), extra gauges, etc. The engine is larger than a normal Rabbit, 1.8 liter instead of 1.7 liter, and it's made in Germany. The transmission is new too. Driving it is sheer pleasure. It seems to have infinite acceleration. It will instantly accelerate no matter what speed I am going in any gear (even 25 mph in 5th!!). It handles very nicely, takes corners well and rides smoothly at high speeds (unlike the standard Rabbit). It's hard to believe it's American made. All of the reviews that have been written about the GTI are true. It out-performs everything in its class, including the BMW 320i, Supra, 280ZX, Scirocco, and comes very close to the Saab turbo. The interior is rather tastefully finished - nice seat fabric, padded dash, most of the luxuries the Rabbit doesn't have. I have plenty of head and foot room, and being 6-2 I need it. Don't let its plain appearance fool you - the GTI is fantastic. Scott Abbot BTL-MV mvuxt!sa
nyles (04/06/83)
#R:hocda:-24700:zinfandel:3200023:000:370 zinfandel!nyles Apr 2 11:06:00 1983 I hear that in Europe, the GTI is turbocharged, so instead of around 90 Hp, it gets somewhere around 130. Is it possible to find a turbo for the GTI in America? I don't think they are available from the dealer... darn. Lord Morgon [...!decvax!sytek!zehntel!zinfandel!nyles] [...!teklabs!zehntel!zinfandel!nyles] Walnut Creek, CA 415/932-6900
guy (04/10/83)
No, the European GTI is not turbocharged. It is more highly tuned, and has
fewer emission controls, so it gets 112 horsepower (I believe this number
came from an Autocar - British - road test, so it's English horsepower, not
PS). There was (is?) a twin-cam model done by the Oettinger tuning firm
which had about 136 HP (and the *same* gas mileage as the regular 1600CC
GTI). Several firms offer turbochargers for the other US Rabbits; BAE in
California and Callaway in Connecticut. Callaway offers it with the
aforementioned twin-cam head. (There are, of course, European firms offering
turbos for the European model.) The factory was alleged to be working on
turbo Golf/Scirocco GTI models, but I don't know what came of them.
The Car & Driver article on the GTI had a VW person saying that the cam was
the stock US Federal 1.7 engine's cam, rather than a Federalized version of
the European cam, and said that this was done for better low-end/around-town
behavior than the European (1.6) engine. Since the reasons for going to the
1.8 in Europe were 1) to get better gas mileage for the same (or better)
performance, 2) to get better low-end behavior, and 3) to get the engine
power peak lower to keep it quieter when cruising, I'm not sure I believe
this. I suspect they may find another 10 or so horsepower under the rug
in a year or two...
Guy Harris
RLG Corporation
{seismo,mcnc,we13}!rlgvax!guy