At the end of the day, everybody has their personal preference and you can make each model into something special! Mk3 brought the only decent sounding engine note to the golf range though, and it wasn't a GTi, yep, that's right, a VR6 Shame it needs so much spent on it to rev in an appropriate manner!
I appreciate all vw's. but ive never ever understood the fascination with the VR6 engine. Heavy and underpowered. 170bhp? For an engine that size, i dont see the attraction. surely its not JUST the noise people go for?
thats my thoughts on it, a near three litre V6 engine putting out less than 200bhp, i see as shameful. maybe i expect to much and power crazed but i'd expect 240bhp as a minimum from that as std.
Says the Man with a Corrado derived 2.9 VR6 engine Oh, and of course the VR6 Test Mule? Yep thats right, The Mk2. Its all about the torque, and having it nearly all the way through the rev range. That and the noise. How about 500bhp* on a Standard Bottom end? That enough? * ok, so you technically might need a turbo and spacer gasket and it might apparently be as heavy as granite, but its as strong as granite too
we had the whole VR6/power conversation in great depth not so long ago. MK2 gti was the best, majority will probably agree with that? As above, I like all golfs, some less than others (mk4 1.8t) but even then I think the MK4 R32/Anniversary are the best looking golfs by a mile!!!! all are good at something.... MK3's are good at being cheap incase you were wondering lol
Comparing apples to apples , when BMW bought out the E36 328i in the early mid 90s, at a similar time to when the VR6 was introduced, it was sub 200bhp from the same capacity, 6 cylinder engine. Ford's Mondeo V6 again introduced in mid 90s, 2.5 24v 170ish bhp. R32 is descendent to the VR6 lump and that's 240ps from 3.2, you could argue that has a low output compared to say an M3 engine in an E46 @ 340ps...
From memory so may not be exact but in the ballpark: Mk3 Cd: 0.30 Mk5 Cd: 0.32 I think Mk1 was something like 0.40 for comparison.
Well ive had 3 Mk2's, 3 Mk3's, 2 Mk4's and 1 Mk5 all in relatively standard form, out of all of them the ones I liked or cared about the least were the Mk3's.
IMO the fact that the Mk5 is good to drive is due to a dozen or so computers working like hell to make a big heavy car change direction properly, not to mention another dozen to make it go & stop. I don't understand how you can get driver satisfaction from that, and driver satisfaction is what GTIs are supposed to be about
Rubbish. Computers have sod all to do with making a mk5 GTI change direction. Times change, the current hot hatches are all heavy and bigger than the old school Golfs we have, you have to respect what the engineers do to these 'bigger' hatches to make them perform as well as they do.
No they don't. I have one in my mk2, but that's got bugger all to do with it. Hands up who have driven a mk5 GTI any distance and give your views on the car.
Drove one for about 20minutes down some back roads of Kent - lovely interior, great sounding engine and power delivery was soooo much nicer than 1.8 20VT. Handling was good, but couldn't really say I was pushing it that hard as had owner next to me and didn't know the roads that well. massive improvement over mk3/4 though
I'm not disputing them being good cars but if all the fancy electronics weren't there surely it would just understeer like a pig. If you're happy to let the electronics do it all for you then you may as well play granturismo & save a fortune in petrol
Come on Gary, you know the rules of the internet, nobody needs first hand experience of anything to know they are right
what is it you think a mk5 has mate?? some sort of FWD active yaw control or something?? they have traction control, ESP (probably!!!) The suspension and chassis has a lot more to do with how well they handle than electronic gizmo's etc. If we were talking about a GTR or Evo or something I would be in total agreement, as they are fast cars through extremely complex 4WD systems... but i don't think mk5's are the same as that
I think its time you stopped talking male dangly bits. There is not a single electrical conponent on the car that has anyting to do with the handling on it in anyway. Stop your nonsense. With reference to Gran Turismo, every single car in that game has TCS ASM including the Citroen 2CV
