VW Golf GTI Clubsport: Still The Best
VW GOLF GTI CLUBSPORT
Words: Alessandro Marrone
Photography: Lomax Photos
It’s too late to ask for an extra Christmas present? Too bad, because after spending a few weeks with the new Clubsport, I feel the physical need to have one. Who would have thought that the Golf GTI, always in first place in the preferences regarding hot-hatches, could have been even better, so as to make the most powerful R seem superfluous and the standard GTI light years away?! I swear that if this comes back in my hands, I’ll run away in Prison Break style – and you will not see me anymore. Volkswagen you got it! What may seem like a delirium due to the freezing cold of these days, it is nothing but the desire to return to grab tight the alcantara steering wheel, fix the red stitching in the center and shoot all the possible gears through its DSG, so long as we both shall live.
So I find myself celebrating a model created to celebrate another model, because the GTI Clubsport is a well-deserved tribute to the GTI dynasty, born 40 years ago and that through the decades has changed appearance, but kept the center on driving pleasure and a dynamic that allows everyone, even the less experienced drivers, to take advantage of a growing power accompanied by an unparalleled ease of driving. The Clubsport collects all the inputs of previous models, and elevates them to the nth degree, thanks to its 2-liter 4-cylinder turbo and 265 horses, which become 290 during overboost. A remarkable power for a car that maintains traction on the front wheels and that puts its great ambition in the total handling and responsiveness thanks to a very good self-locking differential. In this very model, the transmission is a 6-speed dual-clutch – fast, accurate, intuitive and always ready to satisfy my desire to fling the tachometer needle to the red line, pinching the paddles behind the steering wheel and dumping from the four tailpipes that unmistakable snort. The sound is enhanced only when you drive as a real maniac, for the rest, also because of a very good sound-proofing, there is the constant desire to increase the decibels and so I find myself at full throttle, cutting corners as if I were on track at Monza and risking more points on my driving license than miles driven. It’s not my fault if I’m damn eager to indulge my less conservative instincts! Leaving the town centers becomes a habit, looking for the most winding and isolated roads is now a real addiction, and so, once traction control is disabled, I’m free to sink the right foot on the gas, handle a shy lightening of the front and thank VW for leaving it to me with summer tires. At every turn you move a little beyond the braking time, down violent out of every curve and it seems not wanting to slip out. It almost struggle, but does not give up – not a bit of fatigue and then you want more. The next corner draws itself as an hairpin, so I widen, close to the inside and fling myself on the gas the worst way I could – it’s there. Easily straighten the steering wheel and I sling to the next corner, happy as a child who is finally trying his new toy. The chassis is exceptional, stiff to the right point but never annoying, even on the worst bumpy roads. Brakes are seemingly tireless and only after a very intensive use invite you to lighten a bit, but at that moment you realize that you have not simply exaggerated – you have literally set fire to the powder. Tired? No. Heart pounding? Are you joking?
The ease with which you can take speed and keep it is disarming. On a curvy road, I believe that a very few sports cars are able to keep a similar pace and having chosen not to use a four-wheel drive can lead to a gap in acceleration (especially when slippery), but saves some pound of weight, which goes to the benefit of tight cornering speeds. The sports seats hold well and are also very comfortable – I do not bounce like a pinball, but the brain (or what’s left of it) tosses from side to side while the Clubsport jumps from one bend to the other. At one point I try deliberately to make it lose that seemingly endless grip and it seems to lighten the rear almost as if to say “If you want more, just ask!”. I am always more amazed and I keep to grind kilometer after kilometer in search of the corner that will finally be able to put it in difficulty, not because I want to find a flaw, but because I want to comprehend that maybe I am really in front of a perfect car. If the day before you had asked me what was the most amazing car driven in 2016, I should have thought about it, reviewing all those hundreds of thousands of Euros supercars – now I’d answer in a moment, with molded in mind the devilish black silhouette of the Clubsport I’ve tested lately. Its look is made even sharper thanks to a new front splitter, a spoiler on the rear window and a few details here and there, you will spend much more time at the wheel rather than out and looking at it, because when you park and get out you can almost feel like losing precious time, as if you were taking time from experiencing something you wish you could live on and on.
Engine torque also makes its good job: 350 Newton meters already available at just 1,700 rpm and that allow you to keep an elastic pace on the motorway. Just a shame that the only moments when the revs were low it was at cold or in city traffic – far from prying eyes there is only room to pull it by the neck, while it does not want nothing else. 5.5 seconds to go from 0 to 100 kph, a great figure, but that does not do justice to the progression with which the speedo then keeps its course towards the fateful 250. Now the road becomes narrower, but the ‘asphalt is perfectly dry and smooth – no need to say it twice I’ve already downshifted a couple of gears and it’s time to catch that 90° right hander. Like a snake it puts the front right where my eyes wanted, with the rear following without hesitation, tires are screeching and give away everything they can pressing my body to the seat – without hesitation I repeated this sequence almost as if I was possessed. Do not talk to me, do not call me, do not write me: I have to drive. And driving is a wonderful thing, especially when you’re behind the wheel of a car that supports you, a car that takes you “astray” but that remains by your side to the end. Only the Megane RS is capable of so much, but the Clubsport does it with a naturalness and a different awareness. In a few words, that’s the one to have, it could also be the only car in your garage, and given that it costs about €37,000, you have to think carefully. OK done. Buy it on the fly and become anti-social as I was during my test days. Alone but happy.
VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI CLUBSPORT (2016-)
Layout – front-engined, front-wheel-drive
Engine – 4 cylinder 1.984cc – turbo
Transmission – 6-speed automatic gearbox
Power – 265 hp @ 5.350-6.600 rpm
350 Nm @ 1.700rpm
Weight – 1.375 kg
Acceleration – 5,5 sec.
Top Speed – 250 kph
Price – from €37.700