Zero to 150!

The Golf GTI can get you to your destination quickly, but it’s more than just a fast hatch.

- Ian Magbanua

We’re at Pradera Verde in Pampanga to shoot our landmark 150th Issue cover story, and for this special feature, we’ve put together a lineup of five cars and one superbike packing a combined total of more than 1,800hp. The boys are out to play, and today is the day we rekindle our love of cars.

I get to drive my personal favorite, the Volkswagen Golf GTI. With its four doors and hatchback shape, it looks almost ordinary and domestic. It seems out of place in the company of sports coupes. But anyone who is familiar with the history of this car surely understands why it’s being featured alongside these meaner-looking driving machines.

The GTI, a motoring icon born in 1976, is widely recognized as the world’s first true hot hatch. After the Beetle and the Kombi, it’s the most famous of Volkswagen’s offerings. The GTI Mk1 was the result of a skunkworks project that aimed to elevate the humble Golf into a car capable of holding its own against the autobahn blitzers of its time. It was a sleeper car that provided considerable performance and practical enjoyment for relatively little coin.