VOLKSWAGEN Scirocco R

CONCEPT-CAR LOOKS BLENDED WITH SERIOUS PERFORMANCE AT A KEEN PRICE MADE THE SCIROCCO R’S CAMEO IN AUSTRALIA ONE OF VW’S FINEST

- DAMION SMY

MOST ENTHUSIASTS WILL clock 1974 as the year of the Volkswagen Golf. The original Mk I Golf heralded a new era for hatchbacks – and VW – with 35 million of them (and counting) sold since. Yet the Golf had a talented sibling that carved a motoring niche in its own right, even if it hasn’t reached the same stratospheric fame: the VW Scirocco.

The Scirocco is less familiar to many Australians as it took almost 40 years for the nameplate to arrive in Volkswagen showrooms here – and even then, it was a single-flavour performance variant, the Scirocco R. Yet it was worth the wait, even if many Aussies were confused by what the Scirocco’s role in the line-up actually was.

The Scirocco’s place follows that of another legendary sports car. While the original Golf was the replacement for the long-in-the-tooth Beetle, the Beetle itself had a more athletic, sports-focussed cousin: the Karmann Ghia.

First shown to media at the Casino Hotel in Georgsmarienhütte, Lower Saxony, in July 1955, the original Type 14 Karmann Ghia coupe took widened Beetle underpinnings and draped a beautiful, single-piece Italian body over them, which was designed by Luigi Segre of Carrozzeria Ghia (there’s controversy around where the design came from, but that’s for another discussion). The body itself was built in Osnabrück, just seven kilometres away from the Casino Hotel.

The cabriolet shown in 1957 was arguably even more convincing, oozing charisma and style. Neither version was especially fast, but there was no questioning the svelte looks.