Flame On

The India-bound Polo GTI is a different animal to the standard Polo and is a properly focused machine!

- Jamshed Patel

History has it that when a car maker has been brave enough to trust enthusiasts despite market surveys, it has proved to be a great decision. Case in point was Volkswagen when they decided to introduce the GTI brand with the Mark 1 Golf in 1976 for those who wanted sports car fun for the price of a hatchback. You could get to 182kmph, which in those days seemed a bit ridiculous for a hatchback, for 14,000 Deutsch Mark (roughly just over ₹5 lakh). Here’s the unbelievable part – the project was initially not endorsed by the management. Rumour has it even the CEO didn’t know about the project until the engine developers (led by Ferdinand Piech) and the PR guys convinced them to approve a small batch of 5,000 cars. The rest as they say…. VW has sold 2 million Golf GTIs since.

Fast forward to 2016 and perhaps out of the anguish of losing out to the Abarth Punto in OVERDRIVE’s Ultimate Hot Hatch Track test (or at least I’d like to think that’s the real reason), VW is upping the ante by a fair margin. After the Polo GT fell short marginally to the sheer horsepower strength of the Abarth, VW is now hitting us smack in the face with the iconic GTI badge. As I write this, a consignment of Polo GTIs is on its way from VW’s facility in Pamplona, Spain, to our shores. The homologation vehicle is already being driven at the BIC racetrack. So is the Polo GTI really going to decimate competition? Is this hot hatch the real deal? We managed a whole day with the Polo GTI in Hanover, Germany, and I’m going to use the next 10 minutes of your time telling you exactly what you’ve been dying to hear.