Volkswagen Golf GTI: 50 anos, sucesso e um toque italiano

The Volkswagen Golf is one of the most successful models ever made - with 37 million units built, there is no arguing with that. It is marking 50 years of history and has become a genuine institution within the car industry.

Without exaggeration, it is fair to say that in the C-segment it has served as the standard that many brands measure themselves against. And among the many versions the Golf has worn over the years, the best-known remains the GTI.

It was the Volkswagen Golf GTI that effectively gave birth to the hot hatch concept as we recognise it today.

Even so, not even a star pupil like the latest Golf GTI could avoid the temptation to copy the “homework”. Yes, Volkswagen, we need to talk about this…

Volkswagen did not want to invent, so it copied

If you are not sure what I mean, take another look at the wheels on the newest Golf GTI (generation 8.5).

I may be alone in this - though I do not believe I am - but the new Golf GTI’s wheels, with that circular design, unmistakably remind me of classic Alfa Romeo wheels.

A cluster of circles, like the dial on an old rotary phone (the kind my child has probably never even heard of), is a perfect example of a style that is so simple it feels like it could only have been dreamt up by an Italian.

The car industry can keep spinning in circles over the coming years, but there seems to be one near-universal constant that does not change: nobody designs like the Italians. Apologies to the rest of the world, but to me that is simply a fact.

An Italian streak in the Volkswagen Golf

Look a little more closely at the Golf’s back story and it becomes clear that turning to Italians is nothing new for Volkswagen. Even in its first generation, the Volkswagen Golf benefited from the valuable touch of Italian taste.

In fact, without that crucial Italian contribution, we probably would not be talking about the Volkswagen Golf today.

At the time, the alternative to the first-generation Golf was a model with a design that looked as though it had been developed on the far side of the “iron curtain”. It was called the EA 276 project, and thankfully it never reached production.

From the Golf’s roots to Volkswagen’s future

Bringing it back to today - and looking ahead - the Golf’s design language still sets the tone within Volkswagen.

A glance at the lines of the future Volkswagen ID.2 immediately brings to mind some of the styling cues that have been most successful for the German brand.

Whether it is borrowing from the Italians or borrowing from its own past, I am fine with it as long as the end result is interesting. With the new Golf GTI, it works. With the ID.2, we will still have to wait and see, but the first images are encouraging.