Volkswagen GTI (2005)
The original hot hatch.
Volkswagen's old school Rabbit isn't that cool of a ride. It was an underpowered ugly econobox that tried to pass itself off as a car. Okay, so the car had some charm to it, but it's hard to get excited about a car named after a small rodent. C'mon... Rabbit? Why did America get stuck with a car called Rabbit while the rest of the world got the Golf. The Golf is the exact same car, only it has a cooler name. Wait... come to think of it, Golf isn't exactly that cool of a name, either. Moving on... bad names aside, the one good thing that the Rabbit/Golf brought to the world of automotive nomenclature was the birth of a very important and influential three letter combination: GTI.
Volkswagen introduced this "sporty" version of its econobox to American shores way back in 1983. This GTI-spec car was a lot nicer than its lower "base model" sibling. The Rabbit GTI had a sportier look and a more powerful engine. Due to its light weight and small size, the GTI's power-to-weight ratio was superb, making the car a terror on the streets and the track. Volkswagen's hopped-up Rabbit was the world's first true hot hatch.
The GTI has become something of an icon for VW, as it is considered by many to be the sporty Volkswagen. Many of Volkswagen's best engines have made it into the GTI -- from the VR6 to the 1.8T to the 2.0T in Euro market -- making the GTI a favorite among tuners. Speaking of the Euro market, folks in the Old World have been lucky enough to receive an all-new GTI. This newest of new hatches is based on the all-new Jetta that hit U.S. shores in early '05. However, this redesigned GTI won't hit the U.S. market until mid-2006, so we 'Yanks will have to make do with the "old" car for now.
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