Skip to main content

Worthersee 2016: Mk2 Superthread

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

By the 1980s the Golf was a massive success and every major manufacturer was trying to copy it. This was no time to sit on laurels, so Volkswagen started work on the Mk2. Despite a sensible design direction that didn’t stray too far from the foundations that the Mk1 had lain, Volkswagen decided to have fun with this one, producing more models than you can shake a stick at. There’s the 5-door, the 3-door, the GTI, the GTI 16V, the Syncro, the Limited, the Country, the Rallye, and there was even an electric version, the first of many that Volkswagen would produce.

Many of these models were present at Worthersee last week and here are some of our favorites:

SiGray.Worthersee2016-8139

This lovely Golf Rallye is a fine example of the breed. But for an act of terrorism that took down Pan Am Flight 103, the Rallye might have made it to the States. Sadly, we could only pine for its box-flared wheel arches, supercharged 1.8L engine, and its 161 bhp from afar. This squeaky clean version with color-matched wheels is about as fine an example of the breed as you’re likely to find anywhere.

SiGray.Worthersee2016-8306

The Syncro was the first Golf offered with 4WD. This highly expensive and highly sprung car cost about 30% more than the regular Golf, so examples of this crazy-looking machine are pretty tough to find. This one is tastefully modified and looks like it probably produces more than the original 89 hp.

SiGray.Worthersee2016-8902

 

The GTI nameplate came back for the Mk2, and it remains one of the best-loved versions. Carfection’s Alex Gow, after testing them back to back, called this one everything the Mk1 GTI was, but with with actual brakes and a bit more room. Handsome, quick, practical, and above all fun, this is the model that showed the world that the Mk1 GTI wasn’t just a fluke.

SiGray.Worthersee2016-8276

The Harlequin wasn’t actually produced until the Mk3, but this homage known as the Harlekin (bonus points for clever naming) is an all but perfectly realized interpretation of the concept. This many colored Mk2 is a good example of the playful character that defines the Golf and makes it so great.

SiGray.Worthersee2016-8320

Then again, maybe you’d prefer to be evil. Two kinds of people, right? This car, the Black Pearl, just looks mean. The vents in the hood, the spoilers under the chin and around back, and the black vent-covered headlights all make this car ooze menace. It proves that the old axiom always applies: when in doubt, black it out.

Disagree? Take a look through our gallery above and let us know what you like better.

The post Worthersee 2016: Mk2 Superthread appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/1sajsgh
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...
2 comments
Read more