Watch: Why the GTI is Such a Legend

Histories of the Golf GTI are like peanut butter on toast: I’ve experienced them a lot and enjoy them every time.

This latest addition to the canon of the GTI histories is quick refresher course from Donut media that tracks the early history of the car that popularized the hot hatch movement.

Now, we disagree vociferously with the video’s treatment of the Beetle. It may have been slow and less than track ready in its handling, but there’s room in the automotive cannon for cars of every stripe, not just canyon carvers.

That said, by the ‘70s it was essentially a 40-year-old design, so it’s fair to say that the world was ready for something else.

Enter: The Golf, which was a pretty great hatch back, but needed a little pep in its step, which it got with the liberal addition of 40 hp.

Forty horsepower! In a car that could be got with as little as 50 hp. From an engine that started with just 75 hp. That’s a basically a 50% power gain. Little wonder, then, that this car started a revolution.

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