VW Golf gallery

The Golf swung onto the scene in 1974, marketed as a front engined front-wheel drive replacement for the Beetle. Both practical and great to drive, the mkI established the foundations for the all-conquering Golf we know today – including the GTI, which arrived in 1976.

The mkI Golf also spawned a convertible model. Built to a high specification, production of the soft top variant lasted 13 years with minimal changes to the design. The car itself was assembled by specialist German coachbuilder Karmann.

Making its bow at the Frankfurt show in 1983, the Golf’s second evolution saw the car grow in size, but retain the looks of the Giugiaro-penned original. A mid-life facelift saw the addition of love ‘em or hate ‘em big bumpers in 1989, and the mkII remained on sale until 1992.

The Golf G60 was built as a homologation special to allow VW to go rallying. Featuring angular wheelarch extensions and rectangular headlamps to compliment the Syncro four-wheel drive system and supercharged 1.8-litre engine, the G60 cost almost twice the price of a standard GTI.

Voted as European car of the year in 1992, the mkIII Golf burst onto the scene promising much. However, a large weight increase but modest power increase meant fans, especially of the GTI models, were left a little cold by VW’s latest effort. Still, a new convertible was launched, and estate model joined the range for the first time too.

VW’s acquisitions of budget brands SEAT and Skoda meant that the mkIV Golf had to move upmarket. The resulting mkIV was very conservative to look at, but at least the range topping R32 version set pulses racing with its 241bhp 3.2-litre V6 and four-wheel drive.

Ask an enthusiast and they’ll tell you that Golf GTIs mkI and II were icons, but VW lost its way a little with the next two cars. The balance was firmly tipped back towards sensational performance with the mkV edition thanks to punchy turbo 2.0-litre engines boosted to 227bhp in this Edition 30 model.

Built for the annual GTI festival in Wörthersee, Austria, the W12 concept boasted a mid-mounted 641bhp W12 engine capable of propelling this ultimate hot hatch from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds and hit a maximum speed of 184mph. Sadly it’s highly unlikely that this one will ever make it into production.