VW Golf GTI Generations DRAG RACE 

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South Africans will go crazy for this one🇿🇦

“Has Sam got a manual” is one of the most iconic moments in Carwow history. Didn’t know I needed this, but now I’m going to push it and ask for every variant of R. From the VR6 to the current R.

Basically everyone in this episode: *talking* Sam: Hahahaha!

In South Africa, they only stopped production of the MK1 shape in 2010. So you had a classic looking car with modern fuel injection, abs, airbags, and for Rory, air-conditioning. It was my favourite car ever. The Golf Velocity 1.4i and gave me 20km per litre. 😊

1:40 the legendary 5-Speed gearbox with 6 gears 😂 😂

The excuses and the reversing at the end after the braking test were hilarious. 😂 Couldn't stop laughing

Mk7 was peak Golf design, it will age like a fine wine

This was a good one! Still a happy MK7 GTI owner with over 150k+ miles. Only failures so far have been the water pump and left rear wheel bearing.

Golf R generation drag race please mk3 vr6 included

This MK3 is no 16V, the "16V" badge is missing and they clearly announce 115 hp, which is the power of the 8V. The 16V has 150. I had a 8V and got crushed by a MK1 just like in this video. A 16V would have been in front of the MK1 and MK2 and maybe even of the MK4, due to the lesser weight.

We now need a race between every generation of Golf R (Golf 3 VR6 included)

The subtle "CSI: Miami" yell when Sam drops his shades was top tier. :)

1:38 - “drives the front wheels by a 5 speed gearbox”.. okay, why does it have 6 gears then?! 😂

MK1: Hood stick MK2: Hood stick MK3: Hood stick MK4: Gas struts MK5: Gas struts MK6: Gas struts MK7: Gas struts MK8: Hood stick

Mark 1 is gold

Had a MK5 manual with the high speed body kit package. Did GIAC software, full exhaust including down pipe, k&n intake, greddy rs blow off valve, then also engine and transmission mounts upgraded. Hit a gps confirmed 186mph and still had room to go. One of my favorite cars to date and it was a blast seeing Sam show the unknown magic it has haha

The MK3 isn’t a 16v, it’s the 8v version 115bhp, I’ve got a 16v 150bhp, mk3 16v has ABF engine 8v has AGG I think, there’s a big difference performance wise

Sams villan laugh😂 when he passes Rory 😂

MK 5 and 6 aged like fine wine. Still look great

Sam got one of the most villaneous laughter ever! Like the Joker.😄 And massive respect to the MK1.

Absolutely love the evil laugh from Sam hahahaaha

Thanks Matt for accommodating us in South Africa 🇿🇦

I Love how the 1.6 Golf Gti with the 110HP engine is keeping up Love it!❤

Three generations later, the MK5 is still showing it's brothers a tough time.🇿🇦

In the early 90's I had a friend with a MK1 Golf. Lowered on Neuspeed springs, Neuspeed front and rear swaybars, wider wheels and tires and more. This was when I learned how fun a slow car with a good suspension can be.

Love my MK 6 2010! 320.000 Km on ODO. Original Turbo- Engine- DSG Best Car I ever owned.

Damn that MK5 holding it down, cant believe it managed to beat the 6 and 7.5 in rolls and all of them in brake tests

Mats accent when asking Sam if his car was a manual is so funny 15:03

Sam's laugh is menacing when hes beating the other cars..... great video 😂😂

I have a mk5 gti with the dsg auto and I got to say its one of my favourite cars I have driven, I love the handling, braking, gear shifts, everything. Its truly one of the best gti's ever

Oh boy that mk4 is so clean! My first car was a mk4 golf TDI, yes the 1.9PD130. So the mk4 will always have a soft spot in my heart!

To be honest I didn't understand how do you decided to chose one against another of the multiple versions of each mark. MK1 has 2 versions: 1.6 110HP, 1.8 112HP you took the first MK2 has 2 versions: 1.8 112HP, 1.8 16V 139HP you took the second MK3 has 2 versions: 2.0 118HP, 2.0 16V 152HP you took the first MK4 has 2 versions: 1.8T 150HP and 180HP you took the second MK5 has 2 versions: 2.0T 200HP and 230HP you took the second MK6 has 2 versions: 2.0T 207HP and 232HP you took the first MK7 has 6 (!!!) versions: 2.0T 220HP, 230HP, 245HP, 265HP, 290HP and 310HP you took the third MK8 has 3 versions: 2.0T 245HP, 265HP and 300HP you took the first In my opinion you had 3 choices: 1) taking the first of each mark 2) taking the most powerful of each mark 3) taking the last released version of each mark excluding the special versions the second option could not represent well the pure GTI differences between each mark, because there are some special versions in between (30yrs edition, TCR, Clubsport...etc) and some of them are much much more powerful than the plain versions (MK7 GTI "non-special versions" steps are just 220/230HP against the 310HP clubsport S) what you probably did is "taking whatever golf gti we can find"...and for me this has ruined the results

The GTI was my dream car as a child. Especially the MK7 GTI with the ANALOGUE instrument panel

Gutted, I sold my MK1 GTi, MK2 GTi & MK4 4motion. The MK2 was my favourite ❤

13:30 Red car 🚗 won! 🏆

I had three Golfs... all Mk.II . GTi 8V, GTi 16v, and Rallye. My favourite was the GTi 8v. It was the slowest, but more effortless to drive. With no power steering I could feel everything on the road. Its low weight made it superb, and it was practical too. I think, I would probably like the G60 best, but have not had one.... YET.

It’s 4 am where I’m at. I’m 6 hours into my 12 hour shift. It’s lunch break time and this video just released. The timing is perfect 🤙🏽

Mk4 was a beauty. One of the few rounded design that were actually cool and well proportioned. Also really well built.

Sam - is the beast, 22:40 - destroying dsg with the manual - cost a lot 👍💪😎

13:19 Nik- who???

In South Africa 🇿🇦 the Mk1 was being produced with the mk6 we love the mk1 that much we couldn't stop producing them till 2009 ❤

I love how these guys are starting to become our new Top Gear for this generation. Nothing will replace the OGs. More episodes like this and banter are making these top!

mk5 has aged beautifully, still has old charm yet modern ability.

This video brings back such awesome memories from my childhood and this is the car that got me into becoming a petrolhead. My dad had a 1983 Mk1 GTI (Burgundy) with 15" BBS Hockenheims and a Zender front lower bumper. Everytime we drove in that car I begged my dad to race it 😂. He sold it eventually and upgraded to a 1998 VW Caddy Pick-up which had the 1.8 8v engine and it was a surprising little rocket ship. My dad currently owns an '06 Caddy Pickup and 2018 Tiguan Comfortline, I myself had a 2010 Mk1 CitiSport 1.4i which unfortunately got written off almost a year into ownership and since then I got a 2011 Polo vivo so VW runs strong in our family, 38 years and counting, but I'm now in the market to get a MkVI or MkVII manual GTI just for the sheer pleasure of experiencing what I experienced when I was a little 4 year old in the best hot hatch! 🇿🇦✌️

The MK3 GTI 16 V has got a 150 hp/180 Nm, and the MK4 GTI 150 hp, in Editions 180 hp

Mk 1 has such an iconic, pretty design. Giugiaro is a genius.

Mk5 Edition 30 ❤ Had a APR Stage2+ on mine. Absolute weapon back in the days

Awesome classics. Best hothatch ever: GTI Vrrrpha 🇿🇦

MK1 is one of the alltime greats, timeless design, lightweight, proper driver feel... i miss mine!

Proud MK6 Owner since 2015, with w KO4 , a ECU-TCU Tune , KW COs, APR Cooling system and an enlarged intake with PCV delete and OZ Superleggera its a dream Start for any car enthusiast that has a small budget like mine

To me the mk4 aged so well. I know its a rather unpopular opinion but til this day i find the mk4 so good looking

Loved the video! I grew up with Golf GTI’s from Mark 1 to 3. Maybe I will make a video about it. Thanks for the fun comparison.

If that mk3 was the VR6 it would have made this segment way more interesting. We never had MK3 16v’s in the US. The 2.8 vr6 was the car to have for a long time. Still saught after.

I am a Porsche 911 owner and collector and I choose to drive a Mk8 GTI as my daily driver. My last daily was a BMW M2C but in reality, the GTI is a far better daily performance car. It flys under the radar and handles razor sharp. Build quality might even be better in my 2024 GTI S than my 2020 M2C. Absolutely no rattling or creeks even in cold weather. The GTI feels so solid and well put together. I have other full size luxury vehicles from BMW in my collection but the DNA in this little GTI takes me back to my earlier air cooled 911 in it’s a drivers car that is pure German simplicity and oozes its German DNA. It doesn’t have vulgar silly wings in add-ons as other cars in the hot hatch category. It just works. Our last few Audi models from a RS3, S4, RS4, were nice but too heavy and rather expensive with annoying tech and mechanical issues always visiting the dealer. AWD might be faster off the line but heavy and less fun in general. The GTI climate control will freeze you out with its air AC and quickly heat up in winter. Set the GTI climate to auto and forget about it in all 4 seasons. Lastly, the GTi is a pure drivers car so once set up you don’t fiddle with the controls short of drive mode “Sport” or “individual”. That is the beauty of the GTI as it doesn’t need to be constantly adjusted like my BMW or Audis. It does what it does better than anything else in its class.

as a GTI fanatic (team mk7 here), I loved this vids. some of the shots like 17:11 were just _awesome._ nice vid 👏

You can never go wrong wit a Golf. Its both respectable and fun at the same time

Racing driver Sam's winning laugh is just perfect😂

Guys you showed the enginebay of the Mk2 for the MK3 introduction and vice versa. 😄

That´s a fantastic race. The Golf V GTI (2008) is much faster than the others.

As another 🇿🇦, this video sure blew my mind. Weird that the 3rd gen is that slow, heavier and less power than the 2nd😑, but then, the 6th gen still my favourite ❤

Wow that was very surprising!!! The Mark 1 off the line was incredible. The Mark 2 will forever be the King of GTi’s!!!!!

Had a red Mk5 in 2007-2010. Had it APR programmed to 250+hp and 400+NM. 6spd manual, was HUGE fun car and very quick. Also the kids named it Rory. Rory the red racing car. LOL. So cool to see this video.

The Mark 8.5 Golf's 265hp engine is the same engine found in the Audi Q5 and it's amazing.

Somebody mixed the Engine Bay of the Mk2 and Mk3 up :)

My money is on the golf

8:49 love the MK1 just screeching infront of the rest

The Mk5 exceeding expectations thanks to that prime Ferdinand Piech era overengineering 👏👏

You've got scammed. The Mk2 is an 8valve engine with 16valve badges😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I had a mk1 & 2 loved them, but my, MK3 VR6 was something else & in my opinion the best sounding Vdub ever

14:31 Sam is a beastt😅🔥 also the mk5 has always been my favorite

Damn 1.6l 110hp puts Ford's 1980's 2.3l 86hp to shame

MK7.5 was pinical GTI. Still looks great inside and out!

As a South Afriacn, I am HIGHLY appreciating this.

s class generation race please

20:28 that laugh made my day better

Awesome race! Mk5 and Mk6 kept up fairly well to the Mk7.5! Context definitely important, the Mk5 and Mk6 aren’t the “regular” GTI’s, they are the edition 30 and 35 respectively, whereas the Mk7.5 and Mk8.5 are the “regular base” GTI’s. Although, the Mk7.5 is actually a performance pack. So not completely base. The equivalent Mk7 and Mk8 would be GTI Clubsport Edition 40 and 45 respectively.

the best part of this video is the cars they've sourced. every single model the special edition, and in amazing condition! cant imagine the amount time that went into finding these

This video finished hilariously :D. Interesting video and looks like the Mk5 Ed30 is the best allrounder - but we all knew that didn't we.

As a 50 years old man, I must admit that Golf I, Golf 2, and Golf 3 brought a happy smile on my face, reminding me of all those "childish" things we were doing. Golf 4... I kind of still like it, but there was no emotion involved. Golf 6 I will always associate with the crappy gear box!

Had a MK6 GTI and switched to a Pirelli MK5 this video validates my choice

🇿🇦South Africans must be loving this drag race

Those little MK5s are one of the best hot hatches ever made. My wife has an old 2006 one with over 153k on the clock and it is still an absolute hoot to drive. Not fair to even try and compare it with my stage 2 RS6 but for pure driving fun that little pocket rocket will always be near the top of my list. Even looks better than all the other Gti models, but though those beautiful Mk1 and 2's do come very close.

A bit of perspective - Matt says the Mk2 in 1991 cost £13,995 which would be equivalent to about £38,000 comparing with RPI (Retail Price Index). The 'same' price as the new (much better) one! 😳

That mk6's red paint tho🔥

It's a crime that you didn't have a VR6 equipped MK3 in the comparison. It'd have won the sound test and done better in the drag race.

The golf 5 is the best Gti to date

1:41 Matt just said that this car has a five speed manual gearbox. But it says six speed

Somebody Engine-Swaped the MK2 and MK3 in the introduction 😅😂

The mk3 GTI was my first car. Learnt so much driving control and mechanics with it and it was scary with just ABS in the winter

You did no favours to the Mark III choosing the 115hp GTI lite version over the 150 which is an absolute rocketship😉 It would have definitely given the Mark IV a ran for it's money being lighter as well

I have a mk6 gti and i love the perfect mashup between a useful and practical daily and a fun car to drive on weekend getaways

11:43 first things first rest in peace uncle Phil

We need those cars please😂😂😂 they are a pure definition of a true South African iconic car ❤❤❤❤. Next video BMW 325i please that's what us South Africans love ❤😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

I always wanted to see this race!

MK4 Forever❤

Sam's evil little laugh 🤣🤣

My brother had a 2 door GT 1979, 2l abf motor,throttles the works, running on PURE AVGAS, PUSHING 135KW no turbo. Made gti mk7 look like it was going in reverse on the ¼mile. RSA BOYS WILL GO MAD FOR IT 🇿🇦

You show the interior of the mk3 while giving the mk2 specs. And rate the mk3 8v specs but it's a 16v

MK 2 & 4 for me.