Volkswagen celebrates the Golf GTI with a potent Edition 50 model. The optional Performance Package lives up to its name and turns this GTI into a true agility monster. The price for this combination, however, is correspondingly steep.
Corners, smooth tarmac and rain. For a front-wheel-drive car, this is the worst-case scenario. Add semi-slick tyres and straight-line understeer during direction changes seems inevitable. A corner is approaching fast. We are at the wheel of a Golf GTI Edition 50 with the Performance Package. “All well and good, but …” flashes through our minds. Then the circuit layout and survival instinct take over. Hard braking. The red-painted calipers and pads bite decisively. The seatbelt tightens across our chest as the car loads the front axle. Turn in. We brace for the classic fate of a front-wheel-drive car: running wide into the gravel beyond the left-hander. Yet our eyes remain fixed on the apex. And then it happens. As if drawn with a compass, the Golf follows the steering input precisely and heads straight for the middle of the corner.
The rear axle joins in. Not rebelliously, but supportively, the tail rotates gently. Full throttle. The top-spec GTI takes this in its stride too. No twitching, no scrabbling at the front wheels. “You ask, I deliver,” seems to be the car’s attitude. “Clean,” we note. There is no time for more. The light-footed way in which the Golf slices through corners is impressive. “With the Performance Package, we reached into the top shelf of the MQB toolbox,” explains Florian Umbach, Head of Vehicle Dynamics. That was necessary, because the chassis of the Golf GTI Edition 50 is identical to that of the Clubsport. With the Performance Package, VW’s engineers wanted to raise the bar once more. Mission accomplished. This GTI makes it easy to drive fast. Very fast.
It starts with classic tuning measures. The 235-section tyres sit on 19-inch forged wheels, and the exhaust gases flow through the titanium performance exhaust system from the Golf R. The result is a weight saving of around 25 kilograms. At the press of a button, this GTI sounds like a predatory animal. At the MacPherson front axle, the increased negative camber of minus two degrees is immediately noticeable, compared with minus 1.33 degrees on the standard Edition 50. More negative camber increases the usable contact patch of the outside front wheel in corners. The tyre works more evenly across its tread, improving cornering speed and turn-in precision. “The additional front-end grip is the foundation for high cornering speeds, reduced understeer and neutral handling,” says Umbach. The key word is foundation. On its own, this measure would achieve little.
To make it effective, a full agility package comes into play. At the front, stiffer top mounts and a stiffer rear wishbone bushing are fitted. In combination with the electronically controlled mechanical limited-slip differential, this creates a subtle self-steering effect towards the inside of the corner under acceleration. The differential pulls the inner wheel more strongly, while the reduced compliance of the wishbone bushing keeps the geometry stable. The result is the opposite of classic front-wheel-drive push.
At the multi-link rear axle, the changes are less extensive but still meaningful. In the standard setup, the track rod is only mounted on one side. With the Performance Package, it gains a dual-sided mounting, significantly increasing lateral stiffness. This allows the rear axle to support the front axle’s steering inputs more precisely. Stiffer springs and damper mounts are also fitted, raising the natural frequency to match the front axle and reducing roll and pitch. “Manthey would charge several tens of thousands of euros for something like this,” Umbach smiles. Volkswagen asks €4,200 for the Performance Package, on top of the €54,540 base price of the Edition 50. That is serious money for a Golf GTI, and just €1,000 less than a Golf R. But the fun factor more than compensates. The comparison with the Nürburgring specialists is no coincidence: test driver Benjamin Leuchter set a time of 7:46.125 minutes on the Nordschleife, the fastest lap ever recorded by a road-legal Volkswagen.
Back on public roads, the sports suspension lowers the body by five millimetres compared with the standard Edition 50. In total, that makes a 20-millimetre drop. That is significant. Thanks to the standard adaptive dampers, the sharpened GTI remains comfortable on country roads and in urban traffic. We mostly drove in Comfort mode, which proved genuinely relaxed. This GTI is no limousine, but long journeys are no problem, helped by the excellent sports seats with classic tartan upholstery. Inside, the GTI feels slightly old-school. The touchscreen has a thick bezel, the head-up display is modest in size, and the graphics still carry traces of VW’s troubled in-house infotainment era. But if any car is allowed to be a little anachronistic, it is a Golf GTI. This one in particular.
Especially since, in any driving mode, be it Eco, Comfort or Sport, it delivers serious driving pleasure. With 239 kW and 325 PS, plus 420 Nm of torque, it accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 5.3 seconds and reaches up to 270 km/h. Exactly on par with a Golf R. VW quotes a combined consumption of 7.74 litres per 100 kilometres. We recorded 8.3 litres according to the onboard computer. One final treat awaits in Sport mode: press and hold the menu tile and the Nürburgring Nordschleife appears, allowing you to activate a dedicated setting. In this mode, the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox holds gears longer through corners to maximise drive on exit. So if you are overtaken on a country road by a Golf GTI Edition 50 with Performance Package and hear the driver shout “Pflanzgarten”, you will know exactly which mode is engaged.
