Background
As is seemingly the way with all long-running models, Volkswagen’s seminal Golf GTi grew fatter and bigger and more complex with every new iteration until, inevitably, it bore little physical or philosophical resemblance to its original incarnation.
Yes, it gained speed, and power and, in most ways, capability, but it lost purity, simplicity and, you could argue, integrity.
All this bloating and morphing is, of course, a consequence of ever-burgeoning H&S compliance, emissions conformity and, last but not least, our perceived (by the manufacturers’ marketing departments) demand for more and more bits of bling, fluff and other unnecessary stuff with our cars – and particularly the expensive ones.
The little Lupo GTi is, in many ways, closer to the brief and mandate that spawned the original Golf GTi than any of the latter’s later versions.
Hence its exalted status for hot-hatch aficionados everywhere.
