Volkswagen Up! GTI Gets on Track Comparison with the Original Golf GTI

The Up! is a full two segments lower than the current Golf, but if you put it beside the 1974 Golf GTI, then it's actually larger. Well, taller, at least, because it's still 10 cm (4 inches) shorter than the Golf. It's a weird sight to behold and goes to show just how much meat the modern safety measures have added to our vehicles.

Power-wise they still don't overlap perfectly with a gap of 5 hp in favor of the newer car, while the torque difference is even greater (the Up! GTI gets a grunty 230 Newton-meters - 170 pound-feet - from its 1.0-liter TSI engine). That's the wonders of turbocharging technology for you.

These two cars are great fun to drive, but we doubt a race track is the best place for them. With their relatively poor 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) times of 8.8 for the Up! and 9.0 seconds for the Golf, pulling out of the wide turns of a race circuit isn't going to pump up the adrenaline.

No, these cars are part of the rare breed that's best tuned for your typical winding roads in the mountain. Their lowish power means you can have fun without going over the speed limit, and their excellent handling - thanks to 17-inch wheels, a short wheelbase, and a lowered suspension, in the care of the Up! GTI - makes them the ideal partner for those types of roads where top speed isn't that important.

Not that the Volkswagen Up! GTI is all that bad at 197 km/h (122 mph) - it definitely trumps the 182 km/h (113 mph) maximum speed of the Mark I Golf GTI. But at the end of the day, it's not the specs that will sell this car - it's not even the badge. It's the promise of something that has become very hard to come by: a fun and somewhat sporty driving experience at an affordable price. At least we hope it'll be affordable because we won't really find out before 2018.