Volkswagen Golf VII GTD

2014 Volkswagen Golf GTD

The latest Golf GTi is hands down one of the best GTi ever made for the unnecessary selfie who wants a proper hot hatchback that does everything he wishes for but in a terribly twisted way, there's the diesel cousin, called the Golf GTD. Think of the GTD as a Golf GTi...with the fuel of Satan on it because this is a diesel-powered hot hatch you may not want to add to your collection but in times like these, do you consider having one of these in your garage? A GTi with some diesel credentials on it? This is a kind of thing that make you go hmmm...

First and foremost, it is available in either a 3-door or a 5-door, a 6-speed manual or a DSG, and they're all powered by a 2.0L turbodiesel engine which produces 184PS of power, less than the petrol-powered equivalent but VW says it's 14PS more than the old GTD model of the 2009. That sounds uncanny for a diesel powered hot hatch which seems to be not quite as hot as a Golf GTi but for this new diesel engine, VW says that it exceeded its expectations to be...Euro 6 compliant. Yeah, I know, the whole Euro 6 emission standard will be implemented next year but such improvement really knows that this GTD did prepared for the future. It's like "here today, ready for tomorrow" and hey, kinda sounds familiar about that tagline. Do you where is this kind of tagline?

Oh, well, you don't need to tell me but the new GTD has a naught to 60 time of under eight seconds and flatout, it can do about 143mph, making it the fastest diesel-powered Golf ever made. So, not bad for Volkswagen though, let's not forget that a diesel powered Seat Leon FR is cheaper than that. Anyway, how about being a driver's car? How does the new GTD show its affinity to the driver in mind?

Well, thanks to the new MQB platform, it feels a bit more civilized even on the bumpy roads. It doesn't want to get itself shattered while facing the corner thanks to some sporty dynamics implemented on it. Even though it's sharper than a normal Golf, the new GTD is not as aggressive as the petrol-powered GTi equivalent. It's not quite stiffer as it felt in the handling department but the steering is just too quick and very nimble. It's like eating a duck after using it for an experiment where you're figuring out if a duck's quack can echo. Trust me on this, even the duck's quack can echo and that's general science.

But the Golf GTD isn't a duck's quack that can echo through an closed space, this is like pub science where you're pulling experiments on the pub until you'll get kicked out by the pub owner. It may perform under than the petrol-powered GTi but it's still got that bang that VW fans love.

Photo: Volkswagen