Car review: VW Golf GTI Clubsport Edition 40

It’s a Golf GTI, but better.

The VW Golf GTI Clubsport

My television colleagues and I had to visit the north of England recently, which meant there was a debate in the office about how we’d get there from London. If we chose something comfortable and quiet to deal with the over-policed M1 motorway, it’d be no fun at all. Whereas if we chose something that would be fun on that

glorious road through the North York Moors National Park, it’d be a chore in the stop-start hell that is the M1.

In the end we decided to cheat and use a train from London to York, which is more expensive than going on a golden elephant but is at least quick. And then we’d use a car for the final leg. But what car?

All three of us decided that hot hatchbacks would be perfect for the job. This caused another debate. There’s no doubt that the best of the bunch is the little Ford Fiesta ST. But I’d driven that, and anyway it was shotgunned immediately by Richard Hammond. And before I could say, “Well, I’ll have a Ford Focus RS, then,” James May put down his pipe, adjusted his slippers and shotgunned that.

So I had a think and remembered that Volkswagen had recently smashed the front-wheel-drive lap record at the Nurburgring with a car called the Golf GTI Clubsport S. In essence it’s a GTI but, thanks to some electrical jiggery-pokery under the bonnet, it produces a colossal 228kW. There’s more: the ride has been made priapic. The body shell has been stiffened. The back seats and parcel shelf and bits of carpet have been removed. As a result it’s hard, tight, light and very, very fast.

I was happy with my choice until I received word that the Clubsport S is a limited-edition special, and that none was available. Instead I ended up with a car built to celebrate the GTI’s 40th birthday. Called the Clubsport Edition 40, it looks like a Clubsport S but it has carpets and back seats and all the luxuries you’d expect. You can even have four doors. All of which means it’s a GTI with spoilers and a small amount of electrical jiggery-pokery under the bonnet. And that means it’s nothing more than a slightly pricier version of a car I already own. It did have a nicer steering wheel, I’ll admit that. And lovely seats. But it had a manual gearbox, which was a nuisance in York. By the time I finally found the A64 to Pickering and the glory of the moors I was far behind Hammond in his little Fiesta, but it’s always possible to catch May. Even if you’re on a mule with a hurty leg.

So off I set, and straight away I could tell the Clubsport Edition 40 is more than VW’s present to itself. The figures suggest it has only 26 more kilowatts than the standard GTI, but if your right foot comes into contact with the firewall, there’s an overboost facility that gives you 213kW. This makes the front wheels spin and the traction control go into busybody mode. Which means that if you want this sort of power for this sort of money, you’re better off with the all-wheel-drive Golf R.

However. And it’s a big however. In my standard GTI there’s a hole in the power delivery. When you want to go slightly faster, you put your foot down a bit and… nothing happens. It’s almost certainly some kind of ludicrous emission program in the engine control unit, but it feels like turbo lag and it’s annoying. In the Clubsport Edition 40 it doesn’t happen. The movement of your foot is translated instantly into a change of pace. It makes the whole car feel more alert and alive.

I’d love to tell you that the chassis is crisper too, because it probably is. But the truth is that this car feels exactly the same as the standard GTI. Which means it is extremely clever at riding the bumps and then gripping as if it’s on spikes in the corners. VW says the bigger rear spoiler and the splitter at the front create downforce from 120km/h. So in order to not crash, you just need to speed up.

Hammond will tell you – and he’s right – that the Fiesta ST is more fun, and May will tell you that the Focus RS is better in extremis. But as a blend of all you need, the VW is in a class of its own. It’s the same with the interior. Everything has a top-quality feel that you just don’t get in the two Fords, plus there’s a lot of equipment provided as standard.

Of course it’s not as good as the Golf R. That’s a remarkable car. But if you want a GTI because, well, you want a GTI, this Clubsport Edition 40 makes sense. It’s my own car, with a couple of neat styling touches and the performance hole caused by bureaucrats in Brussels filled in.

FAST FACTS

VW Golf GTI Clubsport Edition 40

Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol (195kW/350Nm) | Average fuel: 7.2 litres per 100km | Transmission: Six-speed manual, front-wheel drive

Price: $46,990

Score: 4 out of 5