WHILE the Volkswagen Golf GTI can’t claim it started the hot hatchback genre — some special Minis (Cooper), Fiats (Abarth) and Renaults (Gordini) have preceded it — it did set the template on which high-performance subcompacts are molded. Throughout seven generations (stretching back to 1975), the GTI combined function with form and fast moves while managing to add refinement into the mix.
This, however, does not mean the GTI can’t be made to perform, sound and look better. Not if ABT Sportsline, a company that specializes in tuning Volkswagens (and VW Group brands Audi, Skoda and Seat), can help it.
Now Volkswagen in the Philippines has included to its attractions some of ABT Sportsline’s products for the Golf GTI, with the development announced on Sept. 30 at Volkswagen Quezon Avenue.
Offered at the dealership is the Power-Up module that promises to boost by 32% the stock GTI’s already prodigious output — from 220 hp to 290 hp. The stock car’s torque rating, also no pushover at 350 Nm, is also bumped up by 20%, or to 420 Nm, through the installation of the “plug-and-play” system. Volkswagen reckoned the increases allow the GTI to slash more than half a second off its rest to 100 kph sprint time (5.9 seconds versus the stock car’s 6.5-second capability), and to reach a top speed of 254 kph, 10 kph more than a showroom-spec GTI. And because ABT Sportsline is recognized by Volkswagen as a tuning partner, installing the Power-Up module won’t void the warranty covering a Golf GTI.
The power kit, which costs P145,000, can also be retrofitted to Golf GTIs that left Volkswagen showrooms without it.
For an outlay of around P2.8 million though (a stock Golf GTI lists for P2.290 million at Volkswagen Philippines’ Web site), a customer can drive from Volkswagen Quezon Avenue a GTI fully kitted with ABT Sportsline items. The total cost depends on which items are chosen, which, besides the Power-Up module, may include ABT Sportsline front grille, head lamp cover, aero pieces (front spoiler, side skirt, rear skirt with diffuser), quad tailpipes, and a muffler mounting kit.
Considering this package will combine to make a template-setting hot hatch even hotter, the price seems reasonable enough. — Brian M. Afuang
