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I am very fond of driving. Driving is fun. Driving fast is even more fun. I’ve been looking at the Golf GTi and Subaru (after driving in Barry’s) since last year and finally went for the GTi, largely because of Jeremy Clarkson’s review and that it won Automobile of the Year last year.

The Clarkson Review

I bought a 2007 Golf 5 GTI with 22000km on the clock. I picked it up last Wednesday and have gone through 2 tanks of fuel already. Mostly because I take 2 hour trips ‘to the shop’ or go for quick drives which last hours. That’s when I realise it’s money well spent, the fact that I am grinning like a school kid after 3 hours of ‘driving around’.

Top Gear – The Stig takes it for a spin

It’s DAMN fast. I took it for a test drive before I bought it but until you can get comfortable and open up properly, you really have no idea. In matric (1996) I took a family friends Golf 3 VR6 for a joyride with 4 mates. That car (and the 200tis) were the ultimate rides at that stage and all of us were blown away by the power/acceleration. The new GTI makes that seem slow – no exaggeration. It has 300km/h on the clock and I’ve taken it to 200km/h so far but I’m more interested in acceleration than top end. The standard Golf 5 GTI has 147kw. If you upgrade the chip software (R5200) it goes to 176kw – nuff said.

5th Gear – Tiff Needell going very sideways with ESP off

It does 0 – 100km/h in 7.2 seconds (for more specs see this review) and sits on 18″ rims. What’s more impressive is it’s cornering. The car won’t slide/move. It sticks to the road and goes up Kloof Nek like it’s on rails. It also has all the trims, bucket seats, airbags, cruise control, rain-sensor windscreen, auto-lights and my favourite, the iPod docking station which functions like a CD Changer once plugged in.

I took it for a spin up the coast road this afternoon (and eventually past Melkbos) and took some photos. I love my car

Side front:

Side rear:

Front:

18″ rims:

iPod docking station:

Did I mention I love my car.