Four decades ago, on March 29, 1974, the first VW Golf rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg, Germany. Nobody shouted Fore!, but they should have.
Forty years later, this scrappy little car has sold more than 30 million units over seven generations, pipping the iconic Beetle by nearly a third. That was the old people's car, austere and pragmatic; this new little hatchback was fun and nippy.
Well, fun anyway. The first generation car, penned by noted stylist Giorgio Giugiaro, wasn't exactly overpowered. A 1.5-litre water-cooled four-cylinder engine produced just 70 horsepower, and the car rode on narrow tires mounted on 13-inch rims.
However, it did only weigh 800 kilograms, or less than a current-day Smart Car. That gave the Golf exemplary fuel economy and chuckable handling, and while it would prove to be less stone-axe durable than the air-cooled Beetle it replaced, it drove very well, with a proper modern driver position and plenty of hatchback practicality.
It was released as the Rabbit in Canada in 1976, and we liked it a lot. The world was just beginning to see small hatchbacks like the Honda Civic and the Mazda GLC, and the lightweight, efficient Golf soon had a cult following. When the GTI arrived, the ranks of the VW faithful swelled.
The first GTI was a hot hatch by the standards of the day only. When revealed in Euro-trim at the 1975 Frankfurt auto show, it had a 1.6-litre engine cranking out 108 h.p. - not bad, but not exactly a pocket rocket.
Worse, by the time it showed in Canada, in 1983, it had lost the cool round headlamps and about 20 h.p. It was still light and agile, but could boast performance figures about that of a current-day Mazda2.
And, in the 1980s, that was plenty. The GTI was affordable, easy to work on, and as it had existed for so long in other markets, there was a huge aftermarket for beefing it up. VW fans went completely nuts, creating a sort of rift between the aircooled purists and the new water-cooled enthusiasts.
At the same time, the Rabbit diesel also bowed, endowed with an extremely slow 48 h.p. engine. This was one lethargic bunny, but it did cruise on past the gas station with nary a sideways look, and provided ridiculously efficient transportation. Sure, it was more tortoise than hare, but slow and steady sometimes wins the race.
The second generation cars marked an uptick in size, power, and weight that would continue throughout the next generations, culminating in the porky fourth-generation cars. Somewhere along the way, somebody started calling the different generation Mk I, Mk II, and so on, and Vee-dubbers today will even refer to them as "Em-Kay One," or "Em-Kay Four."
While the cars mostly stayed the same shape and simply grew faster and fatter, there were some really odd ones now and then. Take, for instance, the rare G60 Golf.
In a time when the second-generation GTI was making just 140 h.p. or so, the G60's supercharged engine put out 160 h.p., and it did so through all four wheels. Then there was the extremely rare Golf Limited, which with 207 h.p. would be the fastest VW for years.
However, we never got any of this cool stuff. In fact, in the third generation Golf, things went badly wrong, as the GTI suddenly became little more than a trim package. The regular car was no great shakes either, with a feeble 2.0-litre powerplant making just 113 h.p., fighting a considerable weight gain.
It was, however, the last time you could buy a VW Cabriolet for a while. A stalwart of any 1980s film showing privileged California teens, the fun little drop-top Golf was one of the least expensive ways to have fun in the sun in your Vee-Dub. These days, the very heavy and extremely complicated Eos handles convertible VW duties, but the third-gen car soldiered on until the 2000s, albeit with fourthgen looks grafted on.
Starting in the third generation, after a damp squib of a debut, VW started offering V-6 power in the Golf. An odd little engine, the VR6 is a very narrow-angle V-6 that actually has a one-piece head. When initially launched, it provided some much needed power, but at the expense of thirst for fuel and added noseheaviness.
However, as the VR6 improved, it found itself the plaything of local tuners HPA. These - well, let's face it - these lunatics managed to twin-turbocharge the six-cylinder up to 400 h.p. in initial testing, and when the R32 Golf came along, cranked more than 500 h.p. out of the thing.
Even in standard trim, the R32 was quite the car. It had a 3.2-litre VR6 (hence the name), which made for 237 h.p., and it was fitted with the world's first production dualclutch gearbox and fourwheel drive. We never got it - are you beginning to see a trend here?
Canadians did, however, get a special-edition Golf they could buy. Built for the 25th anniversary of the car, the GTI 337 was very limited in production - just 250 sold in Canada - and comprised of uprated sport suspension, larger BBS alloys, a sixspeed manual, grippier Recaro seats, and uprated brakes. It also had a tiny stylized chrome rabbit on the trunk lid, a shoutout to its start in North America.
The fifth generation Golf marked a back to basics return for the platform, as handling was markedly improved for all models. The GTI got an extremely potent 2.0-litre engine, which it retains today, which was a world's first for direct-injection turbocharging.
Not only that, but you also got the plaid seats back. While not the most reliable of cars, this generation of Golf was very well-loved and sold well.
Probably the craziest machine that VW ever built was conceived on this fifth-gen platform - the GTI W12. Taking the big engine small car recipe to its absolute limit, Volkswagen crammed the 12-cylinder W-12 out of the Phaeton luxury sedan into the middle of a Golf GTI, converted the thing to run with rear-wheel drive, and hit the road.
The silliest rabbit of all time, this 641 h.p. Golf was more than a handful in anything but a straight line, and was of course not intended for production. It did run though, and VW took it to the annual meetup of Golf enthusiasts in Worthersee, Austria.
For now, the hottest version of a Golf you can buy in Canada will be the upcoming Golf R, which stands above the normal GTI. Turbocharged punch comes to the base Golf as well, with an efficient and torquey 1.8-litre turbocharged engine, and a very strong turbodiesel powerplant which has three times the power of the smoky old original.
There are even rumours of a GTD version of the Golf, a diesel-powered GTI-variant marrying sporty handling with longrange efficiency. This new seventh-generation car has an excellent chassis, and handles the curves well in any trim. After four decades and the next million sales just over the horizon, another round of Golf sounds like a fine idea.
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