VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI

Hot Hatch, Cold

- SANEET OSILVA

There are cars that arrive and cars that happen. The Golf GTI has always belonged to the latter category, a slice of rolling folklore that rewrote the rulebook for everyday fun half a century ago and has haunted enthusiasts’ conversations ever since. The trouble is that Indians have only heard ghost stories. We never got a proper Golf, let alone a full-fat GTI.

In Europe, it’s as iconic as fish-and-chips; in America, it’s a cult classic with its own coffee-run meets. But here? The GTI has existed purely as 1080p YouTube heroics, Gran Turismo save files and wistful Reddit arguments. And now, right when the world’s plugging itself into wall sockets and India’s levitating on SUV stilts, Volkswagen turns up waving a petrol-powered bird at both trends. A five-door hatchback that by all logic shouldn’t exist anymore, and certainly not here.

Yet here we are, on NATRAX’s high-speed bowl, still laughing, adrenaline fizzing in our veins. And here’s the confession: this is my first time in any Golf, ever. No Mk1 nostalgia, no Mk5 fan-boying, not even a sneaky rental in Europe. Fresh eyes, fresh wrists, fresh tyre smoke.