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The Volkswagen Golf GTI arrived on our shores for the 1985 model year sporting an even 100 horsepower–and at the time, that was just plenty for full-on hooning.
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<3 mk2 GTI's.
For all its quirks, I still loved my MK2 Golf/GTi.
I will guess it has been several years since I have seen a 2nd generation....or even a 1st generation GTI. Even the Golfs and Rabbits of these generations are fast disappearing.
So if I was going to buy a cheap GTI which I could absolutely rely on to do A->B every day, as well as be an entertaining weekend car, which one would it be?
The Golf GT came out for 1988 and was the one with drum rear brakes and a more basic interior. All other drive train parts were GTI spec. The GT also had the Digifant injection which provided a much broader torque band. It was a real sleeper in ES autoX back in the day, as it was about 50lbs lighter.
FYI: ALL of the 8v GTI's had rear Disk brakes.
Golf GT also came as a 4dr and was easily upgraded to GTI spec.
tuna55 said:So if I was going to buy a cheap GTI which I could absolutely rely on to do A->B every day, as well as be an entertaining weekend car, which one would it be?
I am the proud and biased owner of a Mki Rabbit GTI setup for FSP autox. The 90-92 MkII GTI is what you want for the combined duty as it’s simply a lot better place to live.
I have a 55,000 mile 1991 16V GTI in the garage. I need to get at it and make it roadworthy. It's been sitting for about 14 years now.
In reply to DeadSkunk :
Send it on over to me. My first "real" car was a '91 16V GTI.
If any of you VW fans need a complete 2.0 liter ABA, I have one sitting in my garage I'd sell cheeep! It was a warranty return-- -valvetrain issue, so from what I understand it's nearly a zero-mile engine. It turns freely, but I've never attempted to run it. PM me if you want it. It would be an easy way to make a MK1, or MK2 car a lot of fun.
Your faithful hoarder.....
Joe
DeadSkunk said:I have a 55,000 mile 1991 16V GTI in the garage. I need to get at it and make it roadworthy. It's been sitting for about 14 years now.
Let me come and get that out of your way... 
My first "real" car was a 1985 GTI. It had issues but darn it if that car didn't get me infected with the VW sickness. I had a long line of Mk2 and Mk3 platform cars. Favourite was my last one. a 1992 "big bumper" Tornado Red Jetta sedan. I swapped in a 2.0 ABA bottom end, used the Digifant 8v head, tweaked the Digi flapper door, stainless header, Techtonics 272 cam, and complete Mk3 front subframe and rear beam swap with a boxed rear beam. also a Peloquin diff with a custom trans with close ratio 1-4 and overdrive 5th. I ran Nitto NT01's on it on the street.
No, it wasn't a rocket, but damn that was a fun car to drive, and not a terrible commuter either. My second favourite was a 1990 "small bumper" Jetta GTX 2.0 16v. Pretty quick, but that CIS-E Motronic had some, uh, issues. I didn't have the patience for that one.
Fond memories of those cars, but I'm not going to go back down that rabbit hole...
DeadSkunk said:I have a 55,000 mile 1991 16V GTI in the garage. I need to get at it and make it roadworthy. It's been sitting for about 14 years now.
Holy crap - I need to own another one. Pics please and we’ll draw straws to avoid an unsightly bidding war...
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