By Colin Wood
Aug 6, 2020
This old commercial featuring the 1984 Volkswagen GTI makes the bold statement that "In Germany, people who love high-performance driving drive a Volkswagen GTI more than anything else."
Whether or not that's true, we can still appreciate seeing first-generation GTIs going sideways and launching off jumps to a sweet cover of "Little GTO."
Like what you're reading? We rely on your financial support. For as little as $3, you can support Grassroots Motorsports by becoming a Patron today.
8/6/20 10:25 a.m.
Where did you find that? I've been telling people about that ad forever and no one besides me seems to have ever seen it.
8/6/20 12:18 p.m.
Kleine GTI! Kleine GTI.... wa wa! I remember seeing that on TV, God I'm old...
8/6/20 12:56 p.m.
I remember that and other fun commercials. Joe Isuzu is one that comes to mind.
However, it's sad to me how the manufacturer's commercials and their cars have gone from exciting and engaging to isolation and computer driven blocks of metal.
Oh how I hate SUVs!
8/6/20 1:01 p.m.
On an MK1??
Im pretty sure that's a good way to bust loose every weld on the car!!
8/6/20 1:14 p.m.
That's one of my favorite 80s car commercials. Along with this one:
8/6/20 1:33 p.m.
8/6/20 1:40 p.m.
They are still A1s to me.
I had a PDF of an article detailing how they prepped them for stage rally. Not much chassis upgrading.
Probably not much speed, either. Front drive on gravel wasn't too figured out yet, and there is only so much you can get from a 1.6l 8v.
8/6/20 1:50 p.m.
I always wondered if they paid royalties to whoever owns the rights to the song "Little GTO" by Ronnie and the Daytonas.
8/6/20 4:52 p.m.
This ad was the reason my first ever new car was a 1984 GTI.
What an unmitigated piece of E36 M3 that car was. Every interior panel rattled. The sunroof leaked. The sway bar brackets broke on a near constant basis. I kept it for 11 months and sold it to buy a '67 Bus and never regretted the decision. But I was a glutton for punishment - a few years later we bought a '87 Jetta.
The best part of my divorce was that she got the Jetta. They deserved each other.
8/6/20 5:32 p.m.
My former boss worked at VW in Pennsylvania back when Rabbits were racing in Showroom Stock or IMSA or whatever. The assembly plant would run the shells through the weld line twice , with the second pass about and inch and a half out of true. Unless someone counted the spot welds they were pretty much unnoticeable, but added to chassis stiffness considerably.
Displaying 1-10 of 15 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to Log in to post comments.