► CAR’s second month with a Golf GTI Clubsport
► Clubsport returns with more attitude than GTI and less cost than R
► Weekly usability and weekend fun
The Mk8 VW Golf didn’t enjoy the easiest launch when it debuted a few years back, mostly because of its glitchy, unintuitive infotainment system. That’s largely fixed now, at least as much as it can be within the constraints of the latest Mk8.5 facelift. But there was another more nuanced issue with the pre-facelift GTI and R models – the driving experience was a little vanilla, even if these models could ultimately deliver when you cranked them up for fun.
I spent six months with the previous Golf R estate, so the comparison is imperfect, but the Clubsport has far greater teeth and definition, and now communicates that intent much more clearly, even when you’re stroking it around.
It is not a hardcore hatch by any stretch – the GTI has always been a more rounded proposition than that – but that feeling of connection is back, and there’s a surprising amount of fight in this highly liveable car. That’s especially true in the ‘Special’ Nürburgring-ready setting, which has become my go-to drive mode.
Nowhere near as mushy as Comfort, far more supple than skateboard-hard Sport on this test car’s optional DCC adaptive dampers, and with noticeable extra ‘snap’ to the gearshifts, it perks the Clubsport right up.
The 2.0-litre takes on a more vital edge too – nice direct throttle response, and with a purposeful four-cylinder zing from its Akrapovic exhaust that comes bundled with our car’s optional 19-inch Warmenau alloys.
It all really invites you to take the Clubsport by the scruff, and get its front tyres and standard LSD working, without making the GTI become unruly.
In most other ways, the Nürburgring mode is simply a sportier setting that’d work wherever you wanted to drive for fun. But it’s the damper tune that makes it particularly appropriate for the challenging crests, compressions and kerbs of the Nordschleife – and by extension the lumps, yumps and bumps of a British B-road.
This was demonstrated when our car made a guest appearance in our Hot Hatch of the Year test and left with a podium finish against some strong opposition. It impressed on track, entertained on the road, and coped particularly well over a stretch of moorland that upset the damping on many of the other cars – those adaptive shocks doing the full swan legs thing while many of its rivals ran out of answers.
In the typically slower driving of my daily use since, the Clubsport has generally fared very well, but the rear compression damping can feel punchy – there’s mini hump-back bridge in a 40mph zone near where I live, which makes a good reference point when I’m swapping in and out of cars, and the Clubsport does feel a little abrupt, like a little extra elasticity and travel could be in order.
Overall, though, it’s still doing all that daily stuff that the Golf GTI always does so well, just now with more attitude thanks to this Mk8.5 update. It’s not perfect, no, but 8.5 out of 10 pretty much sums it up for me.
Logbook
Price: £43,215 (£47,830 as tested)
Performance: 1984cc turbocharged four-cylinder, 296bhp, 295lb ft, 5.6sec 0-62mph, 168mph
Efficiency: 37.4mpg (official), 34.8mpg (tested), 168g/km CO2
Energy cost: 17.4p per mile
Miles this month: 1107
Total miles: 2022
