Johannesburg - The Volkswagen Golf GTI, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2016, is still an immensely capable front-wheel drive ass-kicker - some say the best all-round package in its class. But at 162kW it's no longer the king of the hot-hatch hill - in fact it's a bit of an also-ran.
Which has not only opened the door for the 195kW 40th anniversary Clubsport edition but also for a host of hot-hatch tuners to show that anything Wolfsburg can do, they can do better - including RGMotorsport, right here in Jozi.
This, then, is RGM's 'Untamed' upgrade for the two-litre VAG EA888 engine in the Golf 7 GTI. It's all about freer breathing, as are most physical upgrades, starting with a Goliath carbon-fibre cold air induction system. It completely replaces the standard airbox and pleated-paper panel filter with a big pleated-cotton gauze air filter at the end of an elegant large-diameter silicon rubber tube - and its worth 10kW on its own, says RGM.
Breathing out is just as important, so the auspuff side gets an 85mm drainpipe leading down from the turbo outlet to a conical joint at chassis level that gradually tapers to 63mm increasing exhaust gas velocity without raising back pressure. Finally, RGM wires in a plug-and-play engine management piggyback, so that it can tune fuel and ignition settings all the way from idle to the red line.
Impressive performance figures
The result is a solid 195kW, measured at Gauteng altitude, and some very impressive performance figures, recorded by VBox at the Gerotek vehicle testing grounds near Pretoria.
The 0-100km/h sprint is disposed of 5.92 seconds, compared to 6.37s for the standard GTI, the standing quarter-mile clocks in at 13.9s and 171.7km/h versus 14.5s and 162.4km/h, and the standing kilometres disappears in 25.3 seconds with a terminal velocity of 215km/h, almost a second quicker and 12km/h faster than the stock GTI.
The whole package costs R19 400, or R17 900 if you get in before the end of July, which means you could get a brand-new 195kW, 'Untamed' Golf 7 GTI DSG for R481 500 + R17 900 = R499 400, R40 800 less than the cost of a standard GTI Clubsport.
RGM includes a six-month or 20 000km warranty on the conversion work; asked what would happen to the standard VW warranty if the car was still within the factory warranty period, VWSA said the manufacturer warranty "might be impacted in a case where a claim is directly related to a problem that has been caused by a modification to the car". Fair enough, we thought.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our Newsletter