228kW entrepreneur-edition GTI hits SA

Published Jan 12, 2017

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Johannesburg - Volkswagen’s 228kW Golf GTI Clubsport S, which is VW’s fastest GTI ever, has just arrived in South Africa and it’s already sold out, with all 47 of the units allocated to our market having been pre-sold by the VW dealer organisation.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t have one, at a price.

You see some of those lucky 47 are opportunists looking to make a quick buck and a quick search on

produced three results, albeit asking significantly more than VW’s official list price of R742 000. The most expensive of these is listed at R1.6-million, while the other two are hardly bargains at R999 000. Can we pay in five cent coins?

It is quite a collectors item though, with just 400 built globally, and South Africa got a fair chunk of those on the basis of this being one of the GTI’s biggest markets in the world. The Clubsport S is only sold in three-door form and all SA cars are white with a black roof and ‘Pretoria’ 19-inch alloys, wearing Michelin Sport Cup 2 semi-slick rubber.

Holding the Nürburgring Nordschleife record for the fastest production front-wheel drive car (07m49s21), the Clubsport S makes a few compromises in the pursuit of weight saving. Even the back seats have been removed to shed a few kilos, along with the bonnet damping and variable luggage compartment floor.

VW’s familiar 2-litre turbopetrol engine has been tuned to 228kW and 380Nm in this guise, allowing for a 5.8 second 0-100km/h blast, but there’s no DSG to make you look good – only a good old six-speed manual shifter. But don’t let FOMO get the better of you here – the facelifted all-wheel drive Golf R, revealed abroad late last year, is now also good for 228kW, but it won’t offer the same kind of exclusivity and features.

Being born and bred for the race track, the Clubsport S’s has a unique sports chassis and aerodynamic package as well as a special Nürburgring setting for the Dynamic Chassis Control system and beefed-up brakes.

The cabin is kitted out with racing bucket seats, velour-trimmed golf ball gear knob and steering wheel, ‘Honeycomb 40’ decorative inlays and, perhaps your biggest bragging point, the car’s production number (out of 400) is displayed on the ashtray cover.

Perhaps they should have put the price tag there too.

IOL Motoring

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