DD Motoring: Test driving the Golf GTD

VW Golf GTD
“Sweet Jesus” are the only two words I could us to describe this latest Golf GTD which I picked up at JJ Reid Motors this week for a drive in.

Golf GTI of GTD are a bit like me and mass, anytime I do manage to go to mass it’s for my benefit only, not for anyone else. That’s the exact same way I feel when I get behind the hot hatch version of a VW Golf.

I often thought if there was no such thing as a Porsche, the inventor of the original People’s Car, Ferdinand Porsche’s DNA would be still likely to be found in the Golf GTD or GTI.

I have always loved the Golf in that to most people it’s hard to spot the difference in a standard Golf and a hot one. But having said that this one we drove this week was “drop dead gorgeous”.

This Black GTD weighed in at €45,000 including extras like the fantastic DSG automatic gearbox complete with F1 type flappy switches on the steering wheel to change the gearbox up and down through it 7 speed gearbox.

Driving around Letterkenny, or not driving around Letterkenny which is more commonly the case with all its traffic jams, I was happy to let the VW’s brilliant gearbox and its stop-start do all the work for me.

Inside the car the GTD is just class with them checkered seats and odd shaped steering wheel just shout out “I am a GTI”.

Then add to this all the toys you could think of from parking aids reversing camera, a class sat nav, a touch screen radio and nearly half the roof as a sun roof.

It isn’t a bit wonder that I felt so looked after when I am in one of these cars.

I was nearly that happy with this car I was going to forgive VW for making this GTD a five door, something I always think just says.. “accommodating”!

For your ordinary family Golf you need as many doors as you can get to suit all the needs a family will throw at them and probably a five door might have a better resale value, or might suit someone who is letting on that they are not really driving a golf GTD or GTI with lower suspension, uprated brakes and in this case a massive heard of horses under the bonnet.

The original GTI Mk1 which came only in 3 door, which I had the pleasure of owning many years ago just said it all for me when it came out at the start. That 1.6 hot hatch had the same power output as the Ford RS2000 in its day which was 110 BHP.

Now-a-days most family cars are expected to have that amount of power on tap. So over the years the GTI and GTD had to keep up to keep ahead on the power battle something that I feel they failed with in the MK4 and Mk5 Golfs. But they are back to the way they once felt with this new GTD which pumps out 181BHP and with the DSG box fitted on this car it gets from 0-100 Kms in under seven and a half seconds.

On the open road I feel it’s the gearbox that makes this car feel so quick when you drive it using the switches on the steering wheel, as the rev range in these are small. The DSG box is always working to give you the best performance.

Best of both worlds
This GTD has four different driving modes right through from sport to economy and when you consider that the car can sit at only 800 revs sitting in economy mode at 80kms it will give you an idea how easy this car can be on fuel.

By the way did I mention that this car was diesel? Well you’d never guess and when you give it the shoe and have that big sunroof fully back you would swear it sounds more like the rasp its petrol powered sister. All in all I was well impressed with this classy looking Golf GTD except for the wheels but if JJ was giving that car to me I could definitely accommodate the look of them too.

From a Burma Apache to a Big Chief
Fado Fado, high on a hill a group of children made the rocks at Sentry Hill their own piece of Letterkenny. They looked out from the height and could see rival gangs from the Old Town, Ballymacool or Wolfe Tone Place making any type of advance and swung into action right away giving the Ard O’Donnell wanes the highly credited title of “The Burma Apache”.

While most of the A Burma Apache wanted to act out the rolls of the cowboys and Indians they seen in the matinees at La Scala Cinema, How ever one Burma Apache, Seamus had cars in his mind rather than stage coaches. The boy from the Burma who was raised at 104 Ard O’Donnell could tell you every kind of car and truck and bus that passed by his look out point.

I am sure he sat there and dreamed of traveling in style himself but little did he think he would make history along with his fellow team mate Vincent Bonner when they would power the No 8 Ford Escort across lower Burma on the town rally stage to finish in 1st overall on their home event the Donegal International Rally.

In the ten years since the rally had started in the early seventies a lot of Donegal rally crew came close but none of them managed to take the winning title on their home event.

The Donegal Rally drew top drivers from Europe up to the top corner of Ireland to take on the challenge that was the Donegal Rally. In 1983 Dungloe’s Vincent Bonner and Seamus McGettigan took on the best of the rest to win their home event in a Ex Monte Carlo Wide Track Ford Escort.

Joint Big Chiefs
This year the Donegal crew of Vincent and Seamus were remembered well by their supporters and accepted the honour of becoming the Donegal Motor Club’s joint Presidents. These local heroes will extend a warm Donegal welcome to all the visitors for the forthcoming Donegal International Rally.

The late Roger Moore
The great actor Roger Moore passed away this week and it reminded me of a story told in Letterkenny years ago. It was when the Fiesta Ballroom was in full swing and the story goes about a man making his way across the dance floor to ask a lady out to dance.

When he got to where she was sitting, he asked her for a dance, to which she refused. Shaken but not stirred he swung around to head back to his seat and then suddenly he stopped and turn back to the lady and looked at her straight in the eye and said, “What were you expecting for 10 bob?… JAMES BOND”

Happy motoring folks

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