A few years ago, I owned a diesel non-turbo Golf from this era (although that car had one less digit in its asking price), and to say it was slow is such an understatement. Glaciers are slow. Elephant seals out of the water are slow. The Golf diesel takes slow driving to an art form […]
Our first feature today is the Volkswagen Golf Harlequin, one of the strangest factory-built Volkswagens ever sold in the U.S. It looks like a parts car assembled during a blackout, but the color chaos was intentional. The Harlequin package was based on the Mk3 Golf GL, using a normal 2.0-liter “ABA” inline-four, 5-speed manual, front-wheel […]
A stock 1979 Rabbit would have been light, simple, slow, and economical. This one has been fitted with a 12-valve VR6 from a 1991 Passat, which changes the personality from “commuter appliance” to “front-wheel spin happy torque goblin.” Are you the next owner who might be willing to read through some massive old school wiring […]
It is another day, another Syncro de Mayo post. This is the day (week?) in which we at DT celebrate the syncro equipped Volkswagens from the recent past — starting with the viscous coupling center diff 80s/90s models and continuing to Haldex-equipped 4Motion things like this Golf R. Find this 2012 Volkswagen Golf R offered […]
Syncro de Mayo came late this year…but it is never too late for some all-wheel-drive equipped Volkswagens from yesteryear. What is Syncro de Mayo? It is DT’s May 5th celebration of Volkswagen’s four wheel drive system known as Syncro. Up next (on May 7th) is this rad 8-valve equipped Golf GL with a hybrid Gas-LPG […]
This next car comes as a tip from MB who writes: Look, man, it is tax refund time and that is like, FREE MONEY, so why the hell wouldn’t you put it to good use on the sneakiest “best car” ever made. Think of all the extra money you can make by getting to work […]
Volkswagen’s performance roots go all the way back to the hot-rodded aircooled Beetles and Karmann Ghias of the 1960s—little cars that could embarrass bigger machinery when tuned right. By the time the water-cooled era rolled in, VW carried that DNA forward into the GTI, and eventually into the R32, which landed in the early 2000s […]
Welcome to Daily Turismo’s Syncro de Mayo, our May 5th (or 6th) celebration of Volkswagen’s four wheel drive system known as Syncro. Today’s next entry into the cabal of synchronicity did not use the Syncro name in its advertising literature, but the R32 Golf MkV puts power from its 250 horsepower VR6 engine into a […]
The fifth generation of Volkswagen’s legendary Golf platform was sold for the 2004 through 2009 model years. It was a mild upgrade of the previous generation with more weight, more gizmos, and more horsepower. Model bloat, sure. However, it was still a good car, and the GTI version is available with turbocharged front-wheel-spinning power and […]
A few decades ago, this car would have attracted V-Dub fanbois for thousands of miles around, but things change, I guess. However, I still find the idea of a manual transmission equipped VW wagon with a turbocharged engine and all-wheel-drive to be some kind of automotive nirvana. Maybe not as much of a Valhalla as […]