Is the Golf GTI TCR the best MK7 send off?

The Golf GTI badge and the mandatory heritage celebration has spawned many renditions of the hot hatch in various states of tune. The 40th year of the legendary Golf brought the Clubsport to the Mk7 platform and brought with it one of the fastest FWD hatches at the time ever. This was back in July of 2016 for us in SA, and it showed just how capable the Mk7 GTI platform was. The Clubsport drove like it was on rails and made what was ultimately a large family hatch a seriously brisk. The Launch of the 2020 TCR successor based on ultimately the same car should bring trickle through the same

GTI Clubsport(2016) vs GTI TCR(2020)

The technical brawl doesn’t put these two very far apart but given the Clubsport huge aftermarket presence the

• The Clubsport’s 195kW and 350Nm is boosted in the first thirst three ratios via over boost to hearty, 213kWs and 380Nm. Numbers still strong by current standards and enough to match the TCR.

• The TCR edges forward in acceleration with a 5.6 second 0-100 acceleration time vs the 5.9 Clubsport time, likely due to the evolution of the XDS-electromechanical diff both cars share from different irritations of the Performance Pack.

• The ClubSport being, in essence, the Grandtouring version of the hardcore GT3 spec Clubsport S Halo car.