Volkswagen Golf GTI

The Golf GTI has been in production since 1976. But its history began a couple of years before its release. A group of employees of the concern, enthusiasts who wanted to improve the dynamics of Volkswagen cars, secretly began working on a special project called the "Sport Golf" in 1974. Anton Konrad (head of press relations at the time) and engineer Alfons Loewenberg were responsible for this project. Alfons Löwenberg installed a Weber dual-chamber carburetor on the Golf's 1.6-liter engine, installed a sport exhaust system, and reduced ground clearance. Of course, with these conditions, driver and passenger comfort in the car was reduced to almost nothing. After rumbling this car around the Volkswagen autodrome in Era-Lessin, Löwenberg asked Ernst Fiala, head of the research department, to sit behind the wheel. "Fiala roared almost as loud as the sports exhaust of my brainchild," Löwenberg recalled. And today, more than 30 years later, those memories make Ernst laugh. "It's no good! " was the verdict Fiala passed on the car. The project seemed doomed to fail. "We had to change strategy," Konrad told me in 2011.