Volkswagen first produced its first Golf model in 1974 and has been building them in various configurations for the last six generations and under different names, for instance in the US it was introduced as the Rabbit. The MK2 Golf GTI was produced during the years 1985-1992 as the second generation of this venerable economy car from one of Germany’s leading car makers. The Golf itself was touted as the replacement for the Beetle after it was finally phased out and it was one of Volkswagen’s first successful front wheel drive cars.
The original MK2 Golf GTI came with an 8 valve engine and was considered to be one of the better cars on the road as it had plenty of low end torque for fast starts off the line. This model had a slightly longer wheelbase than the original MK1 and was a little bigger overall giving you more space in the interior which is very important given the overall increase in the size of people today. This was the first model to be offered with four wheel drive using the Syncro four wheel drive unit that is used is used on the G60 models that were released in 1989 with a 160HP engine.
The MK2 Golf GTI was designed in house by their in house design team led by Schäfer, however the design still kept very close to the original styling of the MK1 as created by Giugiaro and production of this model was approximately 6.3 million units sold around the world. There were a variety of different engine variations available during its production run including a turbocharged diesel, the 8 valve 1781 cc four cylinder GTI engine and later the 16 valve DOHC 1781 GTI engine which reportedly did not have the same level of low end torque as the 8 valve engine.
While the Golf was first introduced in the US as the Rabbit in the US as the marketers thought that the name might be a little more cuddly and appealing for a small economy car. By the mid 80s Carl Hahn chairman of Volkswagen worldwide decided that all names for Volkswagen cars be standardized no matter where they were to be sold and so when the MK2 Golf GTI arrived it carried the same nameplate everywhere that it was sold. Production continued on this model until 1992 when the model was superseded by the MK 3 along with major changes in the body style and powerplant.