THIRD TIME’S A CHARM

Without naming names, a work colleague summed up how many feel about the Mk3 Volkswagen Golf GTI on one of his first days in the Kelsey office. Offered a lift home to his new digs on the outskirts of town, he keenly responded until learning the car was our 1996 Dragon Green Mk3 project. “I’d rather walk,” came the reply, no doubt guided by little more than the car’s unfair reputation amongst armchair experts.

Indeed, the Mk3 GTI has long endured a reception that’s lukewarm at best, not helped by its predecessors being fully paid-up members of the hot hatch hall of fame. The Mk1 Golf GTI pretty much fathered the entire movement, while the Mk2 succeeded as the difficult second album and moved the game on just as the competition had started to catch up. The Mk3 had big shoes to fill, and in the eyes of many enthusiasts, never managed it.

There are several reasons for such antipathy. Firstly, it wasn’t very fast, and at over 1000kg, the light and nimble feel of the original car had been tempered. While there was still a choice of eight or 16-valve four-pot engines and capacity had increased from