Today I have been mostly driving.

I had an early Mk2 Scirocco 1.6 GTI, and it felt quick at the time too. Not as torqey as the 1.8, but still pretty quck for then.

The one I drove was an early one and compared to most other stuff about, felt utterly bonkers - but then if you've driven 1.1 and 1.3 Golfs, Escorts, Astras (1.2 and 1.3 here heh) I suppose it would.

I remember driving a 1.8 mark two Golf and thinking something along the lines of, "meh, doesn't feel as quick." And it didn't. But it was.

The 1.8 Mk2 Golf - we talking a GTI or a carb'd jobbie? I guess the Mk2's more refined and muted than the Mk1, but my Xantia (Activa) feels shitloads more refined and muted than the Golf (as you'd expect, really). The 2.0 bottom end goes some decent way to making it feel quicker. Can't wait to get that bloody thing back on the road....

Might be time for you to apply for the logbook?

Didn't the very first MK1 GTi have carbs?

Isn't the 'i' for Injection?

No.

Indeed it does.

Despite the German word for injection being einspritz, hence the Opel GTEs...

Even though in Germany where it was first release the i for injection would have meant bugger all.

I'm sure many years ago I read somewhere that the original german release had carbs, quickly swapped for injection.

Ah, the famous Golf GTKraftstoffeinspritzung?

That was the whole USP of the original Golf GTI though - injection.

GT, maybe, but the GTI had fuel injection. I have a '83 road test annual somewhere that talks a little bit about the history of the Golf GTI.

I can't have imagined it. I don't really have an imagination. There wasn't a GT before the GTi was there? The GTi was the original "sport" golf that went from prototype to production.

The MK1 Golf GTI engine was based on the Audi 80GT's carbed 100bhp unit. The first prototype ran that engine with a dual choke Solex. They then slapped on K-jet, which they'd already had knocking around in order to meet Californian emissions regs. They also made a 1471cc, 75bhp carbed Golf engine based on the 80 engine - that might be what you're thinking of, as it'd look pretty similar to a GTI engine.

No, there wasn't. At least in Germany, there was a Golf GT but that was a MkII GTI-look Golf with a 90bhp engine as the latter was more insurance friendly.