2012 Volkswagen GTI Edition

 2012 Volkswagen GTI

 
 The Volkswagen GTI is one of our favorite cars, and not just among compacts. In terms of driving enjoyment and overall refinement, it’s a difficult car for anything on the market to top, especially when you take price into consideration. Sure, there is the far more powerful 270-hp Golf R, but that car carries a 282-pound weight penalty over the GTI, not least because of its all-wheel-drive system. Now, though, VW is trying to slot a car right between the GTI and Golf R: the GTI Edition 35, conceived to celebrate the GTI’s 35th anniversary in Europe; U.S. sales didn’t start until a few years later. (As a companion to this story, we've put together a photographic history of the GTI. You can check it out here.)
At first, the Edition 35 wasn’t going to come to the U.S., then it was, and now it’s off again. U.S.-market fate aside, VW did more than add a few badges to create this special edition—although it did add badges, too. Most important, the Edition 35 receives a more powerful engine. The U.S.-market GTI makes 200 hp, the European car delivers 210, and the GTI Edition 35 produces 235. It is fitted with the old EA113 engine, which is also used in the Golf R and can handle the extra power and torque better than the newer EA888 in its current state of evolution. Compared with the U.S. engine’s 207 lb-ft of torque—produced from 1800 to 5000 rpm—the 35 makes 221 lb-ft from 2200 to 5500 rpm.