Blasphemy!! The Golf GTI has been around since dirt.
One thing I always consider about German cars is the home market. Their driving environment is different than ours especially the Autobahn.
Sounds like you are getting into the soul of the car which is pretty cool in itself. And all it takes is some disposable income and VW / or tuners will sell you what you want to make what you need.
Yeah, this is absolutely tuned for passing people on the Autobahn, long drives, and then taking it easy when the traffic piles up outside of cities.
They aren't fucking around with the "GT" in GTI. Once you're out of third, this thing comes alive, and it's got the suspension and top end of a grand tourer. It's legitimately stupid fast up there; faster than they say it is by quite a bit. They just managed to slam it and give you visible negative camber right out of the gate. It has that strange split personality.
In turns, your lane just becomes so wide, and there's tons of maneuverability. Shame it's not the sort of car that likes to be sideways, though. I'm slowly sneaking closer to limits, and it keeps slapping me on the wrist well before I get there.
It does have the strangest understeer I've ever experienced, but I can liven that up with a rear anti-sway bar and rear braces once I feel like I've wrung everything I can out of it, and I do know there is a lot of adjustment to be had in the differential. This car needs to be worse to be better, in some ways; but that's normal for a production vehicle.
I love getting to know vehicles on a more personal level. You can do so much more with them, and it's a lot of fun. In a way, this is like a tamed Skyline in FWD. It had a certain image, but the actual driving experience was dramatically different. That was a highly computerized vehicle, as well.
Cheers,
Kennith