VOLKSWAGEN GOLF AT 50
Former head of Volkswagen Group Design, Klaus Zyciora, joined the company during the transition from Golf GTI MkI to MkII. Here he recalls the arrival of the original and its successors and reflects upon the model’s continued success through to this day
‘The Golf MkI was not the only Volkswagen that drew me towards the brand but it was an important one,’ says Klaus Zyciora. ‘A doctor friend of the family had one of the first GTIs. He took me for a test-drive and, of course, it was one hell of a ride – I needed some time before my grin disappeared.
‘It was quite an experience, and experiences are what draw people to products.’
Hundreds of thousands of others just like Klaus would have similar encounters, propelling Volkswagen’s range-topping newcomer to iconic status. He puts this down to a number of factors: ‘Giorgetto Giugiaro designed a masterpiece. It was the first super-compact sports car that had usability. It was so clean and clear in its identity, which made it the hero product or segment owner.’
That it happened at all is, perhaps, the biggest achievement. ‘Wolfsburg was a complicated place at that time. If you could enter a time machine now and go back I think you would be surprised how hands-on and craftsmanship-like design was at this point in time. It was a very small group of guys who had dreamt of doing this, working in a small space, and they held it back until they convinced the board that it would be a good idea. The belief of the few can create really great cars.’
Come the early Eighties and Volkswagen no longer had the ‘hot hatch’ market to itself – although it had taken time, competitors now had the Golf GTI firmly in their sights. A new car was needed: ‘I was in the company design department completing internships during my studies so I watched the development of the GTI MkII as a spectator. Giugiaro had designed the genetic codes but roads or life streams connect and disconnect again at some points in time.’
As such the design of the GTI MkII was penned in-house by design boss Herbert Schäfer and his team: ‘I can remember there were quite a few discussions within the design team, which I followed, suggesting that we jumped too far away from the original approach. Don’t forget that there were quite a lot of changes in society and politically; there was of course the oil crisis and the company had gone up and down but the GTI was still something that people wanted.
‘Again, you had to be a believer and the team followed what was decided. Of course as a young designer I had my own thoughts on what was going on, and when I saw the car I was stunned. I thought to myself: that’s really cool – it’s now a more modernistic interpretation”
