Volkswagen Golf GTI and its Italian-inspired wheels

The Volkswagen Golf is one of the most successful models ever made - 37 million units built leave no room for doubt. Now celebrating 50 years of history, it is a genuine institution within the motor industry.

It is no exaggeration to say that it has set the standard for numerous brands in the C-segment. Of all the versions the Golf has produced, however, the GTI remains the best known.

Volkswagen Golf GTI: the hot hatch benchmark

The Volkswagen Golf GTI was the model that “gave birth” to the hot hatch concept as we recognise it today.

Yet even such a capable pupil as the new Golf GTI could not resist the temptation to copy someone else’s “homework”. Yes, Volkswagen, we need to talk about this…

Volkswagen copied rather than reinvented

If you have not worked out what I mean yet, take another look at the wheels fitted to the latest Golf GTI, the 8.5-generation model.

Perhaps I am alone in thinking this - although I doubt it - but the circular design of the new Golf GTI’s alloy wheels unmistakably brings traditional Alfa Romeo wheels to mind.

With their series of circles, resembling the rotary dial of an old telephone - the sort my son has never even heard of - they are a perfect example of the kind of styling which, because it is so simple, could only have been imagined by an Italian.

The car industry may keep going round in circles over the coming years, but one almost universal constant appears unlikely to change: nobody designs like the Italians. My apologies to the rest of the world, but to me that is a fact.

An Italian influence in the Volkswagen Golf’s history

Looking further into the Golf’s past reveals that Volkswagen turning to Italians is nothing new. From its first generation, the Volkswagen Golf benefited from invaluable Italian good taste.

In fact, without the Italians’ crucial contribution, we might not even be talking about the Volkswagen Golf today.

At the time, the alternative to the first-generation Golf was a model whose design looked as though it had been developed on the far side of the “Iron Curtain”. It was called the EA 276 project, and thankfully it never reached production.

Volkswagen Golf design and the future ID.2

Returning to the present and looking ahead, the Golf’s design continues to set the template within Volkswagen.

A glance at the lines of the future Volkswagen ID.2 immediately recalls some of the styling cues that have proved most successful for the German brand.

Whether it is borrowing from the Italians or from its own history, I am happy either way, provided the result is interesting. In the case of the new Golf GTI, it works. With the ID.2, we will still need to wait and see, but the first images are encouraging.