COBI Volkswagen Golf GTI (1976-1983) Set 24614

COBI's Volkswagen Golf GTI (1976–1983) is a 1:35 model built from 64 blocks, 11 cm long, in white — with the widened arches, wide rubber tires and deep front spoiler that identify the car. All markings are printed.

Volkswagen did not authorise it

The GTI began as an unofficial project. A small group inside Volkswagen — an engineer, a press officer and a handful of others — thought the new Golf would make a good fast car and started building one in their own time, without a budget and without management approval.

The company was not receptive. Volkswagen in the mid-1970s was in serious financial trouble, had just replaced the Beetle, and had no appetite for a niche sports version of its volume car. The group worked on it anyway and eventually got a prototype in front of the board.

The initial production run approved was 5,000 cars — enough to satisfy the homologation rules and, everyone assumed, enough to cover the entire demand.

Over 460,000 were sold of the first generation alone.

What they had invented was the hot hatchback: an ordinary practical family car with a much bigger engine, which does everything the family car does and is also quick. Every manufacturer in Europe copied it within a few years, and the category still exists.

In the COBI range

This is the small 1:35 version. Sets 24662 and 24663 are the 1:35 GTI in white and yellow at a different size, 24660 and 24661 the Golf Cabriolet, and 24614 the white GTI in this scale.

Specifications

Pieces: 64 · Scale: 1:35
Model dimensions: 11 × 4 × 6.5 cm (4.3 × 1.6 × 2.6 in)