COBI Volkswagen Golf GTI (1976-1983) Set 24615

COBI's Volkswagen Golf GTI in blue is a 1:35 model built from 68 blocks, 11 cm long, with the widened arches, wide rubber tires and front spoiler of the GTI reproduced in printed blocks.

Britain had to wait three years

Volkswagen did not expect the GTI to sell. The first cars were built in left-hand drive only, as a homologation run, and the company saw no reason to go to the expense of engineering a right-hand-drive version for a market it assumed would ignore it.

British enthusiasts bought left-hand-drive cars and imported them privately rather than wait. Volkswagen finally relented in 1979, three years after launch, and the GTI went on to become one of the best-selling performance cars Britain ever had.

The letters stand for Grand Touring Injection — the fuel injection being the technical point, since it was what turned a 1.6-litre family engine into something that pulled properly. Everything else about the car was standard Golf, which is exactly why it worked.

In the COBI range

Part of the 1:35 Volkswagen collection. Set 24613 is the standard Golf of the same generation. The large 1:12 GTI Executive Edition is set 24358.

Specifications

Pieces: 68 · Scale: 1:35 · Colour: blue
Model dimensions: 11 × 4 × 6.5 cm (4.3 × 1.6 × 2.6 in)