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In automobile production, economies of scale are all-important. The main Volkswagen plant is geared to produce cars like the Golf in runs extending ultimately to eight-figure numbers. The few hundred thousand Scirocco, Golf Cabriolet and Corrado models are farmed out to coach builders Karmann. Even smaller runs like the 5000 Rallye Golf's produced for motorsport homologation are made in the Brussels plant. One-offs are the specialty of VW Motorsport. For VW Motorsport is more than just the factory's competition department.
Like BMW, VW sees its Motorsport division as playing a rather wider role. In their new premises in Hannover, VW Motorsport personnel are competition, development, limited edition production and customer special wishes rolled into one. They even have a restoration department which can turn rusting hulks into pristine exhibits for the VW Auto Museum in Wolfsburg - or for customers.
In the squeaky clean main workshops, a visitor would see the mechanics working on existing Rallye Golf's, or knocking new body shells into shape for their competition debut, while other specialists may even be building the 130bhp VW LT Van support vehicles which follow the rally cars to events. Turn the corner and you are presented with the area where the "specials" are made. The rest of the facility was given over to production of just 70 Limited Edition Golf's. Built largely by hand, these cars were based on a five-door Syncro with it's viscous-coupled four-wheel-drive
system. To this was added ABS, power steering, electric windows, central locking, steel sunroof, heated front seats, a full leather interior and an onboard computer.
Tuners in Germany have already begun to exploit the latent potential of the G60 engine, offering conversions ranging from 180bhp to 200bhp for the Corrado, Golf G60 and Rallye Golf. VW Motorsport go one better right from the tart by applying the G60 supercharger to the 16-valve engine. The result is 210bhp (DIN) at 6500rpm and 186lb ft of torque at 5000rpm with 8.8:1 compression ratio and supercharger providing 23psi of boost. More than that, this power developed from an engine with full compliance to US emission regulations via a pair of three way catalytic converters, a clean engine that runs on super unleaded fuel! Digifant electronic injection is important in achieving such controlled efficiency.

The Limited may look like a standard five-door Golf with 6 1/2J x 15inch BBS split rim alloys and 195/50VR 15 tyres, but this wolf in sheep's clothing has a drive train from the Rallye Golf including its complete front end beneath the standard front wings. This means that the inner arches are larger to take wide tyres without fouling the suspension and the new gearbox and large capacity radiator are also grafted in. Thus, various bits of the car are sent from Brussels and Wolfsburg to come together in Hannover. 210bhp in a car the size of a Golf is a lot, but the Limited is not a stripped-out racer; it is a compact, all-weather luxury express. It tips the scales at 2,805lb at the kerb which makes it some 700lb heavier than a GTi 16V. That weight eats into the performance, but even so 7.2 seconds 0-6- time and a 142mph top speed is not to be scoffed at.

The Golf G60 Limited is the fastest production road car to have left any VW plant destined for a private customer. Like most of the projects that emanate from VW Motorsport, it was the brain-child of Klaus-Peter Rosorius. "It took a long time to realize the project," he explained, "but we were fortunate to have the help of many engineers in the design and development department at Wolfsburg. The idea was to have a nice, elegant-looking production Golf without external modifications but lots of fascination under the bonnet." That aim has been achieved by the 70 Limited cars which are restrained in outward appearance even to the point of having simple, single head-lamps. One customer who owns No. 031 has fitted a four head-lamp grille and wider 7J Borbet alloy wheels but all the other Limited cars have left the factory in their grey metallic anthracite paintwork with just the blue grille surround and subtle VW Motorsport badges to distinguish them as instant classics.

As for the future, Limited Editions of the Corrado and Passat have not been ruled out and when the VW VR6 engine is released, who knows what we might see from VW Motorsport?

If the Golf G60 feels as though its chassis could handle more power, the Limited provides that power in the form of 210bhp from a supercharged 16-valve engine. Wisely, VW elected to pair it with their Syncro 4WD system. While the standard G60 unit merely enhances the tractability of the 8-valve engine, the 16-valve version releases the full potential of the supercharger system. Acceleration is vivid, with 60mph coming up in 7.0 seconds. But what is impressive is that the power never seems to tail off until you hit the rev limiter just past 7000rpm. Get to 100mph....120mph....and it is still pulling hard. Very low down, the engine still does not have the razor-edge response of a good naturally aspirated unit. Frustratingly - because it is so good past 2500rpm - it does take a fraction of a second to "come to the boil" and really get going. This is probably a function of the lower compression ratio (compared to a stock 16-valve) and/or insufficient gas speed at low rpm, a problem with many multi-valve engines.

Once it starts to build up, though, it is intoxicating and you find yourself using the gears for the sheer exhilaration of feeling the strong and smooth onward urge. 186lb/ft of torque at 5000rpm is 3-litre pulling power and, with the drive going to all four wheels, once the fronts begin to slip under the strain of the torque, the handling balance of this car is beyond the capabilities of a normal front-wheeled-drive GTi. Power-on in a tight corner and the Limited adopts a more neutral stance and full throttle can be applied early once the car is settled. In wet corners, power sliding out on opposite lock is possible, another fun element denied to the FWD Golf enthusiast. For all that, the Limited is a refined and mature vehicle that cossets its occupants in its leather upholstery and pampers them with luxuries like electric windows, central locking and a sunroof.

Only 70 , VW Motorsport Golf Limited cars were made, lovingly constructed by VW Motorsport personnel during 1989/90, but this wolf in sheep's clothing, looking just like any metallic black five-door Golf with a set of BBS wheels, is the ultimate hot-hatchback of it's day just as surely as the original Golf GTi was. Advances in technology and in market conditions have created in this car a level of sophistication as telling today as that of the first GTi in 1975. Ironically, this Q-car shares one flaw with the original GTi: in its attempt to remain discreet in appearance, with just two headlamps, its night-driving capabilities are severely hampered.

The door slams shut and I sink into a world of leather. Hmmmmm, nice place this. Not too scary. Don't know what all this fuss is about. OK, so it's LHD and has 225bhp hovering somewhere under my size tens, but it's nothing a careful right foot and a tight grip on the leather-clad steering wheel couldn't take care of.

This Golf Limited has a clutch bite nastier than a rabid Doberman. Having gingerly selected reverse, I kangaroo out onto the street and narrowly miss an articulated truck. Bugger! With beads of sweat forming on my brow, I try again. Same result, only this time a milk float glides past, gallons of semi-skimmed inches from this most polished of bonnets. Surely Golf's were never always like this?

Paul Smith knows his stuff, and he knows a good car when he sees one. To say this VW is rare is to underestimate the obvious. The Golf Limiteds were practically hand-built by Volkswagen Motorsport in Germany in 1991 (???? 1989-1991) and beneath that innocent 5-door GL body (???Syncro CL) lurks a 16-valve engine linked to a four-wheel drive system, with a supercharger bolted on for good measure.

Original output was 210bhp but this car has been mildly breathed on to produce a nerve-jangling 225bhp. It was Volkswagens last-ditch attempt to retain the hot-hatch crown and I'm driving car 63, of only 70 ever made.

Smith's a lucky man. His passion is his business. A life spent working with cars, in particular VW's, has enabled him to set up a business which. in these economically challenged times, appears to be booming.

"H2O Konnection" is the front for an operation which caters for water-cooled VW's of any type, but anything out of the ordinary is welcomed.................

........I'm back in the Golf Limited. It takes some getting use to. After a ten mile drive the gearbox has warmed up and the gear changing is slicker. The odd crunch as second engages is more down to my incompetence than the cars indifference.

Designed as the ultimate "sheep's clothing", the Limited was the brainchild of VW Motorsport boss Klaus-Peter Rosorius. "The idea was to have a nice, elegant-looking production Golf without external modifications but lots of fascination under the bonnet", he told the UK press on the car's debut in 1991(???1989).

Under the bonnet is where the real fun begins. With the drive train taken from the rather more overstated Rallye (including, I might add it's complete front end) the Limited has larger inner arches to accommodate the tyres without scuffing the suspension. It also has a larger capacity radiator plus a new gearbox. But that's all under the skin. Outside, visually, there's very little to distinguish the Limited from a GL. Nothing, in fact, apart from some desirable 15 inch BBS split-rim alloys and rather fetching metallic anthracite paintwork with blue grille surround (instead of the usual red). Oh, and a subtle Motorsport badge on the grille.

I'd like to add that this article appeared in "VW Motoring" in November 2000 and pictured a "K" prefix registration number. This was issued to the car on importation and is incorrect as it purports that the car was first registered in 1993. The car was actually first registered in 1991, a mistake by the Vehicle Records Office.

When it comes to the world of high performance Golf's there's no doubt that the most highly-tuned examples are to be found in the custom areas of the GTi shows. But by the same token it doesn't follow that only a modified Golf can be wild - when VW flex their muscles they can create some pretty impressive machinery.

However, unlike some of the more radically styled vehicles, when VW build a seriously quick Golf they don't scream about it from the roof tops. Just look at the plain-looking G60 Limited Edition. To the casual observer it's just a black five door Golf with a blue rimmed grille. Surely such an innocuous looking Mk2 can't be anything too special?

Okay, well try this for size. Four wheel drive. Supercharged 16V. 210 bhp. 142 mph top speed. One of 70 versions built by VW Motorsport. It must be the ultimate example of a sleeper - a proper "Q" car.

Best of all, is how the heads of VW introduced the Golf G60 Limited to the press. In typical understated fashion, the head of VW Motorsport, Klaus-Peter Rosorius commented that the idea behind the project was to build a " nice elegant-looking Golf without any exterior alterations, that incorporated a number of interesting under bonnet changes".

Who else but VW would describe a fire-breathing 210 bhp supercharged 16V engine as "interesting"?!

In fact the Limited Edition is easily the most "interesting" Mk2 Golf ever built. For starters it wasn't built on the main Wolfsburg production line, but at VW Motorsport's main base in Hanover. Each car was hand assembled by their motorsport technicians, with each taking a week to complete (during which time Wolfsburg could churn out several thousand cars.)

The starting point was a body shell featuring both Golf Rallye and Golf Syncro five door features - inner wheel arches for example are from the Rallye, while the outer wheel arches are standard Syncro-style items (rather than the flared wheel arches and spats employed on the two wheel drive G60). The windscreen too is a Rallye style bonded-in item and is said to add a little torsional rigidity to the body shell.

Only seventy of these lovingly-crafted Mk2 Golfs were constructed, each being sprayed in metallic black and featuring a blue-trimmed grille. This was unusual in itself as it was a "twin lamp" item rather than the quad-headlamp version sported by all other high-performance Mk2 Golfs bar the Rallye. In fact, other than the tasty split-rim BBS alloys, the only exterior clue that this was no 2ordinary" Golf was just a couple of discreet VW Motorsport badges attached to the grille and rear panel. In fact to the average Joe in the street, to all intents and purposes the Limited could be just a five-door GTi with different badges and a blue-trimmed grille. Which is just the way VW wanted it to be.

Under the bonnet, you get the first indication of just how wild the Limited really is. Shoehorned into the engine bay is a 16V engine mated up to a VW Motorsport-tweaked G-Lader supercharger, cooled by a Rallye intercooler and a large capacity radiator. An individually-numbered engraved plaque indicates that this particular Limited in No 41 out of 70.

Transmitting the power to the ground is a VW Motorsport clutch and the 02A cable-change gearbox found in the Rallye (and said to be notchier than the GTi-style rod-change 'box), which has a reputation for being bullet proof. A Rallye-style braking system comprising beefy 280mm front vented discs, rear discs, and ABS helps haul the car down from its Autobahn storming 142mph top speed.

Although the exterior of the car is pretty frill-free, the same can't be said for the interior, which boasts a whole load of electronic gadgets. As it should: at the time the Limited's purchase price was double that of a Golf GTi 16V (which retailed around £12,00).

Limited drivers get cosseted in black leather trimmed seats (the front ones being heated), with electric windows and mirrors being standard equipment. Naturally, central-locking is standard, as is a sunroof and an electronic leveling control. The leather trim also extends to the door-cards, handbrake cover, steering wheel rim and the gear lever gaiter. The only clue to the performance of the car is provided by the VW Motorsport gearnob.

The most complex and also most expensive increase in output fur the g-loader engine-offers the VW engine port ansassige in Hanover on. The engine wound once fur a special series gulf in the factory develops us is still still, after running out the special series, sepat available (price more uber 25.000). The special at the G60 Limited is, dab as base of the 1,8 litre Vierventiler serves, which for the purpose of the loading are however still internally modified mubte. Thus there is pistons with nickel plated soil (good against knocking appearances) and special piston rings as well as a starkere cylinder head gasket, which at the same time lowers the Verdichtungsverhaltnis of 10:1 on 8,8:1. A scharfere cam shaft with 9.6 mm stroke (series: 9.0 grobere Offnungsquerschnitte mm)sorgt on the a lab page fur. The max. load printing is with this engine with 0,56 bar from Sicherheitsgrunden clearly under the serienmotor. The performance yield is nevertheless considerably, which proves again, dab Vierverntiler fur loading is quite particularly well suitable. 209PS (153KW) are achieved with 6400/min, the max. torque are about 247 Newtonmeters with 5000/min. A notenoting noting is present. As Hochstgeschwindigkeit 227 km/h are called, the acceleration of 0 to 100 km/h are situated scarcely more uber seven second.