As competitive and agile as it is, the Golf GTi cannot fight for the lead in rallies against Lancia, Mazda and Ford, which monopolise wins at the end of the Eighties, with their turbocharged engines and their all wheel drive. Volkswagen therefore decides to produce a version of its Golf with much more muscle, specifically name “Rallye”.
In order to meet the minimum production requirement for its homologation in Group A (N° 5398), VW produces 5,000 vehicles in 1989. The German manufacturer takes the advantage of adopting different techniques from the marques dominating competition, which choices (transmission and turbocharging) will hardly prove propitious, to the point that the “Rallye” will never really achieve rally success.
Based on the Golf 2 and only built in a 3-door model, it is aesthetically distinguished from its little sisters by its rectangular headlights (borrowed from its cousin the Jetta), generous facia and underbody, and its box-flared wheel arches which, in their design, are reminiscent of those on the Audi Quattro. Mechanically, the Golf Rallye G60 is notable for its volumetric G supercharger which feed its 1763cc 8-valve engine. The engine delivers 160 bhp at 5,600 rpm, but the car weighs almost 1200 kilos, which makes it barely better performing than the GTi 16S. The other feature specific to the Rallye is the non-permanent all wheel drive transmission, with a central viscous coupler Synchro system which only transfers power to the rear drive train when the front wheels lack traction.
