Here's the VW Rallye Golf. That's the German answer to the Group A winning recipe, which was nailed early by the Lancia Delta HF 4WD.

Photo courtesy of eWRC

 

Toyota soon enough followed them, as did Ford, Subaru, Nissan and Mitsubishi. All of them made 5000 4x4, 2 litre turbocharged cars, in order to be competitive at the world stage. By 1992 the Celicas were winning championships, while the other manufacturers were fighting for wins at specific events, save for Nissan who were never competitive anyway.

 

Seeing this, VW wanted a piece of the action, so in the very early nineties the Rallye Golf was homologated. It was a 4WD Golf, with flared arches - the car looked the part.

Photo courtesy of eWRC

However, it inexplicably had a 1.8 litre 8-valve engine, paired to a G-Lader (a weird type of supercharger only ever used by VW in the 90s).
Lo and behold, the Golf was instantly uncompetitive, being way down on power compared to its rivals. 270bhp weren't going to cut it when a Cosworth YBT had close to 370, and the Galant's 4G63t over 400.

 

In the international scene, VW's effort fizzled in a matter of a few months, but anyhow the works effort managed to snatch the German Rally Championship at the same time, thanks to the efforts of long time VW Group driver Erwin Weber.

 

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