Right,that was fun !
I took my car and young colleague (who has an A3 Fsi) took the Gti.
He's a quick driver,so I know he was trying.
There's little straightline difference in performance,certainly up to the 100mph or so that we reached in our limited wee thrash.
The Golf was pulling away,but not ridiculously so.
Then we swapped for the journey back.
First impressions are that the Golf feels really high and almost like a mini MPV compared with the A3.
Secondly,the interior is awful.Really hard plastics everywhere.No class.
Straightline performance is okay,but obviously quite top-endy,which isn't helped by quite a slow gearchange which loses you revs.You can dab the clutch to get things going though.Interstingly it does not feel any quicker than my MkIV golf Gti turbo,despite the claimed 50bhp more.
The handling is good.Nice turn-in on or off the brakes and quite a supple feel to the suspension,but with more body roll than my S-line.Obviously a softer set up.
The brakes are better than my car for sure.Even repeated hard braking,which got the ABS going on dry roads,and there was zero fade.
All in all though,it doesn't feel like 200bhp and it certainly doesn't feel like a £20K+ car.
Most interesting comment was from my young colleague who usually drives the Fsi A3.
He said the Gti and my Tdi make his Fsi feel so utterly limp that he's thinking of getting it checked over ! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif