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Off to work they went with the front-engined, front-driven Golf Mark I platform and by 1974, the first Scirocco flaunted its Giugiaro styled sheet-metal to the world at the Geneva Motor Show. The two-door liftback-coupé was much sleeker and sportier than the Golf, even though they shared nearly all of the same underpinnings.
It continued to be the sportiest-selling model in the line-up for nearly twenty years, even as it was sold side-by-side with Volkswagen's popular Rabbit/Golf GTI. VW finally stopped production of the Scirocco in 1992, eventually replacing it with the excellent but under-appreciated Corrado.
Last year's Geneva Motor Show commemorated the Scirocco's 34th anniversary since its maiden launch. At the time, the 2009 model-year 2.0 TSI was designated for sale only in European markets. While we have to wait for local versions of Scirocco to reach our shores later this year, parallel-imported versions are starting to pop up, starting with this pristine white stunner, previewed here.
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Designers of the car wanted to endow the new Scirocco with good amounts of interior space. In contrast to its two predecessors, it does not have a sloping hatch. Rather, the long roof now leads to a vertical tailgate. When the car is viewed from the rear, the 1.8 metre long roof, combined with the lateral lines of the windows, stand on a very broad and shoulder section.
It still has a good amount of space in the back for two adults as well as an average-sized assortment of bags.
Sharing the Golf's PQ35 platform, the Scirocco measures in at 2,578 millimetres between the front and rear wheels. In proportion, it is 1,404 millimetres tall, exactly 4,256 millimetres long and 1,810 millimetres wide.
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Preceding the sixth generation of Golfs, Volkswagen aimed for the front end that makes Volkswagen fans reminisce. In our opinion, it looks less historical than that of the sixth Golf.
Horizontal lines dominate in the upper area of the Scirocco's front end. Spanning the distinctive, high-sheen black background of the dual headlamps is a very narrow, gloss-black upper grille. The double band of the high-sheen radiator grille and the bumpers are all colour co-ordinated, and is what Volkswagen hopes will become a new character trait.
What attracted us most though, was the lower section of the front end. Here, a large, gaping central air inlet is finished in a matte-black, diamond patterned grille, while turn signal and fog lamps find themselves integrated on both sides.
When inspected up close, one notices that the surfaces of the side profile alternate in curvature, especially when our hands are run over headlamps, fenders and then the doors. This powerful styling device, Volkswagen says, enables the side image to change like a moving muscle in response to the viewer's perspective and lighting conditions.
The car is fitted with standard 18-inch wheels as standard, with 19-inch, jet-black Oettingers available as an aftermarket styling option. Placed side by side with the standard wheels, it's obvious how wide the new Scirocco's tread width is (1,569 mm in front, 1,575 millimetres in the rear) as they are practically flush with the body.
Bringing up the sharply contoured rear is a substantially narrower roof-line that effectively gives the Scirocco it's overall, ultra-wide looking character. From the rear, the posts of the C pillars cannot be made out visually, since the window of the tailgate spans the entire width of the vehicle. An integrated spoiler and a new, revised font round things off nicely.
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The interior appears to be a blend of parts from the existing Volkswagen stable. The air-conditioner vents appear to resemble those found in the Eos, while the flat-bottomed steering wheel and gear-knob comes from the Mark V Golf GTI. The Scirocco previewed receives an RCD 510 multimedia console that's Bluetooth enabled, and has auxiliary and USB connectors to allow playback from any flash-memory device.
An optional, really large panorama vent sunroof extends from the A to B-pillars. At the press of a button, it opens up to 39 millimetres, and can be covered by a sunshade.
The four sport seats resemble those on the new Passat CC. Even the rear has bucket seats, with head restraints permanently attached in the interests of safety but at the expense of vision when looking into the rear-view mirror.
The new Vienna leather sport seats also offer rear passengers easier entry and exit by an unlatching action.
Despite low overall height, we found it rather comfortable when seated inside the Scirocco. Volkswagen quotes figures of 948 mm in interior height, and 923 mm in the rear. The deep-set boot opening offers a 292 litre cargo volume, and shoots up to 755 litres when the individual rear seats are folded down.
Scirocco or GTI?
As of now, the Scirocco sold in Singapore remains to be of the 2.0-litre turbocharged TSI variant. Coupled with the six-speed dual clutch gearbox, it shares all of its running gear with the existing Golf GTI. Rated at 200 bhp from 5,100 rpm to 6,000 rpm and 280 Nm from 1,700 rpm to 5,000 rpm, the torque-rich workhorse performer has received minor software tweaks which enable it to consume just 7.7 litres of fuel per 100 km.
Performance figures from Volkswagen are similar to that of the GTI - a top speed of 235 km/h and a 0 to 100 km/h sprint time of 7.2 seconds.
As such, comparisons to the Golf are bound to happen, especially before the Mark 6 barnstormer makes its debut. Speed aside, both are rather different, especially when one has to consider that one has more form than function, and vice versa.
Very few cars have managed to attain cult status over the years. The fact that the original Scirocco did not sell as widely as the Beetle, Golf or even the Mini meant that it never received as much fame as it deserved. However, in the right circles and in Europe, many have been hailing, and still continue to hail it for what it really is - a very reasonably priced car with the looks and performance to go along with it.
The good news is that Volkswagen's underlying principle of economics isn't going to be different this time around - the Scirocco sold by First Automobile goes for approximately S$118,000, with options. Now that's going to be a tough to beat.
