A healthy GTI is emphatically a positive thing for performance cars as a genre, and off the back of the previous-gen Mk7.5 – a very strong generation – the tech-forward Mk8 has a lot to live ...

but against the old GTI Performance five-door manual (the closest match) the Mk8 is just 4kg heavier. In this era, that has to go down as a win given the ever-increasing safety and kit count of ...