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The Syncro was another car for mountain-dwelling Germanic types to make wintry shopping excursions with, rather than a road rocket for boy racers looking for the ultimate in grip. Available in both hatchback Golf and booted Jetta forms, the Syncro used an ordinary 1.8-litre engine in conjunction with a viscous coupling-equipped four-wheel drive system. There were few outward clues to the car's underpinnings other than black wheelarch extensions and slightly wider wheels. In Britain, an island of relatively mild winters, the Syncro had a limited audience and only 600-odd were sold at a price premium of almost £1,000 over the more exciting GTi.
The 130 mph Golf G60, on the other hand, was a much more intriguing device - a supercharged homologation special with bloated arches, fat rubber and face-lifted front-end that must have established the 'look' of today's Max Power- modified Golfs. It handled impeccably, with the 160bhp to exploit the Syncro system, but a works rally career eluded it and the G60 faded into obscurity within a year.
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