463 Volkswagen Golf (Mk.1) 1600 GTi (The Akai Golf) (1977) Richard Lloyd by Robert Knight Via Flickr: Volkswagen Golf (1st Gen) (Kamei Racing) (1976-82) 1588cc fuel injected S4 Decals The Akai Golf Driver Richard Lloyd VOLKSWAGEN ALBUM www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623738785355... Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro the Volkswagen Golf was introduced as a small family car, to replace the Volkswagen Beetle. and was introduced in 1974. Basically the polar opposite to the Beetle the Golf was a front engined, water cooled, front wheel drive car.. with a hatchback body style. The car was well received and revived Volkswagons fortunes, after the sales decline of the long running and well loved Beetle. The Golf GTi was introduced at the 1975 Frankfurt Motor Show as a range topping sporting option to the It was one of the first small cars to adopt mechanical fuel injection. standard cars. It was one of the first small cars to adopt mechanical fuel injection. They were powered by either a 1588 cc and 1780 cc four-cylinder engine, fed by a Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, which helped them develop a respectable 110 & 112PS and a lively performance thanks to its light weight (1780lbs). The term hot hatch was retroactively applied to the Mk1 Golf GTI some years later. The AKAI GOLF This car was created as a racing car for Richard Lloyd, prepared by Broadspeed and backed by Volkswagen GB. using a standard 1977 Golf 1600 GTi, the car went on to dominate its class in the British Saloon Car Championship for the next three seasons. Lloyd established the highly successful GTi Engineering and prepared a team of Audi GLEs for himself and Stirling Moss to drive in this season’s Tricentrol-backed Championship. Before his motor Racing career Lloyd was involved in pop star management, managing (the little known) Cliff Richard. Lloyd and the Golf came third overall in the 1977 British Saloon Car Championship and taking the Class Honours. Inspired by this and with support for another season forthcoming from VW, he set up GTi Engineering in March 1978 with Brian Ricketts They developed a brand-new GTi for the 1979 series and took the class again, together with second overall in the Championship. Lloyd used the same car, now with Akai as well as VW backing, to notch up his hat-trick of Championship class wins. This Group 1 GTi took 19 wins from 24 races in two seasons, which included one DNF, in fact it was only beaten by Win Percy’s Toyota. . Diolch am 93,143,658 o olygfeydd anhygoel, mae pob un yn cael ei werthfawrogi'n fawr. Thanks for 93,143,658 amazing views, every one is greatly appreciated. Shot 23.04.2022 at the Bicester Spring Scramble, Bicester, Oxfordshire 158-463