On thrsday the 4th june 2009 Tarquin and I was invited to a secret test facility by volkswagen to drive the NEW MK6 Golf GTI.
Location was Millbrook Proving Ground. Millbrook is one of Europe’s leading locations for the development and demonstration of every type of land vehicle, from motorcycles and passenger cars to heavy commercial, military and off-road vehicles.
The Car was a mk6 golf gti
There were 6 cars. 4 white manual 3 door and 2 silver DSG equiped cars.
Me and mr tarquin had a white one
we were assigned a pro driver, in fact he was the 1600cc gravel rally champion, he guided around the amazing milbrook facility.
First up the agenda, we were told we were not allowed any recoding device and our cameras had to be surrended on the gate, but a photo opportunity would be presented later.
First up the Alpine road course, this is just as it sounds, a road that is twisty and has more hills than a feild full of moles. we were encouraged to drive very quickly round here and a pro photogragher took our pics, which will be sent at a later time to us. Man i have ever had as much fun as this peeps, scary but amazing, thrashing the ass off a brand new car at a top test facility and to make it even better a golf gti.
Next up was the famous Bowl. a perfect 2 mile round bowl. our driver took us into lane five, the highest lane, and speed up to 135mph, those 2 miles soon disappear and you lose track of how far your going. then our turn, due to certain rules we were only allowed in lane 4, we took the GTI up to 70 mph and let go of the wheel, its true the car will travel endlessly around this circut without steering input, so cool, staying in lane 4 we then accelerated up to 110mph and cruised for a while.
we then moved to a handlng course and the pro took us for a spin, WOW never been amazed at how well a hot hatch with 4 people inside, O managed to get girlfriend in but just a passenger, handles at full bore round a tight twisty undulating road, that really blew me away.
we then moved to a mile straight wide peice of tarmac. BRAKE TEST.
My god i didnt expect this, we took the car up to 100 mph and did an emergancy stop, must have topped in about 5 feet, thats what it felt like. and for it to be constantly abused all day and still perform this test was brilliant.
the base for this event was a posh single storey glass building with graphics of the mk1 gti alongside a mk6 gti. outside was this
mk1 - mk6 gti's all mint and all super low milage, nice back drop, photo's of the 167 mk2 from here.
after the driving we had the opportunity to take pics and video, only got a few. one of the video's i took was of 3 gti's coming round a cambered bend and speeding off.
Mr Russ Swift was also there doing his normal stunts that he performs all over the world, but with a difference, each stunt he took a different one of us out, i was lucky enough to be a pasenger as he J turned the golf between 2 GTI's. very cool.
We then had a fancy lunch in the air conditioned building and chatted with other people lucky enough to experiance this day.
To say VW have made a great car (mk5 GTI) even better (mk GTI) would be an understatment, I cant thank Chris (oakgreen16v) and VW enough, cheers.
will upload video when i have loaded it up.
Subject: im so god dam lucky 
Fri Jun 05 2009, 16:28
