GTD (Gran Turismo Diesel)
GTD is an acronym for the sporty diesel-engined Volkswagen Golf. The abbreviation is derived from its older petrol GTI brother.
Volkswagen has been producing a sporty variant of its bestselling Golf for a number of years now, called the GTI. But the GTI abbreviation is reserved for petrol engines only. That’s why the Volkswagen Group gave the GTD designation to the sporty diesel models of the Golf back in 1983.
Nowadays, diesel engines are becoming more and more popular thanks to the savings, so Volkswagen continued the tradition from the 1980s and introduced the sporty Golf with a diesel engine. The diesel version, with the magic acronym GTD, first appeared in 1983 with the second generation Golf and was powered by a 1.6-litre (70 hp) turbo diesel. Today, the technology is more powerful, more refined and more economical with each generation.
