Sport versions of the Gol used water cooled engines first, in larger displacements: the Gol GT of 1984-86 with a 1.8 liter engine from the Passat, the Gol GTS of 1987-94 with the 1.8 liter engine and spoiler package, and the Gol GTI 2000 of 1989-94 (shown), whose 2.0 liter engine marked Brazil’s first use of electronic fuel injection. In 1985, the Gol followed its siblings by adopting the 1.6 liter water cooled engine in place of its original Beetle engine. The VW Voyage two door sedan appeared in 1981, with the 1.5 liter water cooled engine used in the Audi 80 and VW Golf, upgraded to 1.6 liters in 1982 the VW Parati two door station wagon followed in 1982, along with a four door Voyage in 1983, and the VW Saveiro pickup truck in 1983. The first generation Gol lasted until 1994, with numerous additional engines used in place of the original Beetle flat four and the arrival of several additional body style using new names. standards, but adequate in a country where small four cylinder economy cars predominated. Acceleration was similar to the Beetle’s slow by U.S. The engine delivered its familiar power and performance, however, debuting with a single carburetor 1.3 liter producing 42 horsepower (shown), with a twin carburetor 1.6 liter producing 51 horsepower coming later. The Beetle engine fit quite neatly into its unfamiliar position in the Gol, with a lower fan housing to fit under the hood. Frankenstein’s combination of human parts, the Gol’s Beetle/Fox/Scirocco chimaera came together well.
The Gol replaced the VW Brasilia, itself a unique creation of VW in Brazil, and it displaced the Beetle as VW’s most popular model, although the Beetle continued in production in Brazil until 1996. VW in Brazil did not merely raid the company parts bin they combined major elements of three completely separate VW/Audi designs in a way that the parent company in Germany would not have dreamed of doing. The resemblance was especially strong in the treatment of the roofline and tail, the main difference being the outline of the rear quarter windows. Introducing a third strand of VW DNA into the design was a two door hatchback body style that clearly owed much to the first generation VW Scirocco.
The chassis was a shortened version of the VW/Audi B1 platform of the larger Audi 80/Fox, not the A1 platform of the similarly sized VW Golf, developed by VW in Brazil and called the BX. No doubt some VW fanatics have created their own custom front wheel drive installations of air cooled VW engines, but this one was engineered by Volkswagen and mass produced. The first generation Gol debuted in 1980 with a drivetrain that combined the longitudinal engine front wheel drive system of the Audi 80/Fox with the air-cooled flat four engine of the Beetle, creating the only Volkswagen model with a front-mounted air cooled engine. Here is a brief look at the origins and evolution of this best-selling Volkswagen that is unfamiliar to Americans but a fixture in Brazil. It even used Ford engines for several years, before it matured into part of the Volkswagen engineering mainstream. In addition to having an appropriate name, the most popular car in Brazil – one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world – also was born with the most diverse set of Volkswagen genes ever combined into one design. In the 35 years since the Gol’s introduction, more than 5 million have been sold, a figure that exceeds 10 million when combined with the entire family of models derived from the Gol. The Volkswagen Gol has been Volkswagen do Brasil’s entry level model since 1980, when it replaced the Beetle as the mainstream low priced car. It should be a surprise to no one that in Brazil, world famous for its love of futbol, the most popular car nameplate for over three decades has been Gol – Portuguese for “goal,” of course.