Kyalami is a daunting circuit. It boasts a thrilling variety of curves but three of them — Turn 2, Sunset and the Mineshaft — are big balls corners. Fast, delightful but totally unforgiving.

The Golf GTI treats them with total disdain. Approach Sunset or the 'Shaft flat out, the outside wheel running click-clack, click-clack over the expansion joints between the red and white of the flat kerbing, turn in and it follows obediently, kisses the inside apex and flows on to the exit on full power. No fuss, no bother, just a little distant ESP interference as that device does its work — lends its helping hand.

Brake hard, the nose drops and it tracks straight. Turn into the tighter next corner and it's just as happy to obey you. Feed in the power and it rushes along to the sweet tune of that familiar GTI exhaust note punctuated by the crackle of the automatic throttle lapse as the DSG seamlessly swaps cogs flat out…

Volkswagen invented the hot hatch when it introduced the original Golf GTi over thirty years ago. And each time the opposition creeps closer it reinvents the icon to keep it right on top of the pile.

Now for the sixth time in 30 years, it's done it again — enter Volkswagen Golf GTI 6.

The GTI is no normal hot hatch. Well over 40 percent of all Golf 5s sold in South Africa were GTIs — closer to 50 percent in it best year. And as usual, the new one resets the goalposts yet again.

GTI's 155kW turbocharged direct-petrol injection 16-valve mill is a second-generation TSI unit boasting modified pistons and rings, a new on-demand oil pump, high-pressure fuel pump and a new mass airflow sensor, which allows it to meet the Euro-5 emissions standard while still producing best-ever GTI performance.

Producing its 155kW maximum all the way between 5300 and 6200rpm and the same 280Nm as its predecessor albeit from a significantly lower 1700Nm to a loftier 5200rpm, new GTI sprints from rest to 100km/h in just 6.9 seconds in both manual and DSG double-clutch incarnations.

GTI takes 27.3 seconds to cover the standing kilometre and pulls from 80 to 120km/h in just 7.5 seconds — even in sixth gear it only takes 9.5 seconds and goes on to peak at a handy 240km/h at 5900rpm in sixth.

Considering its Euro 5 credentials, new GTI has to be good on fuel — its 7.3 litres fuel per 100 kilometres average almost a full litre per hundred better than the outgoing version Five prove it. And the newcomer's 170g/km offers a similarly marked improvement in CO2 emissions.

As noted, GTI once again comes in the choice of six-speed dual clutch or six-speed manual transmissions. The seamless DSG also automatically double de clutches when downshifting.

New GTI is equipped with a sport chassis boasting a raft of latest handling technology – its suspension is lowered by 22mm up front and 15mm at the rear for starters, as part of its upgraded sport suspension that boasts retuned springs, dampers and rear stabilisers on the familiar strut-type front and innovative multi-link rear suspension.

That's backed up by an ESP system incorporating a new XDS electronic transverse differential that in essence works as an electronic limited-slip system.

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