Some cars give you a thrill of excitement even as you approach them for the first time. Something about their stance, their size, their look and maybe even the name. And thus it was with me when first I strode towards this deep-red Scirocco 1.4 TSI, sitting on its own in the corner of the hotel car park.When I was a very young man, back in the early 80s, the first-generation Scirocco was the thinking man's Capri. For my little knot of car-loving chums, the German coupé was financially well out of reach, but not as distant as a Porsche 911 or the similarly angular Audi Quattro, and that made the Scirocco tantalisingly desirable. It had an air of youthful transcontinental romance and European sophistication; performance motoring with rock-solid reliability.We all wanted one, along with Ray-Ban Aviators, a French girlfriend and a quick-acting remedy to dandruff and spots . . . and all were out of reach to us youngsters.This nostalgic soup of mildly melancholy memories turned in my mind as I paused in that hotel car park to linger over the smoother, sleeker lines of this latest incarnation of the Scirocco, sculpted and curved as a running shoe.Wide and low, it's still an air-wedge with its dropped nose ready to slice under the slab of heavy air. From the scowling lights and shark-like maw, the bonnet rises smoothly to the steeply raked windscreen which leads seamlessly to the softly curved roof and ultimately to a small peaked spoiler above the rounded tail.Big 17" alloy wheels trimmed with shallow tyres fill the slightly flared wheelarches at the front and the apparently massive, bulging haunches at the rear, an impression created by the way the cockpit gathers in over the boot and the side windows taper up to leave more room for steel. It's all clean lines and whirring efficiency, focussed on the horizon.This is almost the base-model Scirocco with a free-revving 1.4-litre petrol engine which nevertheless turns out a rather impressive 158bhp and a useful 177lb/ft of torque. That's all fed to the front wheels through a slick-shifting six-speed manual gearbox and is enough to take the 1.35-tonne coupé up to 62mph in eight seconds and on to a top speed of 135mph.After around 600 miles of motorways, moorland roads, town streets and country lanes, I can say the Scirocco is a bloody good all-rounder, thanks in no small part to some standard-fit technology that goes under the name of Adaptive Chassis Control.ACC lets you choose the suspension and steering response if you're wanting a little more than the automatic setting is offering you. Engage it with a stab of a button and you can choose a caressing Comfort mode which all but irons out the manifold ridges and ruts of the Queen's highways, or Sport which stiffens everything up significantly for those ducking and weaving moments of self-indulgence. Neither setting allows the car to wallow too much through corners, but Sport virtually locks you to the open and empty roads that wind across the high moors.Point-and-shoot driving, snapping through the gearbox to keep the revs up and using the combination of acceleration and crisp steering to put you exactly where you want to be on the road is just top fun. Motorways? Yeah, fine, but the rest of the world is where the joy lies.Around town, when you're finished posing down the high street, you start to realise the limitations imposed by that high waistline, the tiny back window and the rather intrusive headrests on the rear seats. Visibility out the back is dreadful.This test car has the optional extra of a parking sensor (£365) which is comforting when reversing among bollards at the supermarket or parallel parking on the street side. You'll rarely hear me say that a parking sensor is high on a list of priority extras, but on this occasion I think it has to be the case.The Scirocco's technology is all shared with the Golf and while it sacrifices something of its sister's everyday practicality, it gains skip-loads of kudos from its sporting attitude.In the front, of course, it loses nothing over the Golf, and anyone familiar with the hatchback's instrument panel, seating and technology is going to feel right at home in there. The cloth seats are sculpted, supportive and grip you well through the corners, the flat-bottomed leather steering wheel fills the hands and the trim all looks solid and practical.In the back, though, it starts to get a little claustrophobic. Squirm past the front seats and it's starting to get dark as those narrowed side windows take on the attitude of a porthole. You'll find two comfortable adult-sized chairs with just about enough knee room for an averaged-sized bloke like me, but I was brushing my hair on the velour.Further back still, you'll find the boot is deep but narrow and there's a high lip over which to lug your luggage. The back seats do fold forwards out of the way if cargo takes precedence over people.In the world of Volkswagen, as with so many others, less is more and more is less. You'd pay more for your Scirocco than for a similarly specced Golf, but where the Golf has more room and flexibility, it has less charm and head-turning beauty. You choose.This car will set you back £21,655 and while we're talking of purses and the contents thereof, it has an official average fuel consumption just shy of 43mpg.Even if it isn't the most powerful model in the line-up, it has enough performance to put a smile on my face, the looks to put a smile on my passenger's face and the economy to put a smile on my bank manager's face.So here I am approaching fifty. I've worn the 'Bans, had the French girlfriend, dandruff is as distant a memory as a full head of hair and the spots are a thankfully rare affliction. I still don't own a Scirocco but I am now sitting in one with the keys dangling from the ignition. Looking out along the road in front of me, I'm starting to feel the bonnet being drawn towards the Channel Tunnel and an old romantic yearning to give Cecile a call. Engine 1390cc, 4 cylinders Power 158bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 42.8mpg / 154g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 8.0 seconds Top speed 135mph Price £21,655 Details correct at publication date
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