10 GTI-Badged Cars That Aren’t Volkswagens

Grand Touring Injection. Three little letters stuck on the grille of a VW Golf that signify some of the best hot hatches of all time. Also, the Mk4.

Think GTI, and you almost certainly think Volkswagen, unless you have a particular proclivity for all things French (but more on that shortly). VW’s far from the only company to have used those initials to denote a sporty model, though. In fact, it wasn’t even the first to get there. Here are 10 GTI-badged cars that didn’t come from Volkswagen.

Peugeot 205 GTi

If GTi doesn’t immediately make you think VW, then you’re probably a Peugeot enthusiast. And good on you. The 205 GTi wasn’t the first Peugeot to use the badge – that was the hot version of the 505 saloon, launched a couple of years earlier – but it’s unquestionably the most iconic, and is rightly regarded as one of the hot hatch GOATs.

The badge has fallen in and out of favour with Peugeot in the years since, most recently appearing in EV form for the first time on the e-208 GTi, but it’s the 205 that remains the standard bearer for Peugeot’s GTis – which, incidentally, always have a small ‘i’, something that’ll become a running theme throughout this list.

Nissan Pulsar GTI-R

The 1990s will never be looked back on as halcyon days for the hot hatch, but exceptions came in the form of rally homologation specials. The Delta Integrale and Escort Cosworth are rightly regarded as icons, but there were others.

Take the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R, which stuffed a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot with 227bhp and the company’s ATTESA all-wheel drive into the otherwise unremarkable N14 Pulsar hatchback. Mainly sold in Japan, the GTI-R also made it to Europe as a Sunny, albeit with 10bhp less. Its successor – sold as the Almera in Europe – got a GTi version of its own too, but it’s on the forgettable side, to say the least.

Proton Satria GTi

The thing everyone always remembers about the Proton Satria GTi – if they remember it at all – is the Handling by Lotus badges it wore. That’s because the Malaysian carmaker owned the British sports car outfit at the time, and it lent its considerable talent to this underrated little hot hatch.

138bhp came from a 1.8-litre Mitsubishi-sourced engine (the Satria was heavily based on the contemporary Colt), while some chunky Recaros and an attempt at emulating racing-style bolt-on arches added to the sporty vibes. The Lotus-fettled chassis, though, was by far the standout feature, and has made the Satria GTi a bit of a cult classic these days.

Suzuki Swift GTi

The various iterations of the Swift Sport have been some of the best stripped-back hot hatches of recent years, but the tradition of the hot Suzuki Swift goes back a long time. The first-gen car got a GTi version in the mid-‘80s. It had all the hot hatch signatures of the time, like chunky bumpers, big decals that said things like ‘16-valve’ and ‘Twin Cam’, and a power output that sounds modest by modern standards – all of 100bhp from its 1.3-litre engine.

Still, it didn’t have much weight to shift around, nor did the second-gen version launched in 1988. In fact, it was one of the quickest junior hot hatches of its day, but nowadays, also one of the rarest.

Ford Escort GTi

Yep, even with a raft of iconic hot hatch badges of its own – XR2, RS, ST – Ford once sold a GTi-badged car. Perhaps aptly for something so oft-forgotten, it was based on the fairly dismal sixth and final generation of the Escort, a name that had gradually morphed from a spritely rear-drive rally hero to a stodgy, ageing front-wheel drive pudding.

Giving it a sporty badge, a mild bodykit, and a 1.8-litre engine with all of 113bhp did nothing to solve this, and the Escort GTi is understandably remembered as a fast Ford low point.

Image: Kieran White, CC BY 2.0

Daihatsu Charade GTi

Not to be confused with the earlier Charade GTti, the extra ‘t’ denoting a turbocharger, the warmed-over version of the fourth-gen Daihatsu Charade dropped the forced induction and was simply badged ‘GTi’ as a result.

With a meagre 104bhp from its 1.6-litre, 16-valve engine in export markets, it was another of the not-very-hot hot hatches of its era, although as is so often the case, the Japanese domestic market received a much cooler version. Its GTi equivalent not only had a healthier 122bhp, but was named the Charade de Tomaso, thanks to a slightly complicated backstory briefly connecting the founder of the hairy-chested Italian sports car manufacturer to Daihatsu.

Isuzu Gemini GTi

Yep, even Isuzu, a company that nowadays only makes beefy 4x4s and commercial vehicles, once sold a GTi. That was the hot version of its second-generation Gemini hatchback, which made 113bhp from its 1.6-litre engine and optionally came with some obligatory in-yer-face ’80s graphics.

Ermmm… yeah, we’re struggling to find much else to say about this one. Oh, this generation of Gemini was designed by Girgetto Giugiaro. It’s probably not going to rank among the Lotus Esprit and Maserati Bora as one of his all-time greats, but it’s something.

Image: Rutger van der Maar, CC BY 2.0

Toyota Corolla GTi

GTi fever was rife in the late ’80s and early ’90s, with even the Toyota Corolla getting on the act. One of many excellent sporting versions of the Corolla produced over the years (not including the T-Sport, though – sorry), the GTi badge appeared on the AE92 Corolla, the first generation to go front-wheel drive.

Like lots of the other cars on this list, it's a typical hot hatch of its era – 1.6-litre nat-asp engine, with a healthy 129bhp, some jazzy red striping and lots of shouting about the fact it had 16 valves. Ooooh!

Citroen CX GTi

This list’s been rather hot hatch-heavy so far, so let’s switch things up. Citroen has used the GTi name on various sporty hatches, including the Visa and BX, but it also found its way onto the boot of its aero-friendly luxo-wedge, the CX. 

These were the hottest versions of the CX, with the naturally aspirated GTi launching in 1977 with 128bhp, before 1984 saw the introduction of the 166bhp CX GTi Turbo – the perfect car for high-speed cruising down an Autoroute, presumably while listening to some incomprehensible ’80s French Europop.

Maserati 3500 GTi

We mostly associate the three little letters we’ve been talking about for this whole article with little hot hatches, but the first car to wear the badge was nothing of the sort. When the drop-dead gorgeous Maserati 3500 GT became the first Italian road car to get fuel injection in 1960, its maker shouted about it by adding that all-important little ‘i’ to its name. The badge carried over onto the facelifted 3500 GTi S a couple of years later, soon renamed the Sebring.

The upgrade from carbs to injection saw power from the 3500’s 3.5-litre straight-six bumped from 217 to 232bhp, and inadvertently introduced the world to what another manufacturer would make one of the most iconic performance badges of all.