Compile a list of your favourite homologation heroes and a few of the usual suspects will likely emerge: Lancia Delta this, Audi Quattro that, a whole ream of Subaru Imprezas and Mitsubishi Evos. Spell Rally with an extra ‘e’ and folk will go on about 16kg being stripped from a 306 or Group N competition. They probably won’t mention the Volkswagen Golf.
And there are a couple of good reasons why the Mk2 Rallye never quite reached the same iconic status as its contemporaries. Put simply, it wasn’t as competitive on stage or as scintillating to drive on the street; the very best homologation heroes managed to achieve both. That being said, if we only ever showed an interest in the best of the best, it’d be a very tiny pool of cars to think about. The Rallye remains intriguing to this day because it serves as a reminder of just how seriously VW took Group A rallying way back when - basically hand-building 5,000 units of the first supercharged, all-wheel drive Golf. Significant? You bet: long before there was an R32 or an R, this was the forced induction, four-wheel drive flagship.
It’s believed that 5,071 Rallyes were made in total, all for Europe and all in left-hand drive. So they’ve always been rare, and therefore always fairly valuable as well (the effort invested in making them meant an asking price twice that of a Mk2 GTI). With 35 years having passed since their creation, any Golf Rallye in the UK is a real find in 2025.
Oh sure, it might not have been hugely faster than a 16-valve - and the engine was in a Corrado anyway - but the Rallye is manna from heaven for VW collectors. If not the holy grail then it’s not far off, a bonafide homologation Golf unlike any before or since. That fact alone accords it a level of interest well beyond the identikit derivatives of the world's most famous hot hatch.
It’s an absolute beauty as well, somehow notching up just 30,000 miles since 1990 and with only its third owner from new. Apparently they spent a decade trying to find one this good, and are only parting with it now because it's become one of those luxuries that is hard to justify. The condition really is exceptional, complete with all the original equipment and glorious Tornado Red paint. An entire story could be dedicated to the seats.
Clearly, it's a very special example of a very special Golf, one of those opportunities that comes up very seldom. Any collector desperate to have a Rallye to sit alongside the rest of their cars (other Golfs perhaps? Homologation heroes?) will have to pay £65k for the privilege. Which is the most we’ve ever seen asked for a Golf, if still some way from the ceiling for Deltas, Imprezas and the like. And good luck finding another one…
SPECIFICATION | VW GOLF RALLYE
Engine: 1,763cc, supercharged four-cylinder
Transmission: 5-speed manual, permanent four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 160@5,600rpm
Torque (lb ft): 166@4,000rpm
MPG: c. 25
CO2: Er
Recorded mileage: 30,000
Year registered: 1989
Price new: Twice a GTI
Yours for: £64,990
1 / 4
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)