Car of the week: VW Scirocco

Now VW has a habit of naming their cars after different kinds of wind, which has opened up a world of fart-related puns that I intend to utilise till the day I die. But a hot wind, like the scirocco (which originates from the Sahara), has always conjured up an image of a painful fart…

Dan Boland

15/01/2026

2–3 minutes

The Scirocco was originally designed as a stylish 2+2 sports coupe, aiming to fill a gap in the market between a practical everyday hatchback and a high-performance vehicle. Unlike your traditional two-seater sports cars, the Scirocco aimed to be more of an all-rounder as it was fitted with 4 seats. This made it an incredibly efficient car, as you could brag about the sportiness of your “new whip” to 3 different friends at once, instead of taking them all out one at a time.

So its design falls awkwardly between posing as a sports car and being a cramped everyday hatchback, which is surprising given the designer’s legendary status for conceiving the car.

Giorgetto Giugiaro, famous for designing the MK1 Golf, Lotus Esprit, and even the DeLorean, designed the classic Scirocco. This makes a lot of sense, as the MK1 Scirocco looks as if someone has just given an original Golf a bit of Viagra to make it a bit longer.

But the early models of the car were gorgeous. They were so pretty, in fact, that even Ford got a bit jealous.

Ford felt as if the Scirocco was stepping on the feet of the Capri a bit too much. Now, the Capri was considered one of Ford’s prettiest and iconic cars, so to fight back, 4 years after the Scirocco’s release, Ford unveiled the MK3 Capri. This has led to a never-ending debate between classic car fans about which is better: the MK1 Scirocco or the MK3 Capri.

Regardless of this automotive beauty pageant, the Scirocco paved the way for the future of the VW brand. The classic Scirocco was the first VW to be awarded the now-famous GTI badge. Well, technically, the first GTI was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September of 1975 on a Golf, but the Scirocco GTI actually began production and sales of GTI models before the Golf. VW just had to let them have something, even though they knew the Scirocco would be cast into the shadows of the Golf.

Top speed	101 mph
0-60	8.5 seconds
How many units were sold?	500,000
Cost when new	£6,600
How does it smell?	Terrible, but spicy

VW MK1 Scirocco

The VW Scirocco is therefore our car of the week, as only today did I pass one and look over to my girlfriend in my passenger seat and hit her with: “Looks like we’re passing wind!”

“VW Scirocco” taken by Daniel Boland