The Golf 2 Syncros: sure-footed on any surface

With the Syncro transmission, the Golf 2 goes four-wheel drive and gains in traction as well as safety. From the discreet CL 90 to the rare G60 Limited, via the Rallye and the Country, a look back at the Golf 2s that hold the road.

07/04/2026

Harald

6 minutes read

Volkswagen

Volkswagen Golf 2

The Syncro transmission arrives on the Golf 2 and the Golf goes 4x4

VW knows all about four-wheel drive. Building on the DKW Munga, VW entrusted Audi with the development of its new military 4x4, the Iltis, which saw the light of day in 1979. Audi gained significant experience from it and launched its own permanent transmission under the name Quattro. For civilian use, VW had been selling its Transporter T3 with four-wheel drive since 1985. A year earlier came the first VW Syncro, with the Passat estate of the same name.

The Golf 2 so equipped at last outwitted every trap set by the weather: rain, snow, ice and mud would no longer stop it. Its vocation is not off-road crossing but efficiency and safety, like its cousins at Audi and their high-profile and very effective Quattro system.

How does the VW Syncro system work?

The Golf 2's 5-speed gearbox is fitted with an angle gear that links a long propshaft to the rear axle, where the mechanical viscous coupling sits. It manages a progressive coupling to the rear driveshafts if the front wheels lose grip. This viscous unit, as its name suggests, plays on the change in viscosity of a silicone oil that reacts to the heat and pressure created by a stack of 59 metal discs.

Slip of the front wheels causes these discs to slip, which automatically couples them to the rear axle. This chain reaction activates the four-wheel drive and the optimum distribution of torque between the 2 axles. With Syncro, one axle can hide another.

Everything happens automatically, no need to lock the axles to engage it. The flip side is that, unlike the Transporter T25 Syncro, the Golf 2 Syncro has no transfer box with axle locks, which limits its possibilities in real off-roading. As the 4x4 proverb goes: "no differential lock, no climb to the sky".

On the four-wheel-drive G60 versions and on the Golf 2 Rallye G60, traction on dry roads is also what is sought. To be effective, power and torque must reach the ground rather than be lost in figure skating and other rubber burning.

Which Golf 2s are fitted with the Syncro system?

The Golf 2 Syncro 90s

The first Golf Syncro appeared in 1986 in the guise of a Golf 2 CL (one with the little quarter-lights). The 4-door body (stiffer) and the 90 hp engine of the 1800 (more powerful and torquier) were chosen to carry the extra weight (100 kg).

The Golf 1 never had a 4-wheel-drive version, a shame; VW may have wanted to put that right and offer a 4-season car, to Bavarian pizza delivery drivers (Yes, really ...), mountain dwellers, sales reps or government departments. It is a hypothesis that holds water.

The Golf 2 G60 Rallye

If it could not hold its head high against its rivals, it at least held the road. With the World Rally Championship relaunched in Group A, following the end of Group B, VW redoubled its efforts to bring out a sporty 4-wheel drive so as to compete on equal terms with Ford, Audi and Lancia. 5,000 "road" cars were needed to obtain the passport to take part.

Thus was born the G60 Rallye, a limited edition based on a Golf 2 with a Syncro chassis, coupled to the most powerful engine of the time (then in development), the 1800 (1,781 cc reduced to 1,763cc) with G60 positive-displacement supercharger.

The G60 Syncro

It was only sold in Germany and Switzerland, as a special edition.

France had to make do with a fine G60 "Edition One", but in 2-wheel drive. The standard G60 was fitted with ABS braking from the factory. To take advantage of it, VW's engineers had developed a traction control system effective up to 40 km/h: the EDS. When one of the front wheels spins, the brake caliper slows it and the surplus power no longer goes up in smoke, it is transferred to the other driven wheel via the differential.

The G60 16s Limited

Rare among the rare: with 70 units built and sold before the standard G60, it is fair to say you are unlikely to come across one, and if you do, your eyes will not believe their eyes…

Designed by VW Motorsport, this 1800 G60 "and" 16s pushes hard: 210 hp. It came fitted with the chassis with Syncro transmission, to put all the power down properly. It is the Grail for well-informed Golf 2 fans. Impossible to find!

The Golf 2 Country

The call of the countryside. Here is a Golf apart, a Golf that leaves the beaten track! In 1989, VW commissioned the Austrian firm Steyr-Puch, specialists in 4x4s and 6x6s, to assemble a high-riding Golf (+ 12 cm) with the look of a rugged off-roader: the Golf 2 Country.

To do this, Volkswagen supplied it with pre-assembled Golf 2 CL Syncros, on which a kind of jigsaw of 430 specific parts would be replaced or added. This singular car had been shown at a motor show in 1989 and its prototype, called Montana, had charmed the public and gathered expressions of interest in orders. VW was right to launch its production but perhaps got carried away on the number built. 7,735 of this Golf 2 "unlike the others" would be built in 1990 and 1991.

The Country, with its off-road equipment, its trip to Puch after manufacture and its Syncro transmission, was expensive and struggled to sell at the end of 1991, on the eve of the birth of the Golf 3.

The Syncro transmission therefore did not date from the Golf 2 but you could say it proved itself with this second generation of the Golf. Off-roading was left to the big brother, the Transporter, and no Golf Country was seen resurfacing on later generations.

This four-wheel drive was optimised and used successfully on certain sporting models of the line, such as the Golf 3 VR6 Syncro, before giving way to 4Motion with Haldex coupling on the Golf 4 R32, for strong traction and complete safety.