Jay I think you're sitting in fast cars for far too long and have become accustomed.
Go back to a 1L first timer car or some diesel family saloon for a while and you'll soon see how fast "just a golf" is.
My other half has an A4 170, "diesel family saloon". I don't get out of that and then instantly start doing huge wheelspins up the road in mine lol.
GTI's do 0-60 in 7 and a bit seconds, not slow but that's pretty much what any modern car with half an engine can do, BMW 3 series diesels are able to crack 60 in under 5 seconds nowadays!
I've never really owned "fast" cars lol, magical thing about cars is the throttle pedal has a range from between 0 and 100%
Like I said the guy may be quite old and just passed late, he may have ridden motorcycles before passing (like me for example), at the end of the day, his money and he is insured so what's the big issue (£1 please sir?)