its the usual storey about facts n figures
i have the GTI anniversary book which has all the adverts for all GTI's that VAG released and it has one for the mk1 1.8 GTi which does it in 8.3, cant remember the mk2 8v one
but it states that the mk2 16v does it in 7.3s
the actual 7.9s figure is done with a passenger & half tank of fuel i think