Happenings

Volkswagen Design Vision GTI Concept

BY Joel Tam

Wolfsburg builds a 503 bhp monster! Dubbed the Design Vision GTI, it's giving us flashbacks of a certain 650 bhp Golf.

Back in 2007, Volkswagen revealed the GTI W12-650 at the GTI Festival in Wörthersee. This year, they've gone and repeated history with this mad twin-turbocharged 3-iltre V6 that will complete the century dash in 3.9 seconds!

The V6-TSI develops 500 Nm from as low as of 2,000 rpm, and on to a maximum torque of 560 Nm between 4,000 rpm and 6,000 rpm. This is distributed to the front and rear wheels via a DSG gearbox and an all-wheel drive.

With a top speed of 300 km/h, the car also is equipped with huge brakes. In order to slow down the GTI, Volkswagen uses ceramic brake discs all around with 380 mm discs in front and 356 mm at the rear. The are housed behind fat 20" alloy wheels that are fitted with 235/35 front tyres and 275/30 rear tyres.

Despite looking really massive, the Design Vision GTI is exactly 15 mm shorter than the production GTI, mainly because of the more compact rear apron. It is also lower by 57 mm. But, the concept car is significantly broader by more than 70 mm. The track widths measure about 60 mm wider, giving the Design Vision GTI a really aggressive stance.

Inside, the concept car is a tad more futuristic than the production car, but still comes across as a highly believable design. The use of aluminum, alcantara and sporty red accents ensures the driver knows that this car is no ordinary Golf. We hope, but doubt, that Volkswagen will put this into production. But that said, we can't help but wonder if this is in some way, a teaser to the rumoured 300 bhp Golf RS that Volkswagen is developing. We'll see...