Thursday 9th May 2013

503hp Design Vision GTI Golf

Existing story on VW's 503hp V6 twin-turbo Golf updated with new pics

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We knew something crazy was coming but the Design Vision GTI remains Volkswagen’s answer to the question nobody was really asking having driven the new Golf GTI. Namely, how can it be improved further? Chris Harris didn’t have a whole lot to say against the seventh-gen GTI when he drove it last week. And he didn’t even get a go with the uprated 230hp GTI Performance version.

It's a Golf GTI, just not as we've known it

He can now skip that and go straight to this, the 503hp, 3.0-litre, direct injection, V6 turbo powered Design Vision GTI VW will be bringing along to the Worthersee meet. And to think Audi and SEAT must have been pretty chuffed what they came up with too…

To be fair, while Audi and SEAT’s concepts have half a grip on reality – respectively lightweight technology for road cars and customer racing vehicles for touring and endurance competition – the Design Vision GTI is a little more unhinged. VW is claiming 503hp, a 186mph top speed and 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds from its concept. Even your most ambitious Worthersee fanboy probably couldn’t reliably see that kind of power from the standard GTI’s 2.0-litre turbo, the Design Vision GTI benefitting from access to a somewhat better stocked toybox than your average Euro tuner. Indeed, though there’s no official confirmation the twin-turbo petrol V6 was possibly purloined in a late night excursion into the Porsche factory and levered out of a facelifted Panamera before being given a light tickle to go beyond 500hp and 369lb ft. It also drives through a four-wheel drive transmission and DSG twin-clutch gearbox, ceramic brakes bringing it all back down to earth.

Harnesses and helmets for minimalist cabin

If nothing else the Design Vision GTI demonstrates a somewhat unexpectedly extreme take on VW’s MQB Modular Transverse Matrix (Modularen Querbaukasten in case you were wondering about the anglicised description/abbreviation disparity) that underpins the new GTI. Here the front axle has been moved forwards for a longer wheelbase despite a 15mm reduction in overall length. It’s also 57mm lower and 71mm wider with 57mm extra in the front track and 63mm in the rear. Sadly this is just one of the reasons VW says “the concept car belongs on the race track.” Still, if this can be achieved with the MQB platform even as a one-off concept it bodes well for possible future production models, the four-wheel drive underpinning this car perhaps hinting towards (but, sadly, probably not) a reprise of V6 R Golfs of years gone by.

Finishing touches include a pared back interior with a giant racer style DSG gear selector, minimal switchgear, plenty of carbon and special helmet storage bins behind the seats. RS Porsche style fabric door releases finish the minimalist look.

So far VW has only released the following concept sketch; more photos coming as soon as we can get hold of them.

[Mr Whippy]

Didn't VW do something like this with the Golf V, but they actually made it and drove it? Wasn't it even on an old Top Gear?

Looks like they now simply draw it and say it'll have loads of power and 4wd and leave it at that. Well done, a good afternoons worth of work for one of their art guys

Wowwee!

[Amirhussain]

Mr Whippy said:

Didn't VW do something like this with the Golf V, but they actually made it and drove it? Wasn't it even on an old Top Gear?

Yh, Mk5 Golf with a W12 engine

[Wunderchoc]

Meh, I bet it won't outdo their last efforts...



Loving how that open rear window is feeding the rear-mounted engine (!) with cool air.

[deadtom]

is this actually a real, functioning car, or just a few sketches?

[johnycarrera]

My old stter has been doing this since the late 90s!

If they say it does 35-40 mpg I'll be impressed though!

[exocet ape]

Amirhussain said:

Mr Whippy said:

Didn't VW do something like this with the Golf V, but they actually made it and drove it? Wasn't it even on an old Top Gear?

Yh, Mk5 Golf with a W12 engine

That couldn't go round corners very well...

[vanschpunk]

And yet this sketch still sports them god awful wheels first seen on the mk5 gti.

Long.On.The.Tooth

[toppstuff]

Am I the only one to find the modern "concept sketch" utterly predictable, bland and really rather pointless?

They always look the same. They never have any relationship to reality.

I think it's time design students stopped this nonsense personally. I can't see how these sketches provide any insite at all as to what future cars will actually look like.

[Contigo]

The W12 effort must have been made in small numbers? 1 or 2? As some have been spotted around and about.

[Chicane-UK]

I know it's a bit of fun and everything - but it's a shame they don't make a very limited production run. God knows VAG has enough money in the bank and I'm sure they'd sell them if they priced them at cost. Do like the sound of it though - can't wait to see it

Edited by Chicane-UK on Wednesday 8th May 09:02

[Ali_T]

What's the point? They could say it has 50,000bhp, runs on grass and its emissions cure cancer, it's all still pie in the sky fantasy that we'll never be able to own.

[Agoogy]

What a bunch of miserable twunts you lot are...

Automotive enthusiasts? really?

[toppstuff]

Agoogy said:

What a bunch of miserable twunts you lot are...

Automotive enthusiasts? really?

Why?

Because some of us aren't fawning over some ridiculous, unrealistic, over designed "sketches" that will never see the light of day as a real car?

This is a non story. Problem is that Haymarket journo's drink so much VAG Kool aid these days they will publish anything they release as a news story.

No doubt Audi will shortly release a "concept" behind a new A3 evolution , written on a piece of loo roll by the chief of designs son and PH will run a story on that as well. I'm sure someone at Autocar could knock up a photoshop design as well. They seem good at that.

I'd like to see more journalism and a bit less of operating as an extension of VAG PR department personally....

[Devil2575]

Agoogy said:

What a bunch of miserable twunts you lot are...

Automotive enthusiasts? really?

Do you have to like an artisits sketch and some big numbers to be an Automotive enthusiast?

Even if it does see the light of day am I the only one that thinks power figures are just getting silly? 503 bhp! Other than willy waving what is the point?

[Engineer1]

Agoogy said:

What a bunch of miserable twunts you lot are...

Automotive enthusiasts? really?

Until something happens with the design it's still homer's car from the Simpsons, or a better drawn version of the ones in my school exercise books, saying that there are too few guns to be the ones in my school books.

[Agoogy]

I rest my case m'lud

You don't have to consume eevry single word that the VAG press junkies release, you don't have to spout the obvious, about over designed sketches not being made real... and there was me expecting to buy this 26"-alloy'ed-chop-topped-wider-than-it-is-long-caricature.

There are some that believe within the car design industry, artists live, some with emotion and imagination, that they are allowed to run free and annoy the st out of the likes of the grey polyester trousered brigade such as yourselves should be applauded.

I mean whatever next! people drawing funny looking cars as a preamble to a one off design study influencing future production cars...the actual nerve of some people... perhaps you should write to your MP.

Edited by Agoogy on Wednesday 8th May 09:37

[Centurion07]

Agoogy said:

I rest my case m'lud

You don't have to consume eevry single word that the VAG press junkies release, you don't have to spout the obvious, about over designed sketches not being made real... and there was me expecting to buy this 26"-alloy'ed-chop-topped-wider-than-it-is-long-caricature.

There are some that believe within the car design industry, artists live, some with emotion and imagination, that they are allowed to run free and annoy the st out of the likes of the grey polyester trousered brigade such as yourselves should be applauded.

I mean whatever next! people drawing funny looking cars as a preamble to a one off design study influencing future production cars...the actual nerve of some people... perhaps you should write to your MP.

I refer to this, posted above:

Ali T said:

What's the point? They could say it has 50,000bhp, runs on grass and its emissions cure cancer, it's all still pie in the sky fantasy that we'll never be able to own.

Concept cars are a waste of time unless some of the tech makes it's way into production cars otherwise all you're looking at is some artist's doodle with a bunch of made-up figures to go with it.

Even if they actually built this car exactly as it appears and with all those big numbers, unless they put it into production why bother? All any concept car says is "look at what we COULD do. We're not going to of course, but we COULD. But we won't." Actually, scratch that. All it says is "look what our design team can do". It serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Utterly pointless.

[mr2j]

I have never owned or driven a Golf of any description but to my uneducated eyes, this doesn't seem like it has much in common with the ethos of the GTIs of yore. VWs in general these days are not so much the "people's car" any more, just another designer label. The cars they produce may still be very good and do exactly what they're supposed to but if the smart man fancies climbing into a VAG then I'm sure he's happy enough with a used SEAT these days. This should shirley be branded a new 'R' concept rather than 'GTI' - initials that always represented a car I have come to know in my rear-view mirror as a chuckable little twitbox with an angry young man baring down over the steering wheel.

[toppstuff]

Agoogy said:

I rest my case m'lud

You don't have to consume eevry single word that the VAG press junkies release, you don't have to spout the obvious, about over designed sketches not being made real... and there was me expecting to buy this 26"-alloy'ed-chop-topped-wider-than-it-is-long-caricature.

There are some that believe within the car design industry, artists live, some with emotion and imagination, that they are allowed to run free and annoy the st out of the likes of the grey polyester trousered brigade such as yourselves should be applauded.

I mean whatever next! people drawing funny looking cars as a preamble to a one off design study influencing future production cars...the actual nerve of some people... perhaps you should write to your MP.

Edited by Agoogy on Wednesday 8th May 09:37

But the point is that EVERY artists sketch looks the same. They always have a caricature of stretched wheels and out of proportion lines. . Every. Single. Time. They have become utterly meaningless. They all look the same.

They are a waste of time and bandwidth IMO.

Show me something real. Show me some engineers drawings. Something beyond the onanistic stage of a young designer. Something that could actually exist. These cartoons tell us precisely nothing.

[T1berious]

It's a bit erm :whispers: Max Power isn't it?

It's a deeply lazy VW to "release" these pics.

Scoop! "Erm, the boys slapped this together (well, er they haven't) and it has erm.. well, not really sure but here's the pics and some outlandish power figures and er.. yeah, the drive train is er, made up of stuff"

Love and Kisses

VW Press dept

Move on.. nothing to see here....