New VW Golf GTI Edition 50 unveiled with 325hp
The most powerful Golf GTI to date is officially revealed at N24. Tempted?
To go along with the title of the fastest Golf GTI ever - courtesy of its confirmed ‘ring lap time - Volkswagen has ensured that the new Edition 50 can also be declared the most powerful thanks to 325hp from its stalwart 2.0-litre TSI. Not quite as much as in the Golf R, though the difference is now mostly symbolic - especially when you consider that with 310lb ft of torque, the anniversary model is now at eye level with the lineup’s flagship variant. At any rate, VW can claim a meaningful improvement over the 265hp Mk8 GTI; compared with the Mk7 it launched a decade ago, the Edition 50 is more than 100hp to the good.
In terms of raw performance figures, this lands the half-century special about where you’d expect. At 5.5 seconds to 62 mph, the newcomer is rated very marginally quicker than the current 300hp GTI Clubsport (very much the working blueprint for the Edition 50) and the 290hp Mk7 GTI TCR. This makes it the quickest accelerating GTI and ultimately capable of a (limited) 168mph Vmax. The Mk1 Golf GTI it celebrates took 10 seconds to crest the national limit and would do 114 mph if you found a road long enough to accept the run-up. The Mk8 is nearly three times as powerful and roughly twice as heavy. Progress, of sorts.
In fact, VW doesn’t initially dwell on the Edition 50’s kerbweight (in fairness, the anniversary cars have never been stripped-out affairs) although it does go into some detail about how Benny Leuchter was able to achieve the fastest ‘ring lap ever completed in a production Golf. The secret sauce, it turns out, is in something called the GTI Performance package - and because it has the work ‘package’ in it, you know it’s something you’ll be paying for on top of whatever the special edition’s list price is. As standard, the car is 15mm lower than a regular GTI and comes by default with progressive steering and adaptive dampers, but is not (one suspects) wholly different from a regular Clubsport. Which makes your cost option tick fairly essential to unlocking what the Edition 50 is all about.
Aside from the introduction of the seemingly obligatory titanium Akrapovic exhaust, the hardware alterations here are mostly about the chassis, yet are far-reaching. Alongside two degrees of negative camber, you get high-performance pivot bearings on the front axle, which VW says offer a more direct steering response and higher cornering speeds, both aided by sturdier transverse link and strut mountings. At the back, there are double-shear hub carriers which apparently help to reduce understeer, and the whole car sits an additional 5mm lower on higher-rate springs and new forged 19-inch wheels said to be 3kg lighter than the standard rim.
Around those wheels— and doubtless crucial to the Herr Leuchter’s efforts back in April— you get what VW is calling ‘Bridgestone Potenza Race semi-slick tyres’, apparently newly developed for the job and around 1.1kg lighter than conventional GTI rubber. It promises the magic combination of reduced rolling resistance and higher levels of grip from a customised compound, and reckons they suit ‘everyday life on the road’ just as well as the Green Hell. That remains to be seen, but VW does confirm that with them in place and the exhaust system saving 11kg on its own, a GTI Performance Package car stands to save around 30kg.
Additional optimisation has occurred on the software side of things, too, with the Vehicle Dynamics Manager— the overseer of the ESC and XDS+ diff lock and DCC chassis and virtually every other electronically controlled component - tweaked in a general sense, but also specifically in the introduction of a ‘Special’ drive mode. As it has done previously, this tailors the Edition 50’s adaptive features to suit the unique characteristics of the Nordschleife - a setting that has traditionally suited the unique characteristics of most British B roads, as well. Additionally, there is an M+ profile that prevents the seven-speed DSG from automatically upshifting in manual mode, which is certainly welcome.
Elsewhere you get the usual styling confetti, most of it trifling and of the red-coloured variety. Or indeed black, which features on the roof, mirror housings, tailpipe trim and the spoiler, where you’ll find a GTI 50 decal. And just in case you didn’t get the message, there’s a ‘striking side stripe’ that goes, somewhat predictably, from black to Tornado Red. Similarly, the 19-inch Queenstown alloys come with a red-glazed finish and floating GTI inserts (though presumably the forged Warmenau rims look different). Happily, other exterior colours are offered: Pure white, Moonstone grey, Grenadilla black metallic and Dark Moss green metallic round out the five available options.
The established theme continues inside, where it’s mostly about detailed trim changes that you wouldn’t necessarily notice without someone pointing them out to you. Think Racing Green line in the chequered seat pattern, GTI 50 logo on the steering wheel, red rubber pads for the pedals and model-specific floor mats. Nothing you wouldn’t cheerily exchange for the option of a six-speed manual gear lever - alas, that is absent and not likely to return. As, for now, is the size of the asking price. For the record, the current Mk8 GTI Clubsport starts at £43,215, while a top-of-the-range R Black Edition will set you back £47,050. The Edition 50 will obviously eclipse the former; whether or not it also exceeds the latter remains to be seen. VW has pointedly not ruled out even more powerful Golf variants, although it’s safe to assume that this will be the last exclusively petrol-powered anniversary special. That point alone ought to earn it a cult status befitting the long-running series.
e here, always nice to see a new variant. Looks good if not a tad under wheeled and another one in need of spacers. Stats pretty much bang on the FL5 type R. I know its a figure OEMs need to publish but 0-60 might as well be a range on a fwd car... nightmare to get off the line and not what they are about ultimately
e here, always nice to see a new variant. Looks good if not a tad under wheeled and another one in need of spacers. Stats pretty much bang on the FL5 type R. I know its a figure OEMs need to publish but 0-60 might as well be a range on a fwd car... nightmare to get off the line and not what they are about ultimately
And of course, all the tat that most middle aged people claim not to want
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