There's something afoot, we tell ya, and that something concerns Volkswagen. An official teaser shot has appeared on VW's Facebook page, of a silhouetted Mk8 Golf with a large, roof-mounted spoiler much like the one which adorns the GTI Clubsport. There's very little else to go on, though, other than the accompanying statement: "We're launching an NFT (Notably Fast Transporter). Coming February 2022." Time to dust down the speculator hat, then.
Is it a more extreme version of the GTI, perhaps? We've tested the 300hp Golf GTI Clubsport, which adds more of pretty much everything to the GTI package - for a £4,000 premium. History tells us there's room for even more, though, because when the Golf Mk7 was on sale we got the GTI Clubsport S. It was a proper thing, too. No back seats, bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and a 'Ring time of 7 minutes and 47 seconds, set in December 2016. Could that be what's coming? Possibly. But it seems more likely that whatever it is will be based on the Golf R, not the GTI.
Why? Well, it's partly a hunch, based on the fact that you're probably not going to want to put much more than 300hp through two front wheels - the Mk7 Clubsport S was pegged at 310hp. And that hunch is bolstered slightly by something in the back of my mind. I remember being in a press conference during the launch of the current Golf and chatting about future performance variants. And among all the "we can't comment" tropes, I am sure something was alluded to that made me think there would be a more extreme version of the Golf R. Something which Volkswagen has toyed with in the past, when it previewed the idea of an R400 (before canning it in the aftermath of Dieselgate)
Now, we're not suggesting that VW is about to slot the five-cylinder motor from the Audi RS3 into the Golf, although we know the R uses the same four-wheel drive system, including its drifty clutch packs. That system is tried and tested up to 400hp. So it would seem like a relatively easy win to turn up the heat on the R's 2.0-litre EA888 - in excess of the current 320hp - and create something a bit special. And the NFT riff suggests it might be quite rare. Only time will tell, of course. Roll on February.
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