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VW Golf Mk7 Design Vision GTI Concept

As CAR reported in our scoop last week, VW will unveil a higher-performance Golf GTI hot hatch at the 2013 Wörthersee show, and here we have the first sketches of the super-Golf. Called the VW Design Vision Golf GTI, the concept packs close to 500bhp and can outrun a Porsche 911. It's by far the most extreme Golf hot hatch since the Bentley-engined GTI W12 concept of 2007.

Just how fast is the VW Design Vision Golf GTI’?

In the Design Vision Golf GTI a front-mounted 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 develops 496bhp and 413lb ft. The power is deployed by all four wheels to the road via a six-speed dual-clutch transmission. VW claims the concept will hit 62mph in a scant 3.9sec – that’s almost half the time it takes a regular road-going Golf GTI to reach the same speed. The old W12 GTI used a mid-mounted engine and all-wheel drive.
The concept wears 20in alloys (regular GTIs get 18s, with 19s a cost option). Reining in all that power are ceramic brake discs on all four corners, in place of the normal GTI’s steel stoppers.

The Design Vision Golf GTI doesn’t look much like a regular Golf…

Although we’ve only seen these sketches so far, it’s clear the Design Vision Golf GTI is pumped up visually far beyond the look of a common-or-garden hot hatch. The side sills and entire C-pillar stand apart from the side of the car like a supercar’s air intake. The Design VisionGolf  GTI is 71mm wider than a road-going Golf GTI, though it’s still based on the VW Group’s flexible MQB architecture, which underpins the new Golf, Seat Leon, Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia. A 15mm reduction in length and 57mm drop in height add to the car’s ridiculously exaggerated proportions.

What’s the Design Vision Golf GTI like inside?

There's a dose of carbonfibre and Alcantara trim, plus red fabric door handle pulls to save weight – you’ll recognize that feature from lightweight Porsches like the GT3 RS and Cayman R. The GTI’s back seats have also been junked, in favour of an X-shaped cross brace.
Underneath that brace there’s space to store a couple of crash helmets, hinting that this is the most track-focused Golf GTI in the model’s 37-year history. Plus, a new dashboard display screen shows the circuit being driven and the driver’s best lap times – the system is even claimed to communicate with other vehicles on track to warn of danger ahead.

What are the chances of being able to buy a Design Vision Golf GTI?

The clue is in the concept’s name: this is just a vision of the ultimate GTI, rather than a serious track-day production special. If you crave the ultimate road-going Golf, you’ll have to wait for the 286bhp all-wheel drive Golf R, due later in 2013.

VW Golf Mk7 Design Vision GTI Concept

2013 Volkswagen Golf MK 7 GTI Review

It remains the consummate all-round hot-hatch, despite the all-new Volkswagen Golf GTI now being less affordable and packed with some new technology that isn’t explicitly for the better.
Where the entry sticker to Golf GTI ownership was previously $38,990 for the three-door, the new five-door-only range starts at $41,490 plus on-road costs (read full specifications here).
But the new Golf GTI could have been cheaper, had Volkswagen Australia decided not to add the adaptive dampers, 18-inch alloy wheels and satellite navigation that all remain optional overseas.

While the latter feature is handy, one of the hallmarks of the four-year-old previous-generation Golf GTI was its ability to deliver a near-perfect blend of ride and handling on standard suspension and 17-inch wheels; so much so that the previously-optional adaptive dampers and 18s were never worthy options.
Yet those options are now standard, and they need to prove their worth in the Mk7 Golf GTI.
Inarguable is the power and torque increase with the new car.

The 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine has been completely overhauled. The engine itself is 7.8kg lighter than before, contributing to a total 40kg kerb weight reduction over the old model, and a 1314-1322kg kerb weight overall.
The numbers read 162kW at 4500-6200rpm, and 350Nm produced between 1500-4400rpm – 7kW and 70Nm more than before.
Standstill to 100km/h comes up in a claimed 6.5 seconds whether the six-speed manual or dual-clutch automatic is selected, while combined consumption is 6.2L/100km for the former transmission, 6.5L/100km for the latter.

As before, there’s lots of low-down tractability with this engine, and a sweet, rev-happy disposition.
What’s new is the seriously quick in-gear shove that obviously comes from having either power or torque delivered constantly between 1500rpm and 6200rpm but for a 100rpm window.
Where the old car panted a bit when pressed to keep up with its more well-endowed Renault Sport Megane 265 and Ford Focus ST rivals, the new Golf GTI really shifts, moving more like the outgoing Golf R.

Perhaps more surprising is the engine note.
Where the old Golf GTI had a light and zingy note, the new engine has clearly hit puberty, emanating a deeper, throatier, louder sound than before. It doesn’t necessarily sound any nicer than the old car, though, and is perhaps even a bit characterless.
Maybe the greater engine intrusion better reflects the increased performance; maybe it’s just seemingly noisier because the Golf GTI is otherwise now so much quieter.

Those 18-inch tyres – 225mm-wide, 40-aspect Dunlop SportMaxx, Bridgestone Potenza or Continental ContiSport, it’s a lucky dip which brand each car gets – do throw up noticeably more roar on coarse-chip roads than lesser Mk7 Golfs do, but the new GTI is still incredibly refined to the point of making the already-lagging Megane and Focus seem a generation older.
Volkswagen predicts 75 per cent of buyers will choose the dual-clutch automatic over the manual, and while the latest iteration of the ‘Direct Shift Gearbox’ breed is excellent, the DIY-shifter is flawless.
The DSG still doesn’t have a proper sports function beyond the conservatively-tuned ‘S’ mode available on all other Golfs. It’s now intuitive in ‘S’, flicking back gears quickly when on the brakes or travelling downhill, but it’s nowhere near aggressive enough for properly hard driving.

But Volkswagen admits it could have made a racier mode, but doesn’t believe Golf GTI buyers want it; nor do Golf R or Scirocco R buyers, apparently.
For that reason, using the steering wheel mounted paddles is almost the default choice during enthusiastic driving, and it’s certainly no bad one.
But from the golfball-shaped manual transmission lever to its beautifully lubricated shift action between slots, the manual is simply the better choice, in addition to being the cheaper one (the DSG adds $2500).

Little debate is required over whether the new electro-mechanical steering is better than the old model’s – it unquestionably is.
Now with a variable-ratio as standard, which means the steering sharpens as it turns, the Golf GTI gets from full left lock to full right lock in just 2.1 turns, making it the quickest system in the hot-hatch class.
Even better is the wonderful feel and progression on the centre position that neatly segues into sharp and direct response. During hairpin and tight parking manoeuvres alike, the driver’s arms never get crossed up.

The steering wheel is thinner-rimmed than before, too, and is as sporty to look at as it is to hold.
It complements the grippy sports seats – still tartan-trimmed – the carbonfibre-look dash inserts, soft-touch plastics, high-resolution colour displays and white/red instrumentation – we still miss the blue lighting from the Mk5, though – that make up the rest of the high-quality cabin.
The weighting of the steering itself is perfectly light, too, at least in any mode except Sport.

Those adaptive dampers, or Driver Chassis Control in VW-speak, bring five driver-selectable drive modes – Eco, Comfort, Normal, Sport, Individual.
Each can be accessed first by pressing a button beside the transmission lever then selecting the mode via the 5.8-inch touchscreen.
Eco and Comfort ease the dampers to their softest setting; normal works through the entire range of available damping rate; Sport is firmer; and Individual allows the specific selection of steering (Comfort, Normal or Sport), Engine/throttle (Comfort, Normal, Sport), and suspension (Comfort, Normal, Sport).

Individual is the only mode to use, as it turns out, because the gluggy, needlessly heavy weighting of the Sport steering must be avoided. Yet the engine/throttle response needs to be set to Sport to feel lively, instead of doughy as it is in the Eco, Comfort and Normal settings.
Thankfully, the adaptive damping selection doesn’t wildly swing between too soft in Comfort (often manufacturers fail to realise that too-soft damping delivers a sea-sicky rocking effect that’s anything but comfortable) and too hard in Sport.
There are, however, clear differences.

Sport suspension is ultimately too hard for the average surfacing of the winding Tasmanian country roads we drove the Golf GTI on. In Sport, as a passenger, there’s a bit too much jiggling going on, and as a driver, a few times the car thumped over rather than absorbed nasty mid-corner bumps.
The car ‘breathes’ with the road better in Comfort or Normal suspension mode, which also deliver excellent ride quality in all conditions. In Comfort, there’s no obvious lack of body control, either.
No doubt the flat cornering of Sport would work beautifully on a racetrack or any smooth twisting road, but the previous fixed suspension setting did everything brilliantly, so more choice isn’t in this case about delivering greater excellence.

The combination of a new Sport stability control setting and a revised extended differential lock (which brakes a spinning inside wheel) did prove worthy on soaked twisting tarmac, however. Powering out of corners, despite 70Nm more torque being underfoot, is now less dramatic than in the old Golf GTI.
The yellow slippery-road light still flashes on the instruments, signifying that the stability control and diff lock are working, but there’s barely any lost motion, the car simply hooking up and powering out. The Golf GTI is still a sharp and light-on-its-feet delight to drive hard.
Impressive as it is, though, there’s still the Golf GTI Performance Pack to come from quarter two next year (read more here), which features a proper limited-slip differential that should erase any trace of brake-blocking on cornering exit.

Particularly with the debut of that Performance Pack offering buyers more stuff for more cash, the local inclusion of adaptive dampers and 18s doesn’t seem necessary on the standard Golf GTI. A cheaper, sub-$40K model with fixed suspension and 17s would potentially not only be the more charming Golf GTI, but it would also truer to the car’s roots of being an affordable, accessible hot-hatch. It would also more closely match $38,290 Ford Focus ST while leaving the Performance Pack to fight the more focused $42,640 Renault Sport Megane 265.
For less than $45K on the road, however, the Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk7 we do get in Australia is still difficult to criticise.
With the more powerful new engine, sharper steering, increased refinement and technology and slick new interior – complete with a class-benchmark 1380 litres of boot space and a roomy back seat with air vents – it is a resolved and complete hot-hatch package.

VW Golf Mk7 Design Vision GTI Concept

Rarely do we get to combine “more than 500 hp” and “Volkswagen GTI” in one sentence, but once again the Worthersee festival in Austria comes to our rescue. The crazy Volkswagen Design Vision GTI is a race car that’s sure to whet the appetite of VW enthusiasts everywhere.

Unlike the GTI W12-650 — the mid-engined, rear-drive 12-cylinder GTI from 2007 with 650 hp — the GTI Design Vision uses all-wheel drive with a dual-clutch automatic transmission. The GTI is powered by a 503-hp twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 with 413 lb-ft of torque at 4000 rpm, but Volkswagen points out that 369 lb-ft is available at 2000 rpm. Acceleration from 0-62 mph is claimed to take 3.9 seconds. For comparison, the 430-hp R8 V8 coupe accelerates to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds, with the new seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The new GTI soon to be available in showrooms gets to 60 mph in about 6.5-6.6 seconds. The GTI W12-650 may have been capable of a claimed 3.7-second 0-62 mph sprint and 202-mph top speed (the Design Vision tops out at 186 mph), but the newer GTI concept has two three-way catalytic converters close to the engine to improve emissions.

Of course, the GTI Design Vision is about far more than just straight-line speed. The car has 20-inch wheels (235 tires in front and 275s in the rear) as well as C-pillars that have been stretched out, giving the car a much stronger look. Stopping power is provided by 15.0-inch carbon-ceramic discs up front and 14.0-inch units in back.

Read about the one-off Audi TT Ultra Quattro concept for Worthersee here.
Volkswagen says the GTI Design Vision will “eat” any race track, and one look at the concept is all it takes to guess they’re probably right. Compared to the normal GTI, the radically modified GTI is said to be 2.2 inches lower, nearly three inches wider, and with a track that’s increased by 2.5 inches in back and 2.2 inches up front.

Inside, the wild design continues, with a red door handle inspired by Porsche Cup cars, Alcantara, Nappa leather, and carbon fiber trim. One display can show lap times and the map of the track on which you’re currently racing, and Volkswagen says the car can communicate with others on the course. While an electrical kill switch and push-button-activated fire extinguisher have been added, the rear seats have been replaced by an X-shaped cross member to increase body stiffness.

Though the GTI Design Vision has about as much chance at production as the GTI W12-650 did, it’s a great way to create buzz for the upcoming front-drive GTI, which has less than half the power of the concept.