Golf GTI W12-650 Showcar

325 km/h fast showcar sprints to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds
No Golf has ever been more powerful, or wider, or faster. The GTI W12-650 gives the appearance of having come directly from the racetrack. A Golf that could be the pace car for the 24 hour race at Le Mans. Its name is its mission: W12 cylinders, 650 bhp (477 kW at 6,000 rpm). A showcar, no more, no less. At the same time it demonstrates the enormous potential that such a car can offer.

Since 1982, the Golf GTI’s greatest fans have been celebrating it every year at the Wörthersee in the Austrian state of Kärnten. Thousands come for this event. For this occasion, Volkswagen has put a Golf on wheels that is like no other: The GTI W12-650 showcar. This sports car is a tribute to car fans that have made the GTI a legend. It is a concept that was designed just for them.

3.7 seconds, 325 km/h, 750 Nm
Its 6.0-litre bi-turbo engine is longitudinally mounted directly behind the driver and front passenger. This transforms the GTI into a classic mid-engine sports car. A six-speed automatic transmission hammers the maximum torque of 750 Nm (at 4,500 rpm) to the rear axle. It catapults the GTI to 100 km/h in just 3.7 seconds. The bi-turbo propels drivers who keep their foot to the gas pedal well beyond the 300 km/h barrier. The speedometer needle does not pause until it reaches 325 km/h. The Golf GTI W12-650 outpaces nearly all other cars of this world.

Engineers and designers have brought together automotive technologies not seen in this combination on any other car. Each component is sourced internally. That in particular is a tribute to the unequalled breadth of technology at Volkswagen AG. The chassis components of this showcar, for example, were adapted directly from a super sports car. Mounted on the front axle are 235 tires in 19-inch format, while in the rear there are 295 tires.

Klaus Bischoff: “The strongest Golf design elements are the C-pillars. But it is precisely here that we needed air ducts for engine cooling air. Therefore, the C-pillars were redesigned to assume this function of routing air to the engine. In doing so, we simply made the rear windows turn inward. This created two ducts between the windows and the C pillars, on the left and right, through which air flows for engine cooling.
We got the rest of the cooling air in front via the gigantic radiators and the ducts connected to them, as well as on the sides via air inlets on the side skirts.”

Innovative body construction has also prevented the lines of the GTI W12-650 from being ruined by a roof-mounted wing. Klaus Bischoff: “This GTI carries its wing internally. The roof is part of an enormous diffuser that supplies sufficient downforce to the rear axle. It consists of a carbon-fibre material and directs the air over and under the rear spoiler to achieve road grip, like in car racing.”

Every modern-day GTI driver would feel at home right away in this interior. The leather Alcantara covers for the race car bucket seats are newly designed. Three round gauges in the middle of the instrument cluster are also reminiscent of the original GTI. Details taken from car racing, on the other hand, include the transparent “flip-up switch covers” for important functions such as ESP deactivation.