In the lush university city of Savannah, Georgia, Volkswagen has taken the wraps off five new concept vehicles based on their existing cars to raise the interest levels among their biggest fans in the United States.
The unveil took place over the weekend at this year’s SOWO: The European Experience festival. Using the Beetle, Golf GTI, Golf R, Jetta, and Golf Alltrack as the basis for these showcase cars, Volkswagen of America is definitely aiming at two types of enthusiast here: the motorsport inclined and the adventure seeker.
Since the North American-spec Jetta is the odd one out here, being available nowhere else except that subcontinent, we’ll be focusing on the Beettle and Golf-based concepts which we’re sure will garner an equal amount of praise, criticism and a fair share of calls to put it (or them) into production.
The sole Beetle is up first, called the Post Concept and uses the R-Line variant as a base. Clearly styled to suit a lover of the outdoors, albeit one with funky enough tastes to drive a Beetle off the beaten track, the Post comes with big wheels and an ostentatious Habanero Orange exterior finish.
On the roof are a pair of mounting points for a mountain bike frame and in the boot are the points for which to hook on their detached front wheels. Apart from that, it’s been fitted with lowered suspension and performance coil over system.
Moving onto the Golfs, which here are highlighted by the pair of hot hatches. The GTI RS Concept borrows the emblems, side decal, and naming cues from Porsche’s line of lightweight performance cars. It wears a rather stunning widebody kit inspired by Japanese tuning specialists Rocket Bunny as well as a set of delicious Vossen alloys.
So far as we know, no change has been made to the 2.0-litre turbo four-pot, though it arguably has more weight to carry with the extra panels, wider track, and roof cargo carrier box. This may be evened out, though, as the interior has been rather comprehensively stripped of comforts - just like a Porsche RS model.
The Golf R Heritage concept is much less extreme, and meant to be an homage to the brand’s German heritage as evidenced by the custom paint and graphics. Like the Beetle Post, the standard suspension is replaced by components from H&R Springs, and its stance has been accordingly lowered to hug the Vossen wheels and sticky BFGoodrich G-Force tyres.
Finally, the Golf Alltrack Country Concept takes what seems to be a showroom model, and left it almost completely alone. It does have an exterior finish inspired by topographical maps and rides on more rugged tyres. The suspension, too, has been given additional ground clearance.
The most important addition is the roof mounts that can either carry mountain bikes or, more usefully, a mobile tent that’s topped with a flexible solar panel, curved LED light bar, and even a solar heated shower. In the boot, an integrated entertainment system complete with media computer is mounted into the spare wheel well, and a custom LED light bar is integrated into the liftgate for additional visibility. Three batteries hidden under the trunk floor are charged via the solar power system to keep the media centre and USB power ports at full charge.
We’ll put a wager on the GTI RS Concept to be the most warmly received among the quintet of concepts VW brought to Savannah this year. All if not most of these cars should also make an appearance at the 2017 Worthersee festival, and unlike many past concepts, are actually production-feasible.
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