Another year, another Wörthersee festival - the annualised gathering of all thing Golf GTI near the rather picturesque lakeside Austrian town from which it takes its namesake, and the largest of its kind in the world. Tradition dictates that Volkswagen themselves humbly offer a bespoke creation, and for this year it will be this: the GTI TCR.
It might not be outlandish as previous tributes as it looks suspiciously like a stock MK7.5 Golf GTI, but consider that VW are considering a production and the lack of any ‘show car’ craziness becomes forgivable.
You might remember that Volkswagen had previous unveiled GTI-based FIA-standard conforming race car at Wörthersee back in 2016 also called the TCR (shorthand for Touring Car Championship), indicating that, should this more realistic version reach the assembly line, it would have been designed to be meaningfully quicker than your typical German hot hatch.
Supposedly, following its tentatively rousing receptions at the Golf-crazy festival next week, Volkswagen will announce when exactly we can likely expect these road-going TCRs to appear in production form.
The GTI TCR from 2016 featured a 2.0-litre TSI turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that, as it was lifted from the Golf R, generated 243kW and 410Nm, but in GTI fashion sent drive exclusively to the front wheels. Even with its aggressive aero package, the 100km/h dash was dispatched in 5.2 seconds while its top speed had to be limited to 230km/h.
For this upcoming TCR, though, things are decidedly more modest, with its 2.0-litre producing around 215kW and 370Nm. While those aren’t earth-shattering number, VW does say that the car’s top speed is an impressive 264km/h provided the electronic limiter be removed.
We suspect much more attention has been paid to stripping the car of any unnecessary mass, possibly employing a number of different lightweight and exotic materials - carbon fibre, magnesium, titanium - to achieve this end.
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