Volkswagen has teased an upcoming version of the perennially popular Golf GTI, set to debut at the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race on May 31. The German carmaker’s CEO, Thomas Schafer, shared a teaser of the new hot hatch on LinkedIn. Although the video has been pixelated to obscure the car, we catch glimpses of it cruising around the Green Hell and tackling the Carousel, the circuit’s most renowned corner.
Little is known about the Golf in this
teaser. Halfway through, we’re provided with our best opportunity to see the
model. It clearly has a different front bumper to the 2025 Golf GTI unveiled a
few months ago and includes sharper and more aggressive air intake shrouds. The
teaser ends with text reading ’50 Years of Golf,’ leading to speculation that
this model could be dubbed the ‘Edition 50’. For the Golf’s 45th birthday, VW
launched the GTI Clubsport 45 with some new aerodynamic appendages. It’s
possible the Golf GTI in this teaser could be quite similar.
The MK8.5 Golf GTI was revealed in late
January and is available exclusively with a seven-speed DSG transmission,
meaning a six-speed manual is no longer on offer. The car’s 2.0-liter
turbocharged four-cylinder has been modified to now produce 261 hp in Europe
but horsepower and torque figures for the U.S. model haven’t been announced.
If the new Golf GTI variant is indeed a
Clubsport version, it could pack even more grunt. The old Golf GTI Clubsport 45
delivered 292 hp and 400 Nm of torque, and it’s plausible that this
new model could produce over 300 hp. It’s also possible that VW will chase
front-wheel drive glory at the Nurburgring and attempt to set a new production
FWD car lap record around the circuit, a crown that the Mk7 Golf GTI Clubsport
S once held.
