Following last year’s L.A. auto show, Volkswagen invited us out to sample some conceptual/tweakoid wares in a parking lot adjacent to the Forum in Inglewood. Chief among them was the Design Vision GTI concept, a twin-turbo 3.0-liter VR6-powered wide-body chunk of white techno-chocolate devoid of sound insulation.
Loud, violent, and loony, we didn’t exactly find ourselves wishing there was a production version of the thing, although we did find ourselves dreaming about a trip to Laguna Seca for an afternoon of forced-induction barbarity.
At the same L.A. show, Mercedes premiered its Vision Gran Turismo concept, a full-size mockup of a car that’d only ever be driven in the eponymous video game. Now Volkswagen’s jumped into the PlayStation fray with its own Vision Gran Turismo, and it’s basically a speedster-ized version of the car we drove.
Like the Design Vision GTI before it, the Vision GranTurismo will debut at Austria’s Wörthersee Festival, an enthusiast gathering that’s seen the global premiere of some of VW Group’s nutsiest specials. This year’s event runs from May 28–31, with the chopped-top GTI making its inaugural appearance on the first day.
Your need-to-knows: The six-cylinder engine shuttles 503 horsepower and 491-lb-ft of torque through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and on to all four wheels, the tires measure 235/35 up front and 275/30 in the back, the wheels are 20-inchers, and the brake rotors measure 15 inches at the front and 14 inches at the rear.
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This AWD über-Golf roadster might actually be a bit more livable than the hatchback, given that our chief complaint about the previous car was a head-splitting cabin resonance. Despite that, the hatchback was certainly one of the more whole concept cars we’ve driven, and we’d love to get a shot behind the wheel of the roadster. If not, we’ll grudgingly console ourselves with the console version.
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