This morning Volkswagen teased a new battery-powered concept car called the ID.X, which gives us a taste of where the GTI concept might be heading in the battery-powered future. But there was a time, not too long ago, when the boys in Wolfsburg were more obsessed with cubic capacity than batteries.
For this Throwback Thursday, let us reintroduce you to the Golf GTI W12-650 that was unveiled in 2007 GTI at the annual Wörthersee meet-up. This extreme design study followed a similar formula to the legendary Renault Clio V6, by shoehorning a much bigger engine into the space behind the front seats to create an extreme mid-engined hatch.
And the GTI W12-650 was certainly a lot more extreme than its French counterpart.
For starters, the engineers managed to slot in a 478 kW, 6-litre twin-turbo W12 engine, which had to be mid-mounted as the 12-cylinder lump simply would not have fitted into the engine bay. Which is a good thing, because we can only imagine what a front-mounted W12 would have done to the weight distribution.
According to Volkswagen, the rear-driven GTI W12-650 concept could sprint from 0-96 km/h in under four seconds and achieve a top track speed of 323 km/h.
To cope with all that power, engineers borrowed a gearbox from a Volkswagen Phaeton and the rear axle and brakes from a Lamborghini Gallardo, while the front brakes were nicked from an Audi RS4.
Oh, and you wouldn’t mistake the GTI W12-650 concept for an ordinary Golf 5 GTI. Not only was the body widened by 16cm, but the car was also lowered by almost 8cm and it came with massive wheels and tyres, which were 30cm wide. Significantly bolder looking front and rear bumpers completed the crazy aesthetic package.
“With all that muscle and rear-wheel power, the concept car wasn’t the easiest to handle but it was certainly fun to drive,” Volkswagen said.
“Maybe one day there’ll be a faster Golf GTI on the shores of Lake Worthersee – but there will likely never be one quite as wild.”
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