VW Concept BlueSport news - Detroit show: VW Concept BlueSport - 2009

Cross your fingers, pray to your deity of choice and hold your breath: with a bit of luck, we can make this happen.

This is the Concept BlueSport, a mid-engined roadster concept unveiled by Volkswagen in Detroit and – with a favourable following wind – it could actually get built.

The production version hasn’t been signed off yet – the guys at VW say they need to be sure that they can sell as many units as Mazda does of the MX-5 across the globe – but when we talked to some of the top brass at VW, they all said they were very, very keen to make it happen. And, of course, VW could always make an Audi version to help bump up the numbers.

So what are we looking at? The Concept BlueSport is a lightweight, mid-engined, rear-drive roadster (think Toyota MR2) powered by a 180bhp version of VW’s two-litre turbodiesel. Yes, that’s right: diesel. Transmission duties are taken care of by a six-speed DSG box, so essentially it’s a Golf engine and transmission turned round and put behind the driver.

If – hell, when – the BlueSport makes production, don’t expect to see a V6 version: the roadster has been engineered to be as lightweight as possible, so it’s far more likely to get a range of four-pots, including the Scirocco/Golf’s two-litre petrol. Sounds good to us.

The guys at VW say that the BlueSport could be on the road within two and a half years. Summer 2011, here we come…