Meet Volkswagen’s 325bhp Golf racing concept

Fancy the idea of a 325bhp, stripped-out Golf racing car? Of course you do. Volkswagen is rather warm to the idea too, and has built this one-off concept for ‘evaluation’.

Not 'evaluation' for moon-based exploration - though it'd fit right in judging by those looks - but as a potential customer racing car for 2016, built and eligible for the Touring Car Racer International Series (TCR). In fact, as part of its competitive development – like AMG is doing with its gorgeous AMG GT3 – the Liqui Moly Team Engstler will run two of these monster Golfs at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.

So, taking the MQB-platformed, seventh-generation Golf as its base, VW Motorsport director Jost Capito – he of former Ford RS fame – and his team stripped out the insides and widened the chassis by 40cm over the production car.

Then they added a new front splitter, a carbon rear wing, a racing safety cell, and an FIA-approved safety tank. The engine is straight out of the new Golf R; a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder, here producing 325bhp and 302lb ft of torque.

It’s married to a six-speed DSG gearbox, and unlike in that Golf R, it drives the front wheels, and front wheels alone.

“When developing the Golf-based concept car,” explains Capito, “we are able to fall back on the resources at Volkswagen. We will use the rest of the season to test the car under competitive conditions and evaluate a possible customer racing project from 2016.”

It’ll run in the final four rounds of the TCR this year as part of its development programme. Watch this space.