VW unveils 500bhp Golf GTI roadster

Last year, Volkswagen took its fabled MQB Golf chassis, made it lower, wider, wrapped it in a plastic body and gave it a very turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 engine with 500bhp.

They showcased the ‘Design Vision GTI' concept at the 2013 Worthersee meet. This year, for the 2014 Worthersee meet, Volkswagen has applied that same philosophy to this - a little Golf, big engine, plastic body. In doing so, creating a really quite fast roadster.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Web, please be upstanding for the new Volkswagen Vision Gran Turismo GTI concept. It is a 500bhp, two-seat open-roofed Golf concept that is positively mad.

Details are scarce, and all we have are a few preliminary sketches and some engine information. Design first - as you can see, it's broadly similar to last year's Design Vision concept, featuring that same wide-mouthed, aggressive grille we saw last year.

There's a monster rear wing this time around - and we do mean monster - and of course, a distinct lack of ‘roof'. If anything, it reminds of us the mad Lamborghini Aventador J; think of this as Golf's take on that roofless Lambo.

The bonnet gets a set of nostril-style vents, too, and we only hope they're functional for cooling, because underneath sits the same twin-turbocharged, 3.0-litre VR6 engine as in last year's Design Vision concept. And though they both produce the same 500bhp, torque for this roadster has been increased quite significantly from 413lb ft to a mind-melting 665lb ft. Six hundred and sixty-five.

It's mated to a seven-speed DSG gearbox running four-wheel-drive, and sits on 20in concept wheels with, we imagine, equally bombastic ceramic brakes underneath.

No performance times have been given, but bear in mind last year's concept - which we drove in a car park in Los Angeles - managed to sprint from 0-62mph in just 3.9 seconds and hit a top speed of 186mph. Expect similar times.

Inside, it's all exposed carbon fibre, with two sports seats that have been moulded and integrated against the car structure. It gets proper race harnesses too, and a rally style steering wheel with a longer steering column and Knight Rider-esque shape. Nice.

Obviously, obviously, it's just a design concept built for Gran Turismo 6 - and available to download from 23 May - so it's highly unlikely Volkswagen will ever greenlight a 500bhp, roofless Golf. But we live in hope.

We'll bring you more info and proper pics as soon as we get them...

Read Top Gear's first drive of the 500bhp Vision Design Golf GTI concept

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