When we saw Volkswagen’s take in their concept entry into GT6, it is no doubt that it looks impressive and purely radical. And in that radically-designed car, we also anticipated that this car will only remain in the digital realms of GT6. How we were wrong.
Bringing it from virtual to reality, Volkswagen went on to please their fans by building a real life example of the GTI Roadster Concept. Paying a tribute to the hot hatch born in 1976, the GTI Roadster Concept is the birth child of three young VW designers, including Malte Hammerbeck, Domen Rucigaj and Guillermo Mignot, who were the winners of an in-house competition to design a vehicle to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Gran Turismo game.
Taking inspiration from last year’s VW Design Vision GTI Concept, the three men chopped off the roof to create an extreme speedster. The GTI’s 2.0-liter four-cylinder TFSI is replaced with a more powerful 3.0-liter V6 biturbo V6 engine with an output of 496-horsepower and 560Nm of torque between 4,000 and 6,000 rpm.
Mated to a seven-speed DSG gearbox and the 4MOTION four-wheel drive, the 1,420kg roadster can go from zerotohundred in just 3.6 seconds and has a top speed of 306km/h. Stopping power is provided by a set of ceramic brakes housed behind the 20-inch wheels with 235/35 tires for the front and 275/30 at the rear.
