VW Polo GTI and harder Golf GTI Wörthersee 09

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

20 May 2009 16:34

Volkswagen today unveiled two hot hatch surprises at the 2009 Wörthersee hot hatch festival: a potential Polo GTI and a harder, faster Golf GTI, likely to give clues to the R model tipped by CAR for launch later this year. Both models pictured here are concepts at this stage.

The Golf GTI Wörthersee 09 edition gains cosmetic and modest engineering mods. That flame-red paintjob, 19in alloys and new LED rear lights are paired to the standard 2.0-litre TSI engine producing 207bhp.

This one-off is therefore little faster than the standard Golf GTI Mk6, with 0-62mph in 6.9sec and 148mph. The chassis is lowered and a new sports exhaust jazzes up the soundtrack. We’d expect the forthcoming Golf R to use the higher-power 261bhp blown four-pot witnessed in the Scirocco R, also unveiled today.

Ah yes, this is our first glimpse of a hotter, faster Polo. It uses the 1.4-litre petrol engine sporting a mild 85bhp – rather less than the flame-red exterior, 18-inch alloys and black rally stripes promise.

A production Polo GTI is pencilled in for sales in 2010

By Tim Pollard