The Wörthersee Treffen turns the city of Reifnitz in Austria into a veritable Mecca for the Volkswagen GTI. One of the traditional highlights at the festival is a concept car that’s conceived especially for the meeting by Volkswagen engineers and designers. In 2013, the concept is a race car - the 503hp 3.0l twin-turbo VR6, AWD “Design Vision GTI” concept. The striking “Design Vision GTI” is based on the seventh-generation GTI. It is shorter, wider, and lower than a regular GTI. The design team, led by Klaus Bischoff (Head of Design of Volkswagen Brand), has drawn the C-pillars and sills outward as autonomous body elements, thus creating space for substantially wider front and rear tracks, as well as specially developed 20-inch wheels tires.
The seventh-generation GTI has plenty of power in standard form, with up to 230 hp available on the Performance model, the “Design Vision GTI” ups the ante with 503 hp. It can reach a top speed of 186 mph and will reach 62 mph from a standstill in an impressive 3.9 seconds. The car has three drive modes: “Street,” “Sport” and “Track”. Paddle shifts. It applies a radical version of “reduced design”. This means as few switches as necessary, so that they can be operated intuitively even while driving hard. (vwvortex.com)
(Photos from vwvortex.com, netcarshow.com, boldride.com & caradvice.com.au)