To the point: Golf GTI-Meet at Wörthersee 2010:
- World premiere of the GTI adidas and GTI Excessive
- Golf GTI adidas: Customised Golf GTI launches in June
- Golf GTI Excessive: Concept adds precise motorsport look for series production
Flashback: Golf GTI 1 and Golf Citi Mk1 as tributes to their origins
Wolfsburg / Reifnitz, 13 May 2010 – There are automobiles, and then there are automotive icons – classics with a glorious past and an exciting future. The Golf GTI is such an icon. Over 1.7 million have been sold since the car’s debut in 1976. In just the sixth year after the launch of the Golf GTI, its community of fans had grown so large that it sought a common platform, or to put it simply an event, to talk shop, showcase and drive the GTI. That is how the GTI-Meet in Reifnitz at Wörthersee came into being in 1982. Since then, fans have been meeting in the Austrian state of Kärnten for five days of Mardi Gras in May. It is already time to meet again. One of the traditional highlights: unveiling of the new GTI variations. Debuting as world premieres this year are the Golf GTI adidas – an exclusive model whose sales will launch in June – and the Golf GTI Excessive, a concept car implemented in a stylistically refined motorsport look.
The new Golf GTI adidas and the GTI concept car will be accompanied by two GTI classics: the first generation Golf GTI (1976) and the Golf Citi Mk1 – a last edition, limited to 1,000 units, of the first generation Golf whose production has just been phased out in South Africa. Volkswagen Classic is bringing these two icons to Wörthersee. Its motto: GTI history meets GTI present and future.
Golf GTI adidas: Starting in June, three of the world’s most recognised German badges – Volkswagen, GTI and adidas – will for the first time meld into a combined product as the Golf GTI adidas. The essential fact is that the GTI’s technology and styling – and its interior customised in the style of the adidas brand – all produce a real dynamic mix. And so the Golf GTI adidas is likely to attain collector’s status very quickly, given the histories of today’s classic cars in the mould of the two Golf Pirelli GTIs (1983 and 2007) and the Golf GTI Edition 30 (2006).
Like each of these icons, the new Golf GTI adidas will also launch with wide-ranging customised exterior and interior features. They include newly designed 18-inch “Serron” alloy wheels and a specially developed sport seat design. As on the Golf R, bi-xenon headlights and LED rear lights are aboard as standard equipment.
Golf GTI Excessive: Every year at the GTI-Meet at Wörthersee, Volkswagen surprises fans with breathtaking concept cars. In 2007, it was the GTI W12-650, in 2008 the Golf Estate RaVe 270 and in 2009 the Golf GTI Wörthersee 09. In 2010, Volkswagen is presenting the Golf GTI Excessive in Reifnitz. This concept car illustrates the great design potential of the Golf GTI.
Key components here are the add-on parts styled in high-gloss black piano paint. The focus here is on extreme precision in the definition of shapes, radii and straight lines, as though cut with a razor blade. The add-on parts themselves are slender and light on the one hand, yet noticeably stable as well; they appear as though carved from a single block. Add-ons around the front spoiler, side sills and rear diffuser (which lights fire-red when braking!) are visually styled as so-called splitters; they are aerodynamically optimised air diverting elements that originate from motorsports. Never before have splitters been transferred to a production model with such high-end precision as on the Golf GTI Excessive. Will these add-ons make it into the catalogue of Volkswagen Original Accessories? That is up to the fans!
Golf GTI adidas – The Most Exclusive GTI of the Modern Era
- New Golf GTI adidas debuts as world premiere at Wörthersee
- Most exclusive GTI with new wheels, new seat design and full range of features
Starting in June, three of the world’s most renowned German badges – Volkswagen, GTI and adidas – will for the first time meld to form a combined product: the Golf GTI adidas. Volkswagen is presenting the most exclusive Golf GTI of generation VI in a world premiere at the legendary GTI-Meet at Wörthersee (12 to 15 May in the Austrian Reifnitz). The Golf GTI adidas is likely to attain collector’s status very quickly, given the histories of today’s classic cars in the mould of the two Golf Pirelli GTIs (1983 and 2007) and the Golf GTI Edition 30 (2006).
Like each of these icons, the new Golf GTI adidas can be recognised by a special alloy wheel design. In this case, it is the 18-inch “Serron” wheel, named after a Finnish race course. The wheel exhibits five machine-polished U-shaped dual spokes; the areas between the spokes are painted in high-sheen black.
Moreover, the Golf GTI adidas – available in three and five door versions – is identified on its exterior by standard bi-xenon headlights with cornering lights and smoked LED rear lights. Special logos on the B-pillars also identify this car as an exclusive model.
Inside, the black-red sport seat system was customised in the joint venture with adidas. Its inner seat panels consist of fabric in GTI-adidas design and sport the matching logo as well; lateral seat supports are upholstered in leather; interior designers executed the double cap seam of the head restraints in “Flash Red”. On the backs of the front seats, which are heated and height-adjustable, there are storage pockets for stowing smaller items and magazines, while the folding backrest of the rear seats is equipped with a combined centre armrest and pass-through to the bootspace.
Colour-contrasting door tread plates (front), special interior accents in aluminium, fabric floor mats with decorative borders and – in versions equipped with the 6-speed dual clutch gearbox (DSG) – a gearshift grip in the golf ball design of the first generation GTI, complete the customised features of the GTI adidas. Of course, this GTI also offers standard features such as a RCD 210 audio system, tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), 2-zone automatic climate control (Climatic) and the Light & Sight pack (includes Coming Home light, rain sensor and automatically dimming rearview mirror).
In the selection of exterior paints offered on this exclusive model, Volkswagen returns to the roots of GTI history: white, black and red. Customers can choose from the GTI-specific hues “Candy White”, “Black Uni” and “Tornado Red”. An optional fourth colour is also offered: the metallic paint “Oryx White”.
Like all Golf GTIs, the Golf GTI adidas also offers the sport chassis – highly praised by many independent reviewers – which delivers extremely impressive performance with an electronic transverse differential lock (XDS) and GTI-specific ESP tuning. This is a 240 km/h GTI that excites with its 155 kW / 210 PS turbo engine and yet consumes only 7.3 litres Super lead-free per 100 kilometres (0.7 l/100 km reduction). It is a GTI that outputs audible dynamics through its dual tailpipe exhaust system (one tailpipe each, left and right). It is a GTI that transfers the tradition of the original version to the future. The Golf GTI adidas will launch in Germany and first European markets at the beginning of June. Shortly thereafter it will be exported to Australia and the USA.
Golf GTI Excessive – Sporty Design Icon of Tomorrow
- Splitters all around the car transfer motorsport aerodynamics to the GTI idea
- Diffuser area at rear end glows fire-red at night when braking
A long-standing tradition every year at the GTI-Meet at Wörthersee – the largest of its kind in the world – is that Volkswagen likes to surprise its fans: not only with exciting new production models, but with breathtaking concept cars as well. In 2007, it was the “Über-Golf” GTI W12-650, in 2008 the “Sound Machine” Golf Estate RaVe 270 and in 2009 the Golf GTI Wörthersee 09, a concept on which meet fans got a preview of the new LED rear lights. This year, Volkswagen is presenting fans in Reifnitz with the Golf GTI Excessive. This concept car illustrates the great design potential of the Golf GTI and how it might develop in the future.
The Golf GTI Excessive is painted in the same fire-red “Firespark Metallic” as the Golf GTI Wörthersee 09. However, this time fire-red is not the only colour. But more on that topic in a moment.
Of primary importance on the Golf GTI Excessive are add-on parts in high-gloss black piano paint. The focus here is on extremely precise cuts of forms, radii and straight lines, as though cut with a razor blade. The add-on parts themselves – a look at the front and rear spoilers or the side sills in the style of splitters used in motorsports illustrate this impressively – are on the one hand slender and light, but also noticeably stable and appearing as though carved from a single block.
To cut to the chase: Designers have not modified any of the body panels on the Golf GTI Excessive. And yet the concept car projects an image that is even fuller, more dynamic and wider too – due to its flared wheel wells in the style of the Golf GTI I (+ 30 millimetres per side). There is refinement in every detail.
Front end: A narrow spoiler slices the car’s the way through the air. This splitter runs as a black strip beneath the front apron, ending at the wheel well extensions, also black, on the right and left sides of the car. For aerodynamic and stylistic reasons, there is an opening between the lateral terminations of the spoiler and the wheel well extensions. It allows the driving wind to pass through without creating air turbulence. The similarly modified screens of the central air intakes also connect above the front spoiler. Noteworthy here: The daytime running lights avoided a complete re-routing of the airflow for ventilating the 18-inch high-performance braking system that is used in the Golf GTI Excessive.
Side profile: Naturally, the best view of the internally ventilated and perforated disc brakes (diameter: 370 millimetres in front, 310 in rear) and the brake callipers with their “GTI / Wörthersee 2010” logos is from the side in front. Another conspicuous feature: the classic “CH Black Edition” type 19-inch BBS wheels, also in black, with a wheel offset of 35 millimetres. These especially lightweight wheels are produced in a flow forming method originally developed for Formula 1 racing.
The wheels, fitted with size 235/35 ZR 19 tyres, give the widened wheel housings a very full image. To be exact, one other reason the wheel-tyre combination practically fills out the wheel housings is that the GTI’s coilover suspension was lowered. Toward the sides, the wheels end right at the height of the wheel housing flares, as though aligned by plumb-bob. Bridging the space between the wheels, of course, are the side sills, which are also styled in high-gloss piano paint. These splitters resemble trays or wings more than sills; they fit in with the winglets integrated in the sills in the vicinity of the rear wheel housing flares. Matching the sills and wheel housings in colour are the newly designed mirror housings and their mounts at the lower point where the A-pillar intersects the side window.
Rear: The rear section provides a show all to itself. The presentation begins at the top: with a new rear spoiler painted in body colour; it visually extends the roof – upgraded with black piano paint – toward the back. The highlight: From the rear, the view of the roof through the spoiler is eye-catching. In the rear spoiler, designers have also integrated a very narrow strip of LED brake lights along its full width.
The gaze moves over the LED rear lights – also available on the “normal” Golf GTI – and gravitates downward where, whether one is a fan or not, it remains glued. The reason: The splitter theme of the front spoiler and side sills continues in the rear section here. This is also where – ideally form-integrated in the diffuser – one finds the trapezoidal, narrow titanium tailpipes of the exclusive Akrapovic exhaust system. The system not only looks sharp; it also adds an extra 3.7 PS of power and an extra 6 Newton-metres of torque. And the circle to the fire-red paint of the Golf GTI Excessive is now complete: As soon as the driver actuates the brake pedal, the diffuser – trimmed in a typical GTI honeycomb grille beneath the car – lights up fire-red. Regardless of such effects, however, the real appeal here is the fascinating precise workmanship of the splitters that run completely around the car and of all of the car’s add-on parts.
Standard powertrain concept: In terms of performance data, the new exhaust system imparts slight deviations in an upward direction. The total power of the GTI concept car is a full 158 kW / 214 PS, and its maximum torque is 286 Newton-metres. Like the production GTI, the Excessive accelerates to 100 km/h in under seven seconds and attains a top speed of 240 km/h. Combined fuel consumption: a low 7.3 l/100 km.
Interior: Inside, the Golf GTI Excessive follows the classic path of the Golf GTI Wörthersee 09. Its upgrades include decorative brushed aluminium trim and glossy black painted frames for the vent nozzles. The floor mats are also framed – in red piping. An interior highlight: the modified sport comfort seats with their integrated head restraints. They impress with innovative upholstery fabrics and a red-black colour composition. That is to say, black Nappa for the outer seat areas and flash-red Nappa for the lateral seat supports.
What remains to be seen is the highly anticipated feedback from fans on whether they want precision exterior add-on parts, e.g. as an accessory kit for their new or already registered sixth generation Golf GTI. It certainly would be tempting.
