VOLKSWAGEN’S Design Vision GTI, which was this year’s star attraction at Worthersee Festival—a veritable Mecca for the Volkswagen GTI—is based on the seventh-generation of the coveted model.
VW design chief Klaus Bischoff has drawn the Design Vision GTI’s C-pillars and sills outward as autonomous body elements, creating space for humongous front and rear tracks, as well as specially developed 20-inch wheels that are shod with 235 tires in front and 275 rubbers at the rear. VW has also bumped up the Performance GTI’s 230-horsepower output to 503 horsepower (at 6,500rpm) in the Design Vision GTI—impressive considering that both cars share the same turbo-charged, direct-injected, 3.0-liter, V6 TSI engine. Two three-way catalytic converters are arranged close to the engine to optimize emissions. Sending the grunt to all four wheels is a DSG dual-clutch automatic transmission.