VW's "Design for GTI" concept will debut at the Worthersee Tour.

Volkswagen is showing off one of its latest concept cars – the “Design Vision GTI” – for car buffs at the annual Wörthersee festival in Austria.

The Design Vision GTI is based on the seventh-generation GTI and the design team, led by Klaus Bischoff, the head of design of Volkswagen Brand, has drawn the C-pillars and sills outward as autonomous body elements, creating space for substantially wider front and rear tracks, as 20-inch wheels.

Developing a show car for the GTI meeting at Wörthersee is always a great opportunity to package extreme ideas and a lot of emotion. Klaus Bischoff said.

“The design team’s brief was to give a spectacular glance into the future of the GTI,” he added. Marc Lichte, Andreas Mindt, and Philipp Römers, the same team who developed the latest Golf and the new GTI, also collaborated in the development of the “Design Vision GTI,” breathing the charisma of a race car into the concept.

Two things are obvious when seeing the “Design Vision GTI” for the first time, Bischoff said.

First, the car is a Volkswagen. Second: it’s a GTI. This visual clarity is part of Volkswagen’s success, he said.

“Our claim to be a global player is enhanced with our universal design language. A design that immediately communicates the brand’s identity is central for all models that carry the VW logo, with elements that allow each model to be recognized as a true Volkswagen by its distinctive design,” he said.

The production GTI has extremely crisp proportions, making it a good starting point for an even more extreme version. The “Design Vision GTI” looks radical, because it’s shorter, wider and lower than a regular GTI. It’s 0.6 inches shorter thanks mainly to a more compact rear bumper treatment. The GTI concept is no less than 2.2 inches lower, at 54.5 inches, and it’s 2.8 inches wider.

The GTI concept’s front end is similarly sculptural. The radiator grille, the bottom air inlet, and the brake cooling vents are combined with the headlights and framed by the front fenders and the hood.

The GTI’s typical red line divides the headlights of the “Design Vision GTI” horizontally. The actual lighting elements are set back, giving the “eyes” depth – an innovative variation of the “evil eye” popular with GTI customizers.

With 230 horsepower available on the Performance model, the concept ups the ante with 503 horsepower, developed at 6500 rpm. Just like the engine in the regular GTI, the concept car has a turbocharged and direct – injection TSI engine – in this case, a 3-liter V6 instead of a two-liter four cylinder, using twin turbochargers.

All this power and torque is distributed to the wheels via a DSG dual-clutch automatic transmission and an all-wheel-drive system. The Design GTI is fitted it with large carbon-ceramic brake discs.

On the inside, Tomasz Bachorski, head of Volkswagen Interior Design, said, the “Design Vision GTI” 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, he said.

(Click Here to read about Audi’s Worthersee TT concept.)

The race-car impression is reinforced by the partial use of carbon fiber, which is combined with “Anthracite” and “Titan Black” Alcantara as well as “Black” and “Flash Red” Nappa leather.

(VW introduces a new engine for the Beetle. Click Here for more information.)

One pleasing detail on the doors is a red loop that forms the handle, just like a Porsche Cup car. The rear seats have gone, their space taken by an X-shaped cross member that further strengthens body stiffness.

The designers also wanted to show how they imagine the “Design Vision GTI” could be used to network with the social community: A large display to the right of the main instrument binnacle also shows a track map of the circuit you are running, along with lap times.