This is a pure show car, so don't go running to your VW dealer waving around a fistful of cash. He won't be able to help you. Too bad, though, as this super Golf dishes out a mammoth 650 horsepower and over 530 ft lbs of torque from the 6.0L biturbo W12 it's got mounted behind the front seats. All that juice flows through a 6-speed automatic to the rear wheels, which are shod in some seriously meaty rubber.

Lower and wider than a stock GTI, the body retains the production car's doors, hood and lights, but otherwise it's all new. A number of intakes and a redesigned C-pillar help feed air to the 12-cylinder behemoth supplying the go-power. To keep the car planted to the tarmac, VW didn't want to use a massive spoiler to generate downforce. As such, the car's carbon-fiber roof acts as a giant diffuser that funnels air under the small spoiler at its trailing edge. In summary, the whole thing is a big exercise in the awesome.

Bigger Pix = http://www.autoblog.com/photos/vw-go...2-650-concept/

 

The powertrain is very impressive. However, the wheels and some of the body styling is too different for me.

 

Hmmm. Looks like they wanted to do their own version of the Renault Clio V6 Sport... except with 2x the cylinders and 3 times the power.

 

cool... but they'll never make anything like it in production for the Golf, from a powertrain point of view..

 

i love it, i wonder how it performs... im sure it does so fairly well lol

 

Wow - I can't believe they managed to shoe-horn that motor in there. Sounds like they took the motor from the Bentley Continental GT (for those that don't know, VW owns Bentley, Lamborghi, Bugatti, etc... lots of exotic car motors in their 'parts bin'), pumped up the boost on it a bit, and somehow fit it into that tiny little car.

Man that must be a blast to drive. With the stock 200hp 2.0t it's already good for high 14s... wonder what over 3 times the power might do?

 

That's pretty wild. I don't imagine it was too tough to get the engine in there since they put it behind the front seats though. Now if they stuffed it under the hood, that'd be a different story. Still, I'd love to take it out for a spin.

 

If I recall correctly, VW's 12-cylinder W12 engine first appeared in Phaeton. It was obviously developed to be used in more than one brand (as you said, VW owns several high-end brands), but it did begin its life in a VW car. Eventually moved to Bugatti, Bentley, Audi.

 

Ultimate hot-hatch.

 

I don't know where the naturally aspirated version was first used - probably either the Phaeton or A8, but the twin turbo version, to my knowledge, is only used in Bentley Continentals, and have been used since the 2003 model year.

The Continentals do ride on the D3 platform which is closely shared with the Phaeton and A8. But the Phaeton and A8 have never, to my knowledge, had factory turbos on their available W12s.

 

How do you open the hatch?

 

it looks like a pacman ghost from behind

 

doesnt have one

 

wow i just saw that... how do you so something like check the oil?

 

Finally, a good use for the W12!