VW Golf GTI Roadster

The VW Golf GTI Roadster concept car will make an appearance at this month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Roadster started life as a virtual car designed for the Sony PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 6. The full scale concept was built to debut a the Woerthersee GTI Festival in Austria. Powered by a 3.0-litre V6 biturbo TSI engine the two-seater has 503 PS of power and 560 Nm of torque available. A seven-speed DSG transmission sends this to all four wheels via Volkswagen’s 4MOTION all wheel drive system. The compact car that looks almost as wide as it is long is said to be able to reach 190 mph after a 62 mph sprint from standing in only 3.6 seconds.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed rivals Pike’s Peak to be the world’s most famous hill climb event but is a rather different event. Cars of all kinds race up the hill during the four day event, ganging from the latest Formula 1 cars to rare classics. The vent is surrounded by commercial and promotional stands as well as social areas. Volkswagen will have several of their latest cars and concepts on display along with the opportunity to try the Golf GTI Roadster on the Goodwood track themselves via a simulated version of the course in Gran Turismo 6.

For now though the closest you will get to this performance in a real open top Volkswagen is the VW Golf R Cabriolet. It is a car with a good kick of power but unlike the Roadster, it has Q-car subtlety.