Second Volkswagen GTI concept slated for Wörthersee debut

By Stephen Edelstein Published May 13, 2015

Volkswagen Golf GTI concept Worthersee 2015 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The annual Wörthersee festival is where Volkswagen fans go to celebrate the brand, and where Volkswagen goes to celebrate its fans. The carmaker is certainly bringing the love this year.

In addition to the already-revealed GTI Clubsport concept, VW will unveil a second GTI concept that was built by a group of 13 apprentices in Wolfsburg, Germany. They started out with a bare shell and were tasked with building an entire show car.

Recommended Videos

Volkswagen used the project as a vocational training exercise. The team of 17- to 25-year-old apprentices includes four women and nine men from five specialties: interior fitting, paint, mechatronics, media design, and materials engineering.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

So far the only apparent modification is a snappy two-tone paint job, but the Wörthersee concept — which is based on a Performance-package GTI — also features engine, suspension, interior, and sound system modifications, VW says.

Related: 2015 Volkswagen Golf GTI first drive

The perhaps means the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine will get a little more than the 220 horsepower available on the stock version. We’ll have to wait and see if this concept has a six-speed manual transmission or DSG dual-clutch automatic.

At Wöthersee, the apprentice-built GTI concept will share the stage with the CTI Clubsport, a 265-hp tuned model that could preview a future addition to the GTI family, slotting between the base GTI and the Golf R.

While Wörthersee started out as a GTI love fest, Volkswagen has turned it into a marketing venue for many of its other brands, and has been bringing ever-more flashy show cars to get maximum attention for them.

So far this year, the two confirmed GTI concepts will be joined by the 600-hp Audi TT Clubsport Turbo Technology concept, and two cars from Skoda – the FUNstar pickup truck and Fabia Combi R5 rally car.

Topics

Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

Cars

Inside the lab teaching Volkswagen’s born-again Bus how to drive itself

volkswagen unveils argo ai powered id buzz ad electric van

Previewed by the heritage-laced ID.Buzz concept, Volkswagen's born-again Bus will arrive in 2022 with a few cool tech tricks up its sleeve. It will be fully electric, it will ride on the MEB architecture already found under the EVs like the ID.3 and the ID.4, and it will spawn an autonomous shuttle scheduled to start carrying passengers in 2025. Argo A.I. is helping Volkswagen teach the Bus how to drive itself, and Digital Trends got an inside look at the project.

Volkswagen unveiled the first ID.Buzz-based prototype on the sidelines of the 2021 Munich auto show. Fully draped in camouflage to mask its final design, the van is fitted with an armada of sensors, radars, cameras, microphones, and lidars that paint a digital picture of the world around it. Argo A.I. — which Volkswagen and Ford jointly own a stake in — argues its technology is highly advanced: its lidar can detect and avoid potholes by scanning the road surface, and it can see objects that are about 1,300 feet away, even if they're dark (like a black car). Powering this hardware requires tremendous computing power, several backup systems, and a mammoth amount of data.

Cars

Volkswagen’s electric ID.Life concept car doubles as a gaming console

Volkswagen ID.Life

One major issue continues to stand in the way of electric cars: Cost. They tend to be more expensive than comparable gasoline-powered vehicles. Volkswagen plans to make EVs relatively affordable in the not-too-distant future, and it unveiled a small, city-friendly concept called ID.Life at this week's 2021 Munich auto show to illustrate what it has in store.

Volkswagen is thinking small: The ID.Life measures 161.6 inches from bumper to bumper, 72.6 inches wide, and 63 inches tall. Put another way, it's a couple of inches longer and narrower than a Hyundai Venue. It's characterized by a pure, simple exterior design and a silhouette that blurs the line between a hatchback and a crossover. Users can remove the roof panel — the design of which can be personalized — to transform the ID.Life into a quasi-convertible.

Cars

Argo AI puts a high-tech spin on Volkswagen’s retro ID.Buzz van

volkswagen unveils argo ai powered id buzz ad electric van

Volkswagen is leveraging its partnership with Pittsburgh-based Argo AI to build an autonomous version of the ID.Buzz, an electric van with a heritage-laced design that will make its debut in the coming years. Unveiled at this week's 2021 Munich auto show, the prototype is fitted with an armada of cameras, as well as lidar and radar sensors.
It doesn't take a well-trained eye to tell that the ID.Buzz AD is autonomous. Its hardware suite is clearly visible: Argo AI's proprietary lidar is notably mounted on the van's roof, where it's perfectly positioned to scope out the road ahead. Bryan Salesky, Argo AI's founder and CEO, said the lidar can detect objects up to 1,300 feet away.

Building a van capable of driving itself in a controlled environment is relatively easy. Deploying it in real-life conditions, where it will encounter construction, dogs, and pedestrians, is far more difficult. Salesky warned that improvements in autonomous technology will be gradual -- there's not going to be a big boom -- but he pointed out that modernizing the infrastructure will play a significant role in helping driverless cars reduce traffic in big cities.