The Golf GTI is the favorite hot-hatch of the world. It’s currently at its fifth generation. Yearly, in Worthersee Austria, there’s a GTI festival, where owners and fans of the GTI pay some hommage to this great car.

This year it’s the GTI’s 3-th anniversary, and Volkswagen have decided to reward their fans with a very, very special edition of the GTI. We’re talking an engine which is situated above the one found in the Phaeton (and Bentley Continental GT by that matter), and not so much below the one found in the Bugatti Veyron. It can do 100 kmh in 3,7 seconds, and exceed 200 mph.

What VW did here was to mid-mount a 6-liter W12 engine to a 3-door Golf and install a rear-wheel drive, making it a thoroughbred racer.

The engine is spectacular. It’s an evolution of the Phaeton’s 450 HP V12. It is made of aluminium in order to reduce the weight, has twin turbos and measures up at only 51×71x71cm, making it very compact. Its cooling systems receive air from the two big vents located just in front of the rear wheels.

The power is transmitted to the rear wheels, after passing trough a 6-gear Tiptronic transmission. I think a CVT transmission would have fared much better, but this type of tranny does not have too many fans among race drivers.

In order to give the new Golf the stability it needed, it has been widened by 16 cm and lowered by seven. Also, lots of aerodynamic aids have been added to the bottom, making wings and spoilers obsolete.

Design-wise, it’s also a notable evolution. The car looks sleek, with sexy wheels, and even discreet. While the huge air intakes and the four exhaust pipes hint towards power, it’s still hard to immagine its tremendous power just by looking at it.

Discovered at GizMag