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The Future of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche, Seat and VW Revealed by Nurburgring Testing

The Volkswagen Group is going through a Nurburgring frenzy these days, with the majority of its brands having recently done Green Hell business. From hot hatches and SUVs to sports cars and even hypercars, they’re all one big happy German family having a hot lap picnic.
VW Group testing at the Nurburgring 1 photo
Photo: image edited by autoevolution
We’ll start in the order of the segment these cars play in, which means we’ll take it from the compact class. Volkswagen’s test drivers have been manhandling not one but two developments on the ‘Ring and we’re talking about an expansion of the GTI family here.

At one end of the scale, racy dads should be happy to hear about the VW Golf R Estate. It is not clear yet whether the Golf R Estate will feed its 4Motion AWD system with 300 hp like the hatchback version. Even so, a detuned version would offer about 280 hp. This still sounds like sweet, practical madness to us.

At the other end, fans of extreme hot hatches should keep an eye on the VW Golf GTI Clubsport. This would be a track-focused GTI and we could see it arriving on May 28 at the 2014 Worthersee meet, the annual VW Group fanatic meet.

Before we move on to two other Audis that have recently lost their rubber on the Ring’s difficult surface, we mustn’t forget SEAT. What the company tested was how fast their new Leon Cupra can lap the Nordschleife - at 7.58.4 the fiery Leon established a new FWD production car record. Guess the previous holder of the record, the Renault Megane RS, must be pretty upset.

As for those Audis we were talking about, the company is in the process of developing the facelifted Audi S6. There are no major changes planned for the S6, but each and every of its areas will receive gentle touches. We’re even expecting the superb twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 under the hood to get a bit of attention. Oh and we’ve got another Audi to mention later on.

Moving into the most exotic part part of this story, we find three brands, all hiding their intentions rather well. We’ll start with Bentley, which was spotted testing what is expected to be a street version of the V8-powered Continental GT3 racer. Nothing has been confirmed though, so all we know for the moment is that Bentley has strapped some extra-large aero elements to a Conti GT V8.

Moreover, Porsche is testing the new 911 GT2 - many claim this is actually the GT3 RS and the clues are mixed. Those massive air intakes on the rear fenders have always been the pride and joy of the turbocharged 911s and it wouldn’t make sense for them to appear on the naturally-aspirated GT3 RS. On the other hand, the central exhaust layout points to the GT3 RS.

Audi wants in on this sportscar-supercar game too, so they’ve recently brought the second-generation R8 prototype to the Nordschleife. Now that the Lamborghini Huracan is out, it’s time for Audi to unleash their side of the deal, but we don’t expect to see this arriving until spring 2015 at the earliest.

At the top of this Volkswagen Group Nurburgring affair, we find their crown jewel, Bugatti. As with Porsche, the story is complicated, as it is not clear what exactly they are working on. Two Bugatti Veyron mules were spotted on the ‘Ring and the idea of a hybrid powertrain is on the table. Bugatti could also be developing the most extreme incarnation of the Veyron yet, something to silence that Koenigsegg One:1.

Volkswagen could just as well establish a strong base at the 'Ring, just to make sure they can have coffee there every morning - we’re pretty sure the new owner of the Nurburgring wouldn’t mind it.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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