Photo: Volkswagen
Explaining what the Lamando GTS is takes a bit of practice. You see, a couple of years ago, one of VW's Chinese joint ventures decided it wanted to make a four-door coupe that's as short as a Jetta yet as broad as a Passat. You can think of it as a boring version of the Mercedes CLA-Class. After an initial concept that got everybody excited, they launched the Lamando, which can only be bought there.
Now there's a hot version called the Lamando GTS, which is scheduled to make an official debut at the upcoming 2016 Beijing Auto Show.
There are several other models that use the same 2-liter turbocharged engine as a Golf GTI. However, in order to dilute the brand, the company uses names to denote the hot nature of these vehicles. The Lamando GTS thus gets a similar name to the Scirocco model launched last year. It's perhaps fitting since both are sometimes called coupe... but aren't.
Several features have been enhanced on the car, including the front bumper that has extra-large air intakes and the upper grille that now features a red GTI-like stripe and honeycomb grille.
Around the back, this thing reminds us of the Skoda Octavia RS, having fake rectangular exhaust tips integrated into the bumper and a fixed wing on top of the trunk lid. Side skirt inserts and gloss black mirror covers complete the transformation.
For now, there are no official details on this car, but the Chinese media is reporting that it packs a 2.0-liter TSI turbo engine producing 220 PS and 350 NM of torque, matched to a 7-speed wet-clutch DSG gearbox(??). Ironically, we featured a Lamando GTI rendering over one year ago but never thought that it would get built. Yet China is getting not one but two performance sedans at the same time. A few days ago, we showed you the 2016 Jetta GLI, another one of VW's GTI spinoffs, and it's undoubtedly going to debut at the same motor show.
There are several other models that use the same 2-liter turbocharged engine as a Golf GTI. However, in order to dilute the brand, the company uses names to denote the hot nature of these vehicles. The Lamando GTS thus gets a similar name to the Scirocco model launched last year. It's perhaps fitting since both are sometimes called coupe... but aren't.
Several features have been enhanced on the car, including the front bumper that has extra-large air intakes and the upper grille that now features a red GTI-like stripe and honeycomb grille.
Around the back, this thing reminds us of the Skoda Octavia RS, having fake rectangular exhaust tips integrated into the bumper and a fixed wing on top of the trunk lid. Side skirt inserts and gloss black mirror covers complete the transformation.
For now, there are no official details on this car, but the Chinese media is reporting that it packs a 2.0-liter TSI turbo engine producing 220 PS and 350 NM of torque, matched to a 7-speed wet-clutch DSG gearbox(??). Ironically, we featured a Lamando GTI rendering over one year ago but never thought that it would get built. Yet China is getting not one but two performance sedans at the same time. A few days ago, we showed you the 2016 Jetta GLI, another one of VW's GTI spinoffs, and it's undoubtedly going to debut at the same motor show.
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