Photo: VW
Introduced in 2011, produced in Slovakia and Brazil, and facelifted in 2016, the Volkswagen up! is one of the best all-around city cars on the market today. However, there’s something amiss with the urchin.
Of course, I am referring to the fact Volkswagen has yet to offer an up! GTI, the teeny-tiny hot hatchback variant of the up!. Happily, however, Autocar is mulling the possibility of such a happy-go-lucky car. And to be frank, I believe that the British publication’s report isn’t just a petty rumor.
From 1998 to 2005, VW produced the Lupo, the predecessor of the up!. In 2000, the German manufacturer introduced the Lupo GTI as a spiritual successor to the Golf GTI from 1975, the year Pink Floyd released Wish You Were Here, the laugh-out-loud The Rocky Horror Picture Show hit movie theaters, and racing driver Mark “Captain Nice” Donohue lost his life soon after his March careened into the Osterreichring’s catch fencing.
Under the hood of the rumored Volkswagen up! GTI, the automaker may use a turbocharged three-banger engine. The EA211 1.0 TSI in 113 HP (115 PS) and 147 lb-ft (200 Nm) tune, the same engine found under the hood of the entry-level Audi A3, should do the trick. Considering that the lightest of up! models prides itself on a curb weight of 2,048 pounds (929 kilograms), the 1.0 TSI provides just the right amount of get-up-and-go for such a lightweight runabout.
According to insider information acquired by Autocar, the engine will be matched to a six-speed manual or a dual-clutch automatic transmission. Pre-production prototypes are said to run the stint to 62 mph (100 km/h) in around 8 seconds when equipped with the DSG. A top end of “more than 124 mph” (200 km/h) should be more than enough for most people.
The report coming from the British publication also suggests that the VW up! GTI will boast “MacPherson strut (front) and torsion beam (rear) suspension with its own spring and damper rates.” If it looks anything like the Volkswagen GT up! Concept from 2011, then the rumored VW up! GTI will become an instant classic.
From 1998 to 2005, VW produced the Lupo, the predecessor of the up!. In 2000, the German manufacturer introduced the Lupo GTI as a spiritual successor to the Golf GTI from 1975, the year Pink Floyd released Wish You Were Here, the laugh-out-loud The Rocky Horror Picture Show hit movie theaters, and racing driver Mark “Captain Nice” Donohue lost his life soon after his March careened into the Osterreichring’s catch fencing.
Under the hood of the rumored Volkswagen up! GTI, the automaker may use a turbocharged three-banger engine. The EA211 1.0 TSI in 113 HP (115 PS) and 147 lb-ft (200 Nm) tune, the same engine found under the hood of the entry-level Audi A3, should do the trick. Considering that the lightest of up! models prides itself on a curb weight of 2,048 pounds (929 kilograms), the 1.0 TSI provides just the right amount of get-up-and-go for such a lightweight runabout.
According to insider information acquired by Autocar, the engine will be matched to a six-speed manual or a dual-clutch automatic transmission. Pre-production prototypes are said to run the stint to 62 mph (100 km/h) in around 8 seconds when equipped with the DSG. A top end of “more than 124 mph” (200 km/h) should be more than enough for most people.
The report coming from the British publication also suggests that the VW up! GTI will boast “MacPherson strut (front) and torsion beam (rear) suspension with its own spring and damper rates.” If it looks anything like the Volkswagen GT up! Concept from 2011, then the rumored VW up! GTI will become an instant classic.
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