Volkswagen Golf GTI W12-650: The Most Outrageous GTI Ever

Half a century after the birth of the Golf “Grand Tourer Injection”, the German marque has chosen to revisit what is probably the most outrageous GTI it has ever made: the Volkswagen Golf GTI W12-650.

Created in 2007 as a one-off prototype, the GTI W12-650 has now returned in Tornado Red - and it remains every bit as excessive as before. Beneath the widened bodywork of the three-door Golf V, extended by 160 mm, sits a Bentley-derived 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12 engine mounted in a rear-mid position.

Volkswagen Golf GTI W12-650: Bentley power and rear-wheel drive

Yes, you read that correctly: a Golf GTI powered by the heart of a Bentley Continental GT and driving its rear wheels. Now listen to it:

With 650 cv and 750 Nm delivered to the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic gearbox inherited from the Phaeton, this “GTI” reaches 100 km/h from rest in 3.7s. Top speed? 325 km/h.

Hardware engineered for supercar performance

To manage such immense output, Volkswagen turned to the finest components within the group: front brakes from the Audi RS 4 and a rear axle from the Lamborghini Gallardo. Its carbon-fibre roof incorporates an air intake feeding the rear radiators, while 295-section tyres attempted to rein in torque worthy of a supercar.

Over the top? Undoubtedly. Necessary? Not really. Yet the Golf GTI W12-650 captures an era at Volkswagen in which the impossible seemed merely to be the starting point.