Next year, the Volkswagen Golf GTI will turn 50. Next week, to celebrate that milestone, we’ll get to see and hear all about the Mk8.5 Volkswagen Golf GTI Edition 50.
Ahead of its full unveiling across the Nürburgring 24 Hours weekend, VW has already proclaimed that the Edition 50 holds a record around the 12.9-mile Nordschleife. Consider our ears pricked up.
Granted, it’s a dubious one at best, taking the title of ‘fastest production Volkswagen’ around the Green Hell. Its 07:46:13 time does make it quicker than an all-wheel drive Golf R around the ‘Ring as well as the track-focused Mk7 Clubsport S, though, so it’s certainly nothing to dismiss completely.
Worth noting too that Volkswagen described the weather as ‘quite bad’, suggesting there’s more time to be had on a dry run for the Edition 50. It has released a glossy b-roll laden video to highlight the lap showing overcast conditions, but we’re going to assume not all of that footage is taken from the record run.
VW has remained coy about technical details for the Edition 50, but it looks pretty clear that the Edition 50 is running in a production spec rather than wearing any questionable ‘Ring-specific hardware. We do know it was running a set of Bridgestone Potenza Race tyres that will be made optional on the car through a Performance Package, but that’s as much detail as VW has delved into.
Its rear seats remain intact and without a roll cage, so we’re not looking at a direct Clubsport S follow-up here. From there, we can only really speculate what the Edition 50 will build on the existing Clubsport.
It seems a Golf R-matching power figure of 328bhp would be a slam-dunk prediction, as well as bigger brakes and some trick tweaks to its adaptive dampers. Maybe a proper limited-slip differential, too? We’ll know for sure next week. Stay tuned.
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