Archive for Volkswagen

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A car many of you will be familiar with by now – having first seen it zooming past you on the road as a Wald in 2005 – the Mk V Golf GTI, now in its official Volkswagen form, was a car hailed by many for combining everyday drivability with plenty of extra grunt to keep the family man in touch with his hooligan side.

But as it nears the end of its lifecycle, with the sixth generation of the Golf debuting later this year and a new GTI sure to follow by 2009, Shannon Teoh takes a nostalgic test drive of the car many of us have realistically (meaning that we didn’t plan on being overnight millionaires) aspired to own in recent years.

More after the jump to memory lane.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Golf GTI Test Drive Report

The MkVI Volkswagen Golf will make its debut in October this year, which should lead to the next generation Volkswagen GTI soon after. The MkVI GTI should result in a few MkV GTIs to appear on the second hand market, something thats apparently quite a rarity in Malaysia - it seems everyone is just really really happy with their MkV!

But that’s not the point of this story. What we have here is a detail revealed about the most baseline of Golfs, which will feature a 75 horsepower 1.0 liter or 1.2 liter TSI engine, depending on whether Volkswagen finally decides on a 3-cylinder or 4-cylinder displacement, according to Volkswagen powertrain research manager Wolfgang Steiger.

A 1.2 liter inline-3 should be likely, as Volkswagen has already introduced a new 1.2 liter inline-3 petrol engine with the fourth generation SEAT Ibiza not too long ago. This new engine will not appear in the initial MkVI Golf line-up, only to be added earliest in 2009.

Porsche is allegedly slowly increasing its stake in Volkswagen from the current 31% to a supposed figure of more than 50%, and the two companies have released a joint special edition version of the Volkswagen Caddy called the Volkswagen Caddy Carrera Cup Edition 2.0 TDI R, but the relationship between the two groups isn’t exactly a bed of roses, if German magazine Der Spiegel is right about what they just reported.

According to Der Spiegel, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn has threatened to resign if Porsche interferes with Volkswagen Group operations, something which might happen as Audi and Audi-owned Lamborghini’s products are seen as direct competitors to Porsche products.

A photo of the Caddy Carrera Cup is available after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Winterkorn threatens to quit if Porsche interferes

Volkswagen is partnering up with Sanyo to jointly develop high-performance energy storage systems, or in laymen speak batteries that can store LOTS of juice. According to Vee-Dub, Sanyo is currently the world’s biggest supplier of lithium-ion batteries in terms of market share, and will invest over US$769 million over the next 7 years in this project.

The joint development program will focus on lithium ion batteries, which Volkswagen hopes will be able to bring concept cars such as the Volkswagen Golf TDI Hybrid and the Audi metroproject quattro (shown above) to production. Both of these concept cars can run solely on the electric motor, without using the combustion engine.

“Our focus in future will be directed more strongly at making electrically powered automobiles alongside ones driven by more efficient combustion engines. Drivetrain electrification is the way forward if we wish to secure mobility in tomorrows world. This will involve energy recovery. The whole idea will be to no avail, however, as long as we do not have powerful energy storage systems at our disposal and as long as vehicle operations are not in tune with customer demands. This cooperation is an important step for us,” says Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn.

Volkswagen hopes to have their first production lithium-ion powered vehicle out in 2 years time.

The 3 units of Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 race cars that participated in the recent Nurburgring 24 hours race managed to clinch the 11th, 15th, and 32nd place, not too bad for a vehicle that was developed, built and tested in two and a half months.

In the 2.0 liter turbocharged engine class, the three cars also claimed the first, second and fifth position, with the leading team comprised of Hans-Joachim Stuck, Jimmy Johansson, Florian Gruber and Thomas Mutsch. The second place car was piloted by Carlos Sainz, Giniel de Villiers, Dieter Depping, and Hans-Joachim Stock again.

Under the hood is a 325 PS version of the Volkswagen Group’s 2.0 liter TFSI engine, mated to a 6-speed DSG gearbox.

Volkswagen has unveiled a “road-going” concept version of the race-prepared Volkswagen Scirocco entering in the Nurburging 24-hour race this weekend. The concept Scirocco is called the Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 Concept, and is powered by a 300 horsepower version of Volkswagen’s 2.0 liter TFSI engine.

All 300 horses are sent to the Scirocco GT24’s front wheels via a 6-speed twin clutch gearbox with uprated clutches, revised gear ratios, and a lightened flywheel. The GT24 also has an LSD differential lock. Overall weight has dropped to 1120kg, down 178kg from the production Scirocco.

The new Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 is 227mm longer and 61mm wider than the standard road-going Scirocco. Ride height is also 75mm lower thanks to lowered adjustable race dampers. Brakes are large 362mm discs with 6-piston calipers, peeking out from behind large 18 inch lightweight racing wheels.

On the interior, the driver and front passenger sits snug in lightweight Recaro bucket seats equipped with five-point racing harnesses. The interior also has a rollcage, a unique flat-bottomed steering wheel, an electronic display, and a fire extinguisher. Looks like despite this being a “road-going” version, its still pretty much ready for the track.

Two more images after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 Concept

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Volkswagen will enter a factory-developed racing version of the new Volkswagen Scirocco in the upcoming Nürburgring 24 Hours race to be held from May 24 to 25 2008. The racing-tuned Volkswagen Scirocco will feature the 2.0 liter TFSI engine tuned up to produce 300 PS, and will be mated to a direct-shift transmission based on DSG.

“The racing version of the Scirocco was developed and prepared by our technical staff in record time and we are well on schedule now that we have successfully completed this first endurance test (at the Oschersleben motorsport arena). The Nürburgring 24 Hours is the ideal platform to showcase the performance capabilities of this exciting coupe,” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen.

The Nurburgring 24 Hours is officially called the ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring, introduced by ADAC as a low cost alternative to the 1000 km Nürburgring aimed mainly towards amateur drivers and relatively cheap production cars.

One more shot after the jump.

Related Posts:
VIDEO: Volkswagen Scirocco Design Interview
Volkswagen Scirocco Full Details Unveiled

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Scirocco to enter Nürburgring 24 Hours

Volkswagen’s Head of Exterior Design Mark Lichte shares with us the design process in coming up with the new Volkswagen Scirocco coupe (more like a lower and wider 3-door hatch), which was first introduced to us as the Volkswagen iroc Concept.

Lichte described the task as “to design the sportiest Volkswagen ever made”, and that could be true as while cars like the Golf GTI and Golf R32 are scorchers in their own right, they look like normal hatchbacks with an aggressive kit slapped on.

Watch the two-part interview videos after the jump, as well as a few more videos on the Volkswagen Scirocco.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: Volkswagen Scirocco Design Interview

The Volkswagen Lavida is a Chinese market sedan developed entirely by Shanghai Volkswagen outside of Germany. The interior and exterior does not look very much Volkswagen at all, but the good news is you will find modern Volkswagen engines and 6-speed automatic gearboxes under its hood.

The Lavida measures 4,608mm long, 1,743mm wide, and 1,465mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,610mm. It’s sedan boot stores 472 liters. This makes it longer, sider and taller than the Volkswagen Jetta, but smaller than the Volkswagen Passat. It’s wheelbase is also longer than the Jetta’s 2,578mm.

Continue reading after the jump for more photos including one of the Volkswagne Lavida’s interior.

Related Older Posts:
Volkswagen Lavida for the Chinese domestic market

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Lavida - more details and photos

The car above is the Volkswagen Lavida, a Chinese domestic market model that has been developed and set to be sold only in the China market as it was developed for domestic tastes. I’m not sure how the name was chosen, but it could be taken from the Spanish phrase La Vida which means “the life”, as Ricky Martin has propagated.

It is built on the Volkswagen PQ34 platform with an increased wheelbase of 2,610mm, the base platform for the Mk4 Volkswagen Golf and Mk1 Skoda Octavia. This puts it in the region of a C-segment sedan in terms of wheelbase, with the Lavida having a wheelbase 10mm longer than the current Toyota Corolla Altis. Under the hood is a choice of engines from 1.6 liters to 2.0 liters.

You will find that various press around the internet has called the car an A-segment sedan, but Chinese model size segmentation is different from the rest of the world, with even the big Volkswagen Passat classified as a B+ sedan.

Other dimensions include a length of 4608mm, a width of 1743mm and a height of 1465mm. The car weighs 1245kg for the 1.6 liter and 1323kg for the 2.0 liter.