Golf GTI Edition 50 rounded the Nurburgring in 7 minutes and 46.13 seconds, a record for a VW, but not an outright Ring record
8 hours ago
- Volkswagen is celebrating the Golf GTI’s half century with the GTI Edition 50.
- The GTI lapped the Nurburgring faster than a 328 hp AWD R 20 Years Edition.
- Still, Honda’s rival Civic Type R has posted a 1.25-second faster lap than the Golf.
This year Volkswagen marks 50 years of the Golf GTI, and it’s doing it with the fastest production VW to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife. The new Golf GTI Edition 50 will be officially revealed on June 20 at the Nurburgring 24 Hours race, but today we got word that the hot hatch had recorded a time of 7:46.13, an incredible feat for a front-wheel drive car.
Not incredible enough for VW to claim the outright FWD Ring record, though. Honda’s outrageously rapid Civic Type R logged a 7:44.481 lap in 2023 – albeit with a lightweight kit not available in the UK or US – and thanks to that 1.25 second advantage remains the record holder. The Wolfsburg crew must be looking forward to Honda pulling the Civic from Europe in 2026.
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But even if the Edition 50 concedes a bit to the Type R, it still outpaces previous hot Golfs by a significant margin. It’s much faster than both the old Clubsport S — once the FWD record holder — and the AWD Golf R 20 Years, which posted times of 07:49:21 and 07:47:31, respectively.
Keep in mind, those times were recorded using the older timekeeping format, which excluded 200 meters (656 feet) of the start-finish straight. The Edition 50’s time, however, was logged on the full 12.9-mile (20.8 km) circuit configuration.
VW is saving details of the Edition 50’s full technical spec until the June 20 reveal, but did confirm the Ring car was equipped with the optional Performance Package. This includes a special chassis tune, lightweight 19-inch forged wheels and semi-slick Bridgestone Potenza tires that were specially developed for the car. A dual-clutch transmission will be mandatory, as on all GTIs.
“Three years ago, I wouldn’t have thought that I could ever beat the lap time of the outstanding Golf R with a front-wheel drive Golf GTI as clearly as I have now,” said Benny Leuchter, who was behind the wheel and was also on driver duties for the previous Clubsport S and R 20 Years runs.
“The fact that this has now happened – in quite bad weather, by the way – actually says everything about the successful setup and extraordinary potential of this GTI.”
The GTI Edition 50 goes on sale later this year as a MY26 Golf to coincide with the anniversary of the original GTI’s world debut at the 1975 Frankfurt Motor Show. That 1.6-liter Mk1 made 109 hp (110 PS), not much more than a third of what we’re expecting the Edition 50’s turbocharged turbocharged 2.0-liter to generate.
