The seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf is destined to hit the marketplace later this year and it’s now believed that the new GTI model will make 260 horsepower.
The German automaker is also claiming that the new GTI will deliver “more agile steering behavior” thanks to a new VAQ electronically-controlled front differential. Apparently a VAQ-equipped Golf has already done a lap at the famed Nürburgring eight seconds faster than prototypes with a standard differential.
If the horsepower rating is correct, GTI enthusiasts and virgins alike will have quite a time racing around in the new model. The current 2012 model only makes 200 horsepower, meaning the refreshed version will have 30 percent more power than its predecessor.
The GTI won’t be the only variant that the new Golf will come in, a plug-in hybrid with 246 horsepower capable of more than 50 mpg is also destined to hit the marketplace along with an electric model, and a natural gas model.
Those looking at the standard Golf models will have plenty of engine choices including a 1.8L and 2.0L standard gasoline engine, a 2.0L diesel with 181-hp and 280 lb-ft of torque, a twin-turbo GTD with 220-hp, and a 1.4L turbo gasoline engine with 138-hp.
GALLERY: 2013 VW Golf MK7 Spy Photos
[Source: Autocar]