Volkswagen Design Vision GTI Concept

VW Design Vision GTI Concept 2013 FrontHasn’t it always been your dream to leave a 911 Porsche in the dust while riding the hottest and one of the first hatches ever created, the Golf GTI? Introducing the Design Vision GTI Concept, the 503hp and 413 lb-ft of torque Golf GTI, the supercar killer. The three-door monster was developed to wow the crowds of the Wörthersee tuning festival in Austria last spring and has now been revealed at the 2013 LA MotorShow. With this one of a kind edition, Volkswagen is giving us a spectacular glance into the future of the GTI and showing us the flexibility and performance potential of the “MQB” chassis it shares with the stock MK7. All of these ponies were able to fit into the hatch by adding 2 cylinders and a turbo. In fact the Design Vision incorporates a twin-turbocharged VR6 TSI engine combined with a DSG dual-clutch gearbox driving all four wheels. In other words the ingredients for a bonkers version of the all mighty GTI that burns the 0-100km/h in just 3.9 sec.

VW Design Vision GTI Concept 2013 BackAnd isn’t it just a beauty sitting on those 20 inch wheels?! Ok the plastic body might be a bit too wide and the interior too rough, but hey it is still a concept and it needs to incorporate and be able to handle those 500 horses. I really hope that VW is able to produce a more subtle, but as crazy version, of this Design Vision concept. Watch the video attached to take a glance at the burps and other amazing sounds emitted by that amazing engine.

Volkswagen Golf 7 R

Volkswagen-Golf_R_2014Being a fan of hot hatches, I have been looking forward to that little one for quite some time now. The R is back with some pretty impressive figures. Starting with the engine obviously. The all-wheel drive Golf now has 296hp, compared to the 267hp of the Golf 6 R. The 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine sends all of its 300 ponies to the all-wheel drive system (With a clever XDS+ electronic diff lock on both axles) through a six-speed DSG allowing it to burn the 0-100km/h in just 4.9sec. That is M135i performance! Even though, the R is still far behind the performance of the A45 AMG and its 360hp. (Check the full review of the A45AMG by clicking here). Other than that, for the first time since the Mk5 Golf, the ESC has a Race setting, which allows you to turn the stability control completely off. There’s a new ‘progressive steering’, which is more responsive and an optional Dynamic Chassis Control to switch between Comfort, Normal and Sport modes.

Volkswagen-Golf_R_2014 RearThe new R is 5 mm lower than the new MK7 GTI and sits on 18 inch alloy wheels which look pretty beast in the EVO Frankfurt review here attached (You are welcome EVO). The pair of centrally mounted exhausts has been dumbed for a twin-oval chrome-tipped versions at each side of the car remind us of Audi’s S models. Hope that change won’t affect the exhaust note negatively. The Tail lights are smoked, like on every R model. All in all, even though looking at the first snapshots, I didn’t really like the new MK7 design, seeing the car in live made me change my mind. It is a great update over the MK6. The rear tail lights look really good specially at night. The interior is neat, clear and tidy as usual. With the price of the MK7 GTI at around 50,000$ in Lebanon, the R is expected to be launched with a starting price at around 65,000$ which is quite expensive for a hatch. But when you consider that an A250 with its front wheel drive, 210hp engine costs approximately the same price, the R suddenly becomes a bargain! Just wish I could put my hands on one of these ASAP and be the “lucky one” like in the new commercial attached below.

Breakfast in Douma with UPsolute Lebanon

UPsolute hot hatch gatheringOn Sunday September the 1st, TheAdsGarage met up with the UPsolute team for a roadtrip to Douma. The meeting point was the UPsolute Lebanon headquarters located just before the Volkswagen showroom on the Dawra highway. Around 30 hot hatches were reunited there, at 7am, ready to hit the streets. After some gathering pictures, we went straight to Batroun and then climbed to Douma. The road was just perfect, a great way to test our UPsoluted cars. Reaching Douma we met up with a couple of bikers who showed us what they can do. We then had breakfast and went back home. You can check all the pictures of the event by clicking here. Stay tuned the video of the event will be up very soon 🙂

Three BikesThe trip was UPsolutely great! I had a blast. The UPsolute Lebanon Team is doing a great job in order to try and unify all their UPsoluted transformed cars allowing them to share the knowledge and the experience they have with their cars. The good thing about UPsolute (Tuning company from Austria) is that they work on a custom map for each car and not a single map for each car model like REVO or APR (Tuning companies from US). This results in a map that is safer and more adapted to your car. UPsolute Lebanon has worked on around 200+ satisfied cars ranging from Stage1 to Stage 4, mostly VW GTI, R32 and GolfR. I advise everyone of you GTI owners to upgrade your cars, at least to stage 1, it gives around 40hp just by the click of a button. The car becomes sportier and more responsive while keeping fuel economy not very different from stock. Feel free to check the UPsolute Lebanon Facebook page for more details. Thank you very much for the invite guys! See you soon and keep up the good work!

Volkswagen commercial: “Crash”

The new 2012 Passat features a 2.5L in-line 5 cylinder engine which delivers 170hp. Personally  I prefer the 2009 version of the Passat I think its prettier. The CC has a very nice look. I am not a big fan of the new face lift of this new model.

I already mentioned the 2012 Passat when it was first introduced with the “The Force” commercial featuring Darth Vader. Contrary to the Darth Vader superbowl ad, I find that this commercial is trying to prove something, that this car is safe. The Passat presents most of its safety features as standards. Which is nothing special when we are talking about VW. I like the simple and original was in which the “safety” aspect of the car is presented.

Volkswagen Commercial: “The Force”

This famous VW commercial featuring Darth Vader was aired during the 2011 Superbowl. It was a real success cumulating almost 52 million views as of today. Even though I like the ad, I find that there is no insight behind it. VW were just showing us there new Passat through this ad, they weren’t trying to prove any point nor show us a particular advantage that this new 2012 Passat has over its competitors or its previous model.