Extra-hot Golf teased

VW’s gloomy profile teaser image is all we have to go on, that and the NFT moniker. No surprise, it has sparked the metaverse into a frenzy of speculation as to what VW might have up its sleeve.

A quick trawl through online comments boxes throws up suggestions from every variation on Clubsport, S, R and Performance Pack themes to pleas for a return of the Golf convertible, the Beetle and – most pertinent of all – a Mk8 GTI dashboard with knobs and buttons again.

The five-pot Audi engine is suggested as a goer to make a super R, while someone says it’s time for a return of the Golf VR6 (the creamy smooth narrow-angle six-pot that was just fab in Golf and Corrados in the 1990s, and which apparently is still in production).

Who knows? Apart from being, as VW says, “notably fast”, we suspect that it will mark some sort of last hurrah for the petrol GTI – pretty soon all hot VWs will be electric models. A Final Edition follow-up to last year’s 45 anniversary model could be likely.

But what will it be based on? If it’s going to have more than the current top power rating of 320PS (235kW) it will likely have four-wheel-drive, so a limited-edition Golf R Final Edition with everything thrown at it including more performance than any hot Golf has ever had before might be in with a shout. Don’t take our word for it though!