Volkswagen is celebrating half a century of the Golf GTI in 2026, and part of that celebration will be the release of the GTI Edition 50.
The new Golf GTI Edition 50 is the most powerful production GTI ever made and will officially be presented on 20th June 2025 at the Nürburgring 24-hour race.
Despite not being officially presented to the world yet, Edition 50 has already made quite an impact as racing driver and long-time VW development partner Benny Leuchter recently lapped the Nordschleife in just over 7 minutes 46 seconds. This is the fastest time ever recorded by a road-legal Volkswagen.
“The new Golf GTI EDITION 50 is a statement with which Volkswagen expresses the pure GTI idea – the combination of superior drive power and highly precise chassis with front-wheel drive – more effectively than ever before. It’s truly impressive how easily this Volkswagen can be moved so quickly over the Nordschleife track. In technical terms the car was the same as the version that will be sold in the future.”
Benny Leuchter, race driver
The Golf GTI Edition 50 will be optionally available with a Performance package, which includes a performance chassis and lightweight 19-inch semi-slick Potenza Race tyres from Bridgestone, which have been specially developed for the car. The tyres are mounted on ultra-lightweight forged wheels, which reduces the unsprung and rotating masses.
Nearly a decade ago, Benny set a time of 7 minutes 49 seconds on the Nordschleife in a GTI Clubsport S, and in 2022, he went even quicker in the all-wheel-drive Golf R 20 Years at 7 minutes 47 seconds. This latest lap not only beats both, but it did so in bad weather.
Until its full release, the Golf GTI Edition 50 will be listed as a pre-series model in Nürburgring’s records. But even in prototype form, it’s already proven itself to be one of the most agile front-wheel-drive cars to ever tackle the Green Hell.
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