Have a quick look around the new Volkswagen Up GTI

The lightest and smallest VW to bear the GTI badge

Volkswagen injected some oomph and masculinity into the Up city car by creating the Up GTI. Still not available for test drives yet, this smallest GTI has been given the static preview treatment by Top Gear and at least at a standstill it’s looking like a rather tasty little warm hatch.

As a refresher, the Up GTI packs a three-pot turbo which with one liter of displacement puts out 115 PS and 230 Nm / 170 lb-ft.

However, this spruced up Up can’t be a spiritual successor to the original Golf GTI since it’s nearly 200 kg heavier with about the same power. Even with the weight penalty over the classic, the Up still manages to beat it, posting a respectable benchmark sprint time to 100 km/h in 8.8 seconds and its top speed is 197 km/h / 122 mph – also faster than the old hatch.

We hope to get a chance to drive this new Up GTI to tell you what it’s actually like to drive on road and track.

Check out our Volkswagen road tests