Rapid Golf GTI smashes Nürburgring record

• Golf GTI Edition 50 sets new VW record
• Most powerful production GTI to date
• Fastest Volkswagen around the Nürburgring
• Time of 07:46:13 mins - beating the Golf R
• Goes on sale in 2026

That’s what you call making an entrance - the incoming Golf GTI Edition 50 has just set a new lap record for the fastest Volkswagen ever to lap the Nürburgring.

The VW GTI Edition hasn’t actually gone on sale yet, but when it arrives in 2026 (to mark the car’s 50th anniversary) it’ll be the most powerful production GTI to date.

With 325 PS and 420 Nm torque, the Golf GTI Edition 50 is more potent than the 300 PS Golf GTI Clubsport and also sits 15 mm lower than your common-or-garden Golf GTI. 

And judging by its exploits at Germany’s infamous race circuit - aka the ‘Green Hell’ - there’s a LOT to be excited about.

Rewind the clock back to 2022, and the fastest VW to lap the Nordschleife (aka, the North Loop of the Nürburgring) was the all-wheel drive, 333 PS Golf R, which posted a time of 07:47:31 mins with racing driver Benny Leuchter behind the wheel.

The Golf GTI Edition 50 has just done it in 07:46:13 mins, with Leuchter once again in the hot seat.

That’s impressive enough as it is for the front-wheel drive GTI Edition 50, but things get almost hilariously better.

When the Golf R set its record, it did so with the start and finish for the measurements at the beginning and end of a big grandstand known as ‘T13’.

Long story short, it meant that a 200m section of track wasn’t actually counted.

VW reckons that a comparable lap time for the GTI Edition 50 (with the 200m bit removed) is actually more like 07:41:27 - a good SIX SECONDS quicker than the Golf R.

Oh, and it was chucking it down as well!

Leuchter himself says: “Three years ago, I wouldn’t have thought that I could ever beat the lap time of the outstanding Golf R with a front-wheel drive Golf GTI as clearly as I have now. The fact that this has now happened – in quite bad weather, by the way – actually says everything about the successful set-up and extraordinary potential of this GTI.”

So, how in the green hell is all of this possible?

VW says the GTI 50 Edition will be both lightweight and absolutely razor sharp in the way it handles. Leuchter has also been helping to tune the chassis.

When the 50 Edition does make it to the market, it’ll be available with a ‘Performance’ package that brings you a performance chassis, lightweight 19-inch alloys, and semi-slick Potenza Race tyres from Bridgestone.

The record-setting Golf was equipped with that kit - and Leucter reckons it was a ‘decisive factor’ in the 50 Edition going like such a scalded cat.

He adds: “The entire set-up of the Golf GTI Edition 50 means you can drive the ideal line of the Nordschleife with high precision. The aplomb with which it masters the peculiarities of the legendary Nordschleife is cool: the GTI is instantly stable over the entire 20.8 kilometres."

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