Frankfurt 2011: Volkswagen GT up!

The new Volkswagen up! is a city-based runabout designed to be cheap and easy to run. But if you want a bit more go with your urban iCar then Volkswagen has given us the racy the GT up!

Volkswagen says it’s been inspired by the GTI. It has a restyled exterior and a “dynamic” anthracite coloured interior.

With a projected peak power figure of 100PS and a kerbweight of 900kg it’s pretty close to the spec of the original Mk1 GTI too.

New Small Family – World Premieres

• up!date to the New Small Family: World premieres of 6 concept cars – all related to the up!
• buggy up! and up! azzurra: specially designed for the world’s beaches
• cross up!, GT up!, eco up! and e-up! show potential of the new car series

Wolfsburg / Frankfurt, 13 September 2011 – The world premiere of the new up! at the 64th International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt does not just involve the debut of one model. Rather, the world premiere of the two-door up! signifies the beginning of an entire series of cars: the New Small Family. At the IAA, Volkswagen is demonstrating – with no less than 6 exciting concept cars – how this family could be further developed based on the new up!. Specially designed for the world’s beaches are the buggy up! and the up! azzurra sailing team. Then there is the cross up!, which was conceptualised for urban driving. The GT up! is a concept car tuned for the German Autobahn. Another concept car is the eco up! that is powered by natural gas and extremely clean to drive: The e-up! is a zero-emissions specialist with an electric drive. And it all starts now!

GT up! – the up! for the fast roads

Agility. Volkswagen will offer the new up! with engines whose power only ranges up to 55 kW / 75 PS. That makes sense, because the up! is primarily driven in the urban world. However, the car design could handle much more power. And that too can be desirable. Showing how such a more powerful up! might appear is the highly dynamic GT up!. Conceivably, its engine could have a power of 100 PS. Such an engine would offer drivers of the barely 900 kg GT up! more affordable driving fun than hardly any other vehicle. This would be very much in the style of the ancestor of the sporty small car – the first generation GTI. When an I is added for injection, its identifier refers to the Volkswagen icon. And the GT up! is performing on the same playing field.

Dominating. The concept car is painted in the sporty colour “oryx white pearl effect”. Designers completely redesigned the front bumper. It deviates completely from the typical up! design: instead of the centrally integrated and painted cross-wise component, which is in metal colour on the cross up!, the GT up! features a large, central cooling air intake with a grille in honeycomb look – similar to the one used on the Golf GTI, for example. Outside there are two cooling air intakes for the brakes; integrated in these openings are the wing-shaped LED daytime running lights. Prominent on its sides are the painted side sills, black door mirrors and 17-inch alloy wheels with 195 tyres. A roof edge spoiler generates tremendous downforce at the rear axle, and powerful sound is generated by a double flow exhaust system with two visible chrome tailpipes, one on the left and one on the right.

Ergonomics. Inside, the GT up! also projects a dynamic image with its anthracite coloured interior. Offering a contrast to the anthracite are the centre seat panels with their blue checked pattern and the “paint blue” rings around the air vent nozzles. Painted in a sophisticated glossy black are the dashboard and upper door trim panels. The black roofliner is coordinated with them.