VW Up! GTI debuts for cheap fun

Hot hatches are a magical blend of useable performance and practicality. Their popularity has led manufacturers to come up with hot variants of their different hatchbacks. VW, for instance, had several hot variants of their Polo and larger Golf hatchbacks. And now, they’ve slotted a new hot version under them and this time, it’s their puny little Up! hatchback that gets the treatment.

Called the VW Up! GTI, it is powered by a tiny 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine with a turbo strapped on it. It produces 113 hp and 200 Nm which may not sound a lot on paper but considering the tiny size of the Up! and its excellent dynamics, it should be adequate. The 0-100 kph time is a respectable 8.8 seconds and it can reach a top speed of 197 kph.

The exterior of the Up! GTI flaunts unique traits like the red-cross stripe in the honeycomb grill, gloss black finishes on the door mirror and the black body stripes that connect both the wheel arches. The roof and the boot lid are blacked out as well.

The new 17-inch alloys fill in the wheel arches really well. The Up! GTI is lowered by 0.6 inches and this, along with the spoiler at the back, aids downforce.

The cabin of the Up! GTI gets signature updates in the form of a leather steering wheel, GTI gear knob and unique seat materials.

As the hot Up! is a car tailored for having fun on tight European B-roads, it is not likely to appear in VW’s Middle East portfolio.