► Clubsport S laps Nurburgring in 7m49.2sec
► 2sec quicker than original record set in May
► All Golf GTI Clubsport models now sold out
Back in May 2016, Volkswagen’s two-seat Golf GTI Clubsport S became the fastest front-wheel-drive production car around the Nurburgring circuit’s industry benchmark north Nordschleife loop. VW has since returned to try the lap again in more optimum cool weather conditions, and has trimmed a further 2.02sec from its own record.
Driven by Benny Leuchter, the same VW development driver and racing driver who set the car’s original record time, it recorded a laptime of 7min 47.19sec.
The car’s original time set in May 2016 was 7min 49.21sec, fast enough to take the front-drive record away from Honda’s Civic Type R.
You can watch the lap in full above – it’s a seriously committed bit of driving, using every inch of the circuit's kerbs and beyond.
Volkswagen says the only difference between the car used on the record run and the production model was a rollcage fitted for safety.
You can read CAR’s review of the two-seat, 306bhp Golf Clubsport S here.
The Clubsport S is limited to a production run of 400 cars, 150 of which allocated for the UK, making it the car’s single biggest market. All are sold out.
Clubsport Edition 40 now sold out too
The Clubsport S is a lightened, more powerful, and more aggressively set-up version of the Golf GTI Clubsport Edition 40, itself limited to 1000 cars in the UK. Volkswagen has announced that car (pictured below) is now sold out too.
Compared with the regular GTI, the Clubsport gets a boxy bodykit to reduce aerodynamic lift and a maximum power output of 286bhp as part of an inbuilt ‘overboost’ function.
Watch CAR put every current fast Golf, from GTE and GTD to Clubsport and Clubsport S, against the stopwatch at Anglesey circuit in our video special here.
