Volkswagen Golf GTI Heartbeat Concept Shown

The Volkswagen Golf GTI Heartbeat Concept has been shown in Wörthersee, Austria in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Golf GTI.

The iconic Golf GTI celebrates its 40th birthday this year and the annual Wörthersee GTI meeting has spawned a rather attractive Golf GTI concept that was created by 12 trainees as part of Volkswagen Vocational Training. The trainees, consisting of five women and seven men, put their heads together to create this one-of-a-kind Golf GTI Heartbeat project vehicle, which is the ninth project vehicle to be presented by apprentices since 2008. The Golf GTI Heartbeat concept is based on a standard Golf GTI Performance and took about nine months to create.

"During the creation of their dream GTI, our apprentices learn about the complexity of automobile production. We select especially talented young people and give them an opportunity at an early stage to learn from experienced colleagues from the entire company – for example from the design departments, the MultiMedia Center, the pilot hall and the paint shop" said Peter Christ, Head of Automotive Technology Training in Wolfsburg.

Banging Sound & Styling

The Volkswagen Golf GTI Heartbeat Concept celebrates 40 years of the Golf GTI with a high-end sound system.

This Golf GTI Heartbeat concept is painted in reflex silver metallic while the roof and front-end is covered in dark grey foil. A honeycomb-and-heartbeat design in tornado red gives the car a sporty look, as do the wide 20-inch BBS aluminium rims.

The cabin is fitted with two folding bucket seats taken from the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S and they feature a "40" emblem embroidered in crystal grey on the headrest. The back rests feature honeycomb perforations on a red background, which is also seen on the door insets and heartbeat symbols are found on the strips above the door trims and on the strip below the glove box.

Furthermore, there are no rear seats or boot and the space has rather been used to accommodate the powerful 1 360 watt sound system with seven speakers, which also incorporates a special HIFI system complete with LED lighting and engraved glass covers.