Instead of making yet another pointless concept car celebrating Golf GTI’s 35th anniversary, Volkswagen prepared the Golf 24 which is an actual racing version of the hot hatch for competing in this year’s Nurburgring 24-hour race.

this is the best way possible to pay tribute to a legendary performance machine. The Golf 24 is powered by the same 2.5 liter 5-cylinder turbo engine that runs half of VW group’s cars, tweaked specially for this touring car to generate 440 hp and 540 Nm of torque. The power is transferred to all four wheel via a semi-automatic sequential 6-speed gearbox with paddle shifters.

The car is currently undertaking different test sessions and there’s still some work to do before it’s fully prepared for the big event.

“With the new Golf24 we are continuing our successful commitment at the Nürburgring 24-hour race. The event enjoys huge popularity, is one of the true classics in motorsport and, due to its extreme distance and unique race track, also represents a very big technical challenge,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. “With our spectacular Golf we want to provide an additional highlight in front of a large audience – right in time for the 35th anniversary of the GTI.”