By Jeff Glucker
“228… 229… 230… 231… 232!”
The numbers moved slowly but they kept coming. I couldn’t tell though because my eyes were focused on the road ahead. It was marked with the occasional imposing truck, dented Skoda Octavia, or unwavering bridge support. My driving partner had his eye on our speedometer, however, because I had my foot flat down on the throttle pedal of the all-new 2014 Volkswagen GTD. Those numbers he was calling out were the kilometers per hour as we were exploring the speed limits of this little oil burner. The team at Volkswagen had told us earlier that the car had a max speed of 143 miles per hour, or 231 kilometers per hour.
We just hit 144 miles per hour… time to ease off that throttle a bit.
Volkswagen brought me here to show off its Not-For-US-Consumption GTD, and I drove it from Berlin to Wolfsburg. In that time, I drove it over twisting canyon roads, blasted across the Autobahn, and rambled through beautiful German villages. This car needs to come Stateside, and it needs to do so quickly. It’s everything an enthusiast could want in a daily-driver; it drives like a GTI, has a fantastic interior, and should get around 40 miles per gallon on the highway. It’s not here yet… but don’t fret because it should be here soon.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haDOt3cczTo[/youtube]
[Disclaimer: Volkswagen put me on a 747 and flew me to Germany. I ate a Pork knuckle from what may have been the largest pig to roam the Earth and had beer at a traditional brauhaus. It was my first time in Europe, and it was wunderbar.]
Lead image courtesy of Volkswagen. Speedo image courtesy of Jared Gall from Car and Driver (who stalled the GTD… watch the video all the way to the end, sorry Jared)
Kamil Kaluski 
William Byrd
A free trip to Germany, courtesy of VW? Sweet.
Hey man… it was "work"
Those German bier steins are big, heavy and aren't going to drink themselves.
"Volkswagen brought me here to show off its Not-For-US-Consumption GTD"
I thought I read somewhere that the GTD is coming to NA 1 year after the rest of the lineup.
Anyway, is this the perfect hot hatch? Fun in the twisties and frugal in the highway. Can't wait to test drive when it gets here (if it does).
I think it's coming for 2015… Yes, it's a wonderfully blend of fun and frugal.
I'll reserve judgement until I see that it revs like a petrol, sounds like a petrol and feels like a petrol. But for those people for whom none of the above matter, these things will sell like fricken hotcakes.
0-60 in less than seven seconds and a 140+ top speed… it's pretty damn sweet.
Yeah, not much not to like, I'll grant you that.
It's just that every time I get into a gas powered car of almost any description after driving endless diesels it just feels like, well, being free.
Plus the hand held plug n play tuner people will probably be all over it when it finally gets here.
Could you imagine a Banks-tuned GTD?!
Meh @ Banks. (Also, meh @ the gasser VW tuners, when it comes to TDI tuning.)
We've got our own tuners in the North American TDI community. (Some of them have partnerships with European tuners, too, though.)
I've got RocketChip Stage 3 on my 99.5 Golf TDI. From 90 hp and 155 ft-lbs torque, to somewhere around 140 hp and 250 ft-lbs, with just upgraded fuel injection hardware and a better clutch and flywheel. Mind you, RC tunes tend to be all about bottom-end, and there's other tunes (Malone comes to mind) that focus more on smooth power.
Will these run about $27k base?
The GTD is on the very short list of cars I'd buy new. This and a diesel jeep pickup.
My prediction: VW will price it too high, they won't import enough, and it won't be sufficiently indistinguishable from the gas version. Quite likely no manuals. Rinse and repeat.
I think they learned their lesson with the Mk8 Golf R though, I'd expect manual and DSG offerings here. The DSG (of which I'm generally not a huge fan) works wonderfully with the diesel motor, and the manual is better than VW manuals of the past few years.
I agree the price will be a bit steep though…
I may have to nurse my old s-70 along for another year as I would have one of these over a cruize diesel.
A couple weeks ago, there was a Sprinter parked in my neighbourhood with a city filming permit, something to the effect of VW Canada – GTD Commercial. I'm not taking that as an absolute sign we're getting it, but just sayin'…
Granted, not likely I'd shell out the premium for the GTD over the GTI (considering the difference in fuel costs between a GTI and my decade-old econoshitpile are negligible, I don't feel the need to upgrade to diesel character), but I appreciate that they're doing it. It sort of makes sense, sort of.
This is tailored to fit European Corporate fleets which are mostly diesel only . I can get this one as a corporate car, but not the Gti – so I for one am glad they built it – it even gets a sound thingy in the exhaust to generate non diesel sound in the interior.
Corporate fleet sport version? Sorry, that makes no sense.
I, for One,ordernd One just like one in the picture above, as my new corporate car – in germany we often get the requirement 4 door and diesel engine. The gtd fits and is a hell of a lot more fun to drive as an Audi a4 or an underpowered a6 in the same budget range, at least to me it is 😉
Consider my words eaten, you do things so much better over there it seems.
Where is the Jetta GLD?
Testarossa strakes look good everywhere you put 'em.