Golf GTI ‘Pirelli’ Edition – Coming Soon To Oz

Winner of Drive.com's Best Performance Car under $60k, the VW Golf GTI receives a special edition tweak and facelift coming soon to Australia. Announced this week by VW Australia through a collaboration with tyre manufacture Pirelli, the car's tag-line is 'Power is nothing without control'.

Performance for the Pirelli edition GTI has been given a boost. The standard Golf GTI's 2.0 litre Turbo FSI engine receiving a tweaking from 147kw to 169kW of power at 5500-6300rpm. Torque ia also up from 280kw to 300Nm at 2200-5200rpm.

The improvements in power coupled with the six-speed dual clutch (DSG) direct shift gearbox improves the 0-100km/h time from the standard Golf GTI's time of 6.9 seconds to 6.6 seconds.

Pirelli steps in with 18x7.5" Pirelli alloy wheels shod with Pirelli 'P Zero' tyres - well known in performance car circles as one of the best road tyres on the market. The Golf GTI  Pirelli will be available in either three or five door versions.

Exterior visual changes include an extended front spoiler, widened sill panels, a rear roof spoiler and revised rear skirt design. At the rear, dual chrome exhausts and darkened rear tail lights finalise the minor exterior changes.

For the interior, seats get a special 'Vienna' leather treatment with yellow stitching (matching the steering wheel) and Pirelli tyre-tread embossing on the seat centres and Pirelli logo-embossed headrests. The three-spoke leather sports steering wheel has a GTI 'stamped' aluminium insert, similar to the R32.

Although the official pricing has not yet been released, expect the price to slot in somewhere between the Golf GTI DSG-equipped price of $42,290 and the base Golf R32 price of $54,990.