Here’s what Volkswagen’s Golf GTI Clubsport 24h racer feels like to drive

Last weekend, Volkswagen officially unveiled the new Golf GTI Clubsport, which features… very few changes, actually. But behind the scenes, a one-off version was being worked on night and day for the last four and a half weeks to create a bare-knuckle, 343bhp racer.

The aim? To act as a test bed for future racing Golfs at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. But what VW couldn’t have predicted was just how well the car was going to do in the face of an apparent baptism of fire.

Though the race was cut short after just over seven hours due to a thick blanket of fog, the Golf (ran here by Max Kruse Racing) finished 43rd overall with 44 laps completed at an average of just under 30mph. This also meant it won its ‘AT3’ alternative fuel class, which also consisted of BMW M4, Porsche 718 Cayman and Toyota Supra GT4 cars.

But while its turbocharged 2.0-litre four-pot may not be the meatiest in its group, where the Golf makes strides is with its level of mechanical grip. It weighs just 1,170kg, and runs a highly modified suspension set-up to help it make marginal gains in each corner over its more high-powered rivals.

So to find out just what this hotter-than-hot Golf feels like to drive, we spent some time talking to Nicholas Otto – one of four Max Kruse Racing drivers who competed with it during the N24.

“Out of the box, there’s been no big set-up work and no big tests conducted. The car came here with about 50 kilometres on the odometer just over a month ago. We did some engine and gearbox applications at the official test facility, and took the car to Bilstein to develop the dampers for us before we made a few tow and camber adjustments ourselves.

“When we finally got in and started testing the car a few days ago, we did a low-fuel run and found that we were several seconds quicker than some of our competitors. So for a car that’s not even completely finished yet, this makes us want to work on it even more.”

Otto himself is no stranger to the ‘Ring or to racing, having been a regular at the Green Hell pretty much since he entered the world. But most of his experience comes with rear-wheel drive cars, having competed in Formula Renault and the M235i cup, so the front-wheel drive Golf is a pretty big change for him. And in a ‘VW driver likes VW race car shocker!’, he rather enjoyed it.

“My first lap just a few days ago left me pretty amazed. You can really smash it around the corners and carry so much speed. The car rotates perfectly; one small turn-in leads to a perfect angle through corners. There’s minimal wheel spin even at full throttle, so you can really send it.”

Otto even mentioned to us that he had no issues keeping up with the bigger GT3 cars during practice sessions.

“It’s all down to the grip. The level is so high and you can really work around it thanks to the mechanical differential. We’re also running a fairly high preload on it to give us good traction.

“I have had very little time to learn the car, but it gives so much feedback and you’ve got so much trust in it that it has actually been quite easy to learn.”

Perhaps next year we’ll get one based on the range-topping ‘R’… and also a full 24-hour race.