This VW Golf GTE HyRACER Concept Was Supposed To Debut At The Wörthersee GTI Meet

The 39th Wörthersee GTI meeting was supposed to take place in May 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic led to its cancellation.

Obviously, Volkswagen had several custom projects in store for the event and today we get to see one of them. It’s called the Golf GTE HyRacer and it has just made a delayed debut at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg.

Based on the Golf GTE plug-in hybrid, the HyRACER show car was built by trainees from Volkswagen Group Retail Germany over several months in five conversion phases. If if wasn’t very clear already, the “Hy” stands for hybrid while “Racer” is a reference to the sporty genes of the show car.

The custom Golf GTE project is a premiere for Volkswagen Group Retail Germany, as the 13 trainees were selected from different car dealerships across Germany. They were only able to work together on the car for a limited period of time, which made the project even more challenging.

So what did the trainees do the stock VW Golf GTE? For starters, they fitted an individual body kit consisting of a deeper front apron, front splitter, fender add-ons that add 80 mm (3.15 in) to the car’s width, a rear apron with diffuser, roof spoiler with integrated brake light from the Arteon, and a central double tailpipe. The car was also equipped with an adjustable sports suspension that lowers the Golf GTE by 40 mm (1.57 in).

The black powder-coated 19-inch alloys were specially designed by the trainees and shod with 265-mm (10.4-in) wide tires and 380-mm (14.9-in) brake discs at the front.

Inside, the trainees added Alcantara on the dashboard, door panels, steering wheel with blue 12 o’clock marking and center console. The sports seats with integrated headrests feature embossed ‘GTE HyRACER’ lettering in blue which matches the blue decorative stitching found elsewhere. The cabin also comes with a trainee logo designed specifically for this project by the trainees. And, given that young people designed and built the Golf GTE HyRACER, you won’t be surprised to learn the trunk houses two electric scooters that can be charged there.

As for the powertrain, the Golf GTE HyRACER was slightly dialed up to deliver 250 PS (247 HP / 185 kW), up from the stock car’s 204 PS (201 HP / 150 kW). A metal plate placed under the bonnet features the names of all 13 trainees that worked on the project.