Car And GPS (1858)

Volkswagen announces Iroc sports car concept

Hopes will emulate the runaway success of the legendary Scirocco

25 August 2006 17:08 GMT / By Jonathan Goddard

Volkswagen has revealed its Iroc sports car concept - a car VW hopes will emulate the runaway success of the legendary Scirocco, which made its debut 33 years ago.

The daftly named Iroc’s shape - with a very long roof and steeply sloping rear - makes it look nice and aggressive, and its honeycomb grille is very Golf GTi. Massive rims, a crazed guppy fish front end and the acres of windscreen (yet tiny side windows) make this one mean mutha.

Inside, bucket seats, sports seatbelts, 300 litres of boot, and a striking dash set the tone. Two large and tastily designed round instrument gauges form the visual centre of the cockpit; the driver looks into two cylinders with 12 illuminated bars that create a 3D segmentation effect.

Under the bonnet, is V-Dub’s superb TSI petrol unit, which uses a turbocharger and a supercharger to produce diesel-like consumption with impressive performance - and that means 210bhp. Meeeow.

If you remember, the Scirocco was a huge success for VW, with over half a million examples of the Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed first generation produced. It was launched in the UK in 1974, with the second generation following in 1981. When sales stopped in 1993 - thanks largely to those EU spoilsports who didn’t like its noisiness - 77,460 had been sold in the UK alone.