Volkswagen presented the GTI Roadster concept at annual enthusiast event

The GTI Roadster Concept was originally created as a pure electronic car to be feature in Sony PlayStation 3's racing simulator Gran Turismo 6 (GT6). Players of GT6 will be able to download the GTI Roadster from mid-June.

The result of cooperation between Volkswagen and Sony Computer Entertainment, the GTI Roadster Concept is the work of three young Volkswagen designers, winners of an in-house competition to design a vehicle to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Gran Turismo game.

Unconstrained by the limitations of production models, designers Malte Hammerbeck, Domen Rucigaj and Guillermo Mignot came up with a winning design that was selected by Klaus Bischoff, Head of Design for the Volkswagen Brand, and Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator of the Gran Turismo series.

The concept draws on last year's Worthersee car, the Design Vision GTI, but with an even more extreme design. Its 2,494mm wheelbase is 137mm shorter than that of the production Golf GTI, and the Design Vision GTI.

The GTI Roadster Concept is powered by a 3.0-litre V6 biturbo TSI engine that produces 496bhp and a maximum torque of 560Nm - delivered via a seven-speed DSG gearbox and 4MOTION four-wheel drive. Tipping the scales at 1,420kg, the car propels to 100km/h from nought in just 3.6 seconds, and on to a top speed of 305km/h.

The exterior is finished in a new Gran Turismo Red, which is designed to make the concept car look fast, even when stationary. The interior features black and anthracite-coloured sections, contrasted by classic GTI red stitching.