Volkswagen has officially announced that it will perform the world premiere of the new Golf GTD at this week’s 2009 AMI motorshow in Leipzig, Germany. The Golf GTD is the diesel equivalent of the Golf GTI -see our new gallery here– and it has been around in VW’s range since 1982. The latest version is based of course on the sixth-generation Golf and it comes equipped with a 2.0-liter TDI turbodiesel engine with 170HP that launches the hatch from standstill to 100km/h (62mph) in 8.1 seconds and on to a top speed of 222km/h or 138mph.
While the Golf GTD lacks the performance of the GTI (pictured above), it offers better fuel economy and in particular, it returns an average of 5,3lt / 100km (44.4mpg US) in the European cycle with CO2 emissions of just 139gr/km. That’s compared to the Golf GTI’s 7,3 lt /100km (32.2mpg).
Aside from the TDI engine, the GTD will also feature suspension and cosmetic upgrades over the standard Golfs. Official photos and detailed information will be revealed shortly, so stay tuned on Carscoop as we’ll be updating this story as soon as we learn more.