View Photos of 2022 Volkswagen GTI at Lightning Lap 2023
See the GTI put through its paces at America's toughest track, Virginia International Raceway.
The VW Golf GTI participated last year in the 2022 Lightning Lap, but we were unfortunately unable to use its best lap time because of a data-card handling error. This year was a fresh opportunity.
The car came to us with a single set of tires, so we had to strategize.
And this year, the GTI did improve on last year's official time of 3:12.1 but didn't repeat the inadmissible 3:10.6 from 2022.
Part of the reason may have been the six-speed manual in this year's test car compared with the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic we had last year.
The GTI has an as-tested price of $39,445.
There were interesting moments involving the shift knob and the brake pedal during the GTI's time at VIR—read our story for the details.
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