Since 2008 12 apprentices at Volkswagen Vocational Training have been offered the chance to go wild with a GTI. This year the apprentices will be unveiling the ninth Wörthersee GTI, and since it’s the car’s 40th anniversary, big things are expected.

“The Golf GTI is more than just a car. It is a way of life and makes people’s hearts beat faster,” says Jonas Rohrbeck, future automotive mechatronics technicians and team spokesman.

The car is still under wraps, so we can only speculate about what the team has created, but we do know that it’s registered for road use.

Past highlights include the gull-wing doored, three seater of 2008, the 2013 cabrio with special air outlets and paint, and last year’s “Dark Shine” GTI, which featured a specially designed exhaust system and valve control.

This year’s team is made up of 12 apprentices, among them automotive mechatronics technicians (a field of engineering that combines systems, mechanical, electrical, and other types of engineering), plastics and rubber engineers, vehicle interior fitters, paint technicians and more.

They are: Jonas Rohrbeck, Nils Burgstedt, David Rodenberg, Tobias Weber, Lisa Brandes, Sandrine Reissig, Mona Bök, Jacqueline Budich, Jenifer Hase, Tim Schneider, Marc Hoffman, and Osema Zouari.

The one-of-a-kind Golf will make its world premiere on May 4, the first day of the famous Wörthersee meeting in Austria. Take a closer look at some of the previous Wörthersee GTIs in our gallery at the top of the page.