Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. One of our readers, friends and the organizer of WusteFest, Brandon Chasin was out doing a site visit at Las Vegas Speedway yesterday and spotted two Golf 7 GTI’s. While Volkswagen has shown them in concept form already, the actual production models won’t be officially unveiled till the Geneva Auto Show next month. Brandon asked the film crews what they were doing and was told they were filming a commercial for Volkswagen in Germany and that it is being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the director of Death Race.

As you can see in the photos, the production cars are virtually identical to the concept version. We are assuming the GTI without the license plate is being used as a camera vehicle (the GTI badges on the sides are also removed). In Germany there will be two primary versions, one with 210hp and one with the 230hp. The 230hp version also includes an all-new electronically controlled mechanical locking differential. Torque is also up a whopping 52 lbs-ft. more at 258 lbs-ft. Combined with upwards of 200lbs weight reduction, the new GTI should have surprisingly strong performance against recent competitors like the Ford Focus ST. What is a bit of a head-scratcher is that the existing Mk6 GTI is only .3 of a second slower 0-60mph (according to Car and Driver testing) than the Ford Focus ST despite the GTI having 52hp less. With the Mk7 GTI having even less weight and more power it should perform very well against competitors.

We’ll have official photos of the new GTI in the upcoming weeks as well as a first drive report of the Mk7 GTI sometime in late April.

Brandon’s website can be found at www.getyourvw.com and information on this years WusteFest can be found at www.wuste.com

Click the photos below for larger versions…