Power Up! Volkswagen GT Up! Concept

One of the stars of this year's Frankfurt Motor Show was the smallest car there, the Volkswagen Up. This is VW's latest city car replacing the old Fox and challenging rivals such as the Ford Ka, Fiat 500 and Citroen C1. The big news now though is that Volkswagen have made a GT version of the Up that promises to bring back the spirit of the Mk 1 Golf GTI, a small, fast and cheap hot hatch.

This little VW comes with wider front grille to help more air get to the engine which promises to produce around 100bhp. Attached to each side of the wider front grille are cooling ducts which have the job of keeping the brakes chilled and also house the LED daytime running lights. Other changes to the exterior include extended sills along the flanks, gloss black wing mirros, 17-inch alloys and a black diffuser on the rear. There will also be a rear roof spoiler to help reduce lift over the rear axle.

On the inside the GT Up will come with black headlining, anthracite seats with a checkered blue and black central panel, instead of red tartan like in the Golf and Polo GTIs interestingly, and gloss black on the door panel and dashboard with blue rings around the air vents. Just like on any modern day and bigger hot hatch, the driver will have a flat-bottomed three-spoked leather steering wheel.

The GT Up's main rivals would be the Abarth 500 and the Renaultsport Twingo which are both the same sort of size and produce around 100bhp too but your friends would be squished in the back of the 500 and the Twingo won't be as up-market feeling inside. Mind you, if the GT Up were to go into production it would probably be a little bit more expensive than both.

If you are really liking the sound of a miniature GTI the bad news is that this Up is still a concept. You can order the normal 3 door version and deliveries for that start in Spring 2012 but if the GT Up does go into production you probably won't see it until the second half of next year.