Volkswagen will preview a new high-performance variant of the Golf GTI with a concept car at this month's annual Worthersee gathering. That's according to Car magazine in speaking with VW R&D chief Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg. In 2007, VW unveiled the Golf GTI W12 at Worthersee, a concept powered by a 641hp Bentley-sourced 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12. While the GTI W12 concept was never destined for production, VW's GTI concept for 2013 is expected to preview a future variant of the popular hot hatch.

VW is currently working on the Golf R, whose 2.0-liter turbo four is rumored to pack up to 300 hp. The new Golf GTI equipped with the performance pack develops 227 hp, so the concept is likely to preview a new GTI variant with output somewhere in between. The German carmaker has a history of rolling out anniversary edition models to celebrate the GTI reaching certain milestones. In 1996, it introduced the 20th anniversary edition GTI in Europe for the Mk4 (the US had to wait until 2003 for that), the 25th anniversary GTI followed in 2001 (known as the GTI 337 Edition in the US), and the GTI Edition 30 for the Mk5 went on sale in 2006.

The most recent is the Edition 35 for the Mk6 GTI, rolled out in Worthersee in 2011. So with the GTI's 40th birthday just a couple of years away, the concept could well be teasing the Edition 40. We'll have to wait until Worthersee 2013 (May 17-19) to get further details on the GTI concept, but we anticipate it to pack some weight-saving measures such a carbon-fiber roof and lightweight alloys as well as a decent boost in power.