World premiere at 34th Wörthersee GTI meeting- Young talents build show car in line with own ideas
Wolfsburg, March 30, 2015: In around six weeks, a team of 13 Volkswagen apprentices will present what is still a closely guarded secret at the 34th GTI meeting in Austria (May 13-16, 2015). The young people from Wolfsburg will be presenting their own very special Golf GTI* for the first time to an audience oftens of thousands of car and GTI fans from throughout Europe at the Wörthersee meeting. The show car is the result of a training project used by the vocational training organisation at Volkswagen to improve the knowledge and skills of its future specialists.
The “Wörthersee GTI 2015” team consists of apprentices in five training vocations: four vehicle interior fitters from Volkswagen and Group company Sitech Sitztechnik, two vehicle paint technicians, four automotive mechatronics technicians,one media designer and two budding process technicians specialising in plastics and rubber engineering.
The work of the four women and nine men started last autumn when they collected a body-in-white from the Golf bodyshell production unit. The 17 to 25-year-olds had already exchanged their own personal ideas about the GTI and together developed an idea ofhow their dream GTI should look, sound and feel. “In many individual steps, our young trainees are creating a unique Golf GTI that will bear their signature both in its interior and on the outside,” says project manager Holger Schülke.
Over the past few months, the young women and men have inspected the components in stock, held discussions with experts within the company in fields such as design, plastic parts production and special painting and have also talked to specialist suppliers.
Work on the Wörthersee GTI has made considerable progress. Some steps such as the production of attachments or the manual painting of the vehicle arebeing completed by the apprentices themselves. In addition to conceptual design and co-operation with other company departments, this is a key feature of this special vehicle project of Volkswagen’s vocational training organisation at the Wolfsburg plant.
“The apprentices have opted for an innovative colour scheme that will call for considerable skill andprecision,” Holger Schülke emphasises. At this stage, the young people do not want to reveal any further details about the appearance of their car or technical features of the running gear, engine, interior, seating or sound system. However Schülke and his young colleagues are convinced that their unique GTI will make a spectacular appearance at the Wörthersee meeting.
The members of the Wörthersee Team 2015 bytraining vocations: Vehicle interior fitters: Alexander Giesbrecht, Kay-Vivian Erhardt (both Volkswagen), Alexander Roser and Jana Peil (both Sitech Sitztechnik). Vehicle paint technicians: Celine Raditsch, Darius Pesel. Automotive mechatronics technicians: André Haase, Samuel Pili, Jan Quiring, Julian Lucht. Media designer: Hendryk Riedel. Process technicians specialising in plastics and rubber engineering: Melina Svoboda, Sebastian Del Giudice.
Sitech Sitztechnik is the Volkswagen group company specialising in the development and production of vehicle seats.
*Fuel consumption figures of Golf GTI Performance in l/km: 8.1 – 7.5 (urban) / 5.4 – 5.1 (extra urban) / 6.4 – 6.0 (combined); CO2 emissions in g/km: 149 – 139(combined), efficiency class: D, C
You must be logged in to post a comment.