It seems the aftermarket tuning world is too hard to resist even for Volkswagen, the company famous for “unpimping” their autos. Showing up to the mother of all aftermarket tuning conventions, SEMA, VW trotted out two highly modified versions of its Golf hatch aimed squarely at the raft of tuned vehicles from its Japanese rivals.

The reason for VW turning up at SEMA was to gather the market’s reaction to a range of new factory-backed performance accessories that could feature across several popular models as well as planned performance orientated models, reports Automotive News. VW’s goal would be develop a range of cars enhanced purely for performance. Gimmicks such as huge 19 and 20in wheels would be dropped in favour of smaller units because of the improved handling and drivability.

It’s still too early to say what kind of modified cars we’ll be seeing from VW, but the new Thunder Bunny and Neuspeed developed GTIs are a good indication of what's to come.