Well, the IROC sports coupe concept you see here may very well be a thinly-disguised look at a re-born Scirroco. Hell, even VW itself is saying that this car is "inspired" by the gone-but-not-forgotten sports coupe.
So let's start off with the exterior of the car, because that's the easiest thing to talk about. It looks like a stretched and pulled Golf (or Rabbit) in these pictures, because that's basically what it is. The exterior of the IROC concept is 36 mm longer and 41 mm wider than the MkV Golf. Keeping the rest of the car "real big", the IROC also has a wheelbase 10 cm longer than that of the Golf.
With the IROC being longer and wider than the Golf, imagine our surprise when we found out that the IROC is actually a full 79 mm shorter than the Rabbit/Golf. If you remember the O.G. Scirocco, it too was shorter, longer and wider than the Rabbit of the time, so it looks like VW is keeping the cars' proportional relationships to each other in check. Also reppin' the old-school Scirocco's is the IROC's Viper Green Metallic paint job. We wouldn't know this following fact, as we weren't born at the time, but the 1976-spec Scirocco was available from the dealer in this very color.
While the exterior of the IROC looks to the past for its inspiration, the IROC's interior is decidedly futuristic. Of course, this means that all the cool stuff we're about to talk about will never make it into a production version of the car, but we'll still talk about it anyway. We love the 5-point harnesses for the front seat and the high-tech/chunky look of the dash and center cluster, but we're not too fond of the navigation screen. Yes, we said navigation screen. You can't see it because it's hidden in the right gauge -- which means it's hidden completely out of view. Oh well, at least it looks cool.
Since we're on the subject of things that are high-tech, let's talk about the IROC's engine; it is a 210-horsepower TSI unit. If you haven't heard about VW's new-fangled TSI engines, they are really exciting. These TSI engines are small-displacement engines that utilize both a supercharger and a turbocharger. That's right: these engines are twin-charged. In addition to offering sporty performance, Volkswagen says that these TSI engines can deliver diesel-like fuel economy while running on conventional petrol/gasoline. Who says that all gas-saving technologies have to be boring and hybrid-based?
If indeed we are looking at a next-gen Scirocco, expect the interior/exterior styling to be toned down a bit. We'll also guess that the 19-inch wheels will also not make it to production - but we could be wrong about that. Since we're now in "prediction" mode, we'll also guess that a U.S.-spec IROC/Scirocco will be offered with the TSI engine (possibly detuned to 150 hp) as well as VW's "traditional" 2.0-liter turbocharged four cylinder.
Of course, no potential release date was given, so all we have for now are these pictures. Expect to hear more about the IROC when the 2007 car show season gets into full-swing.