Volkswagen likes to reward the faithful GTI acolytes who flood to Austrias bonkers Worthersee tuning festival with some hot new metal each year, and 2012 is no exception.

Put on shades, and behold the Polo 'R WRC', a road-going hot hatch study inspired by VW's new world rally car.

Of course, VW already has a hot Polo, in the shape of the 178bhp GTI. But the 'R WRC' (pronounced 'Rework', we assume) is considerably toastier.

How toasty? 222bhp of butter-melting goodness, that's how. The Rework uses a well-boosted version of VW's 2.0-litre turbo four-pot, making it more powerful than both the Golf GTI and our current small-hot-hatch favourite, the Clio 200.

And - put your coffee down for this - the Polo R WRC, VW told us, sends all its power to the front wheels. Vigorous torque steer ahoy!

Though VW wouldn't reveal details on the R WRC's transmission, the absence of a manual shifter leads TopGear to cunningly deduce the presence of a double-clutch paddle box thing. You probably like that, but we're guessing you'll like the WRC's fat rear diffuser and posh carbon-weave trim even more.

And here's why you should even care: it's entering production. A VW chief confirmed to TopGear that the double-hot Polo won't remain a concept tease, and should reach the road sooner rather than later.

Nothing on (a) production numbers or (b) pricing, but we'd guess they'll be (a) low and (b) rather high.