About once a week, journalists who work at the UK’s Autocar empty out their notebooks and reveal all the little tidbits they pick up over time. The latest one involves the Nurburgring’s reputation perhaps being a little exaggerated.

“It’s not the Nürburgring itself, it’s to sort the best balance on both the circuit and the nice country roads leading to it,” said Matthias Rabe, VW’s tech chief.

The point of going to Nurburgring, says Rabe, is to make the GTI “so good you’re happy to drive home from the Nurburgring.”

That said, VW clearly seems to understand the power of the legend because the Mk7 Golf GTI TCR had a special Nurburgring mode to celebrate its briefly held record at the track. But it seems that VW feels the track itself is less important than getting there.