SPY PICS: New Swift caught testing at Nurburgring

This ought to take the boredom out of the daily grind when the new generation Suzuki Swift arrives next year.

Suzuki is testing its new humble hatchback on the most famous road racing circuit in Germany, the Nurburgring, the same circuit that has bred decades of Porsches, BMWs and super-fast Audis.

But fans waiting for the revival of the iconic Swift GTI -- the king of the hot hatch kids from the late 1980s through to most of the 1990s -- should not get their hopes up just yet.

This heavily camouflaged car is believed to be a regular model but with sports alloy wheels and tyres (currently an option in Europe).

Suzuki is focusing heavily on a new range of super efficient petrol and diesel engines (the latter for Europe) and is reportedly considering a hybrid version (although this is unconfirmed).

However, the successor to the 1.6-litre Swift Sport (the closest to a modern GTI) is on the back burner, according to Suzuki insiders.

"For now the focus is on efficiency and emissions," one of Suzuki's senior engineers, Naoki Suzuki, told the Carsales Network on a recent visit to Australia. "A lot of engineers would personally like to develop [a modern GTI] but for now we focus on the mainstream models. Maybe later."

It was also too premature to speculate on whether Suzuki would share any small-capacity turbo engines and DSG gearboxes for future eco or hot hatch models.

"There is a committee looking at how [VW and Suzuki] co-operate but there is no announcement yet," he said.

The new Swift is set to be unveiled at this year's Paris motor show in September, and it is expected to arrive in Australian showrooms in the first half of next year.

The base model is expected to arrive first, while the sports variant will likely follow two years later.

Few details have been leaked about the new car, and the photos show that the design is similar in size and more of an evolution -- not a revolution -- of the current model, which was ground-breaking for Suzuki when it was launched five years ago.

Work on the Swift is going full-speed ahead now that much of the engineering work for the Kizashi mid-size sedan has been completed, and the engineering staff have been re-deployed onto the staple model.

Australia-bound Swifts are likely to continue to be made in Japan, even though there is a Swift factory in Hungary and Suzuki now imports the Alto from India.

Swift sales locally are stronger than ever in the first three months of this year, even though an all-new model is due next year.