New York Auto Show, 2018 - Volkswagen Golf R
This Golf R was the only Golf hatchback on display at the 2018 New York Auto Show, the better to emphasize Volkswagen's German engineering in the purest sense of the term. This car may have been built in Mexico, but its execution is very German.
It was Volkswagen that originally had the idea of putting a high-performance package in an economy hatchback when it concocted the Golf GTI in 1976, thus inventing the "hot hatch" segment. The R stands for "rally," and the first Golf created for such racing was the Rallye Golf of 1989 and 1990, a car that Volkswagen of America so desperately wanted to bring here but it was too expensive.
The R32 of the fourth and fifth generation Golfs, though, did make it to the States and did not disappoint VW fans. The seventh-generation R uses a smaller engine but it's just as powerful as the old 3.2-liter V-6 of yore. With 292 horses powering an all-wheel drive system that is not meant for off-road boulder bashing, how can you go wrong?
Unless you go out and bash boulders, of course.
The Golf R is available in limited quantities, and at 39 grand, they don't come cheap.
I don't think I could drive one. I took a simulated drive in a standard Golf GTI at the auto show and I almost got nauseous! :-D Guess I'll stick with my base Golf.
New York Auto Show, 2018 - Volkswagen Golf R
This Golf R was the only Golf hatchback on display at the 2018 New York Auto Show, the better to emphasize Volkswagen's German engineering in the purest sense of the term. This car may have been built in Mexico, but its execution is very German.
It was Volkswagen that originally had the idea of putting a high-performance package in an economy hatchback when it concocted the Golf GTI in 1976, thus inventing the "hot hatch" segment. The R stands for "rally," and the first Golf created for such racing was the Rallye Golf of 1989 and 1990, a car that Volkswagen of America so desperately wanted to bring here but it was too expensive.
The R32 of the fourth and fifth generation Golfs, though, did make it to the States and did not disappoint VW fans. The seventh-generation R uses a smaller engine but it's just as powerful as the old 3.2-liter V-6 of yore. With 292 horses powering an all-wheel drive system that is not meant for off-road boulder bashing, how can you go wrong?
Unless you go out and bash boulders, of course.
The Golf R is available in limited quantities, and at 39 grand, they don't come cheap.
I don't think I could drive one. I took a simulated drive in a standard Golf GTI at the auto show and I almost got nauseous! :-D Guess I'll stick with my base Golf.