NAIAS 2014: Volkswagen Golf R

Phillip Thomas
by Phillip Thomas

The all-wheel drive 2014 Golf R packs 290 hp and 280 ft-lb of torque, shoves it down your choice of either a six speed manual or six speed dual-clutch transmission, and hauls the compact hot hatch to sixty in 4.9 seconds. That’s about a second quicker to sixty than the outgoing Golf R…

In addition to the substantially beefed up power, the Golf R gains a quick ratio steering rack (2.1 turns lock-to-lock, nice), full-off stability control mode, as well as an 0.2 inch drop in ride height from the standard GTi. All of this can be dialed back from 11 for daily use, with four drive modes: comfort, normal, individual and race to adjust the car’s attitude towards your own.



Phillip Thomas
Phillip Thomas

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  • Kurtamaxxguy Kurtamaxxguy on Jan 14, 2014

    Last Golf R gave you any choice of gearbox so long as it was manual. New one offers dual clutch or manual. Now we can option _not_ to row gears in heavy traffic, and get both better performance and MPG.

  • Jimal Jimal on Jan 14, 2014

    With the A7 Golf out in Europe and coming soon to the U.S., perhaps the next step for Volkswagen is to come full circle and make the next Jetta a Golf with a trunk. Then the R could be the GLI and all will be right in Das Welt.

    • Fred Fred on Jan 14, 2014

      That is pretty much what the MQB Audi S3 is.

  • Carson D At 1:24 AM, the voyage data recorder (VDR) stopped recording the vessel’s system data, but it was able to continue taping audio. At 1:26 AM, the VDR resumed recording vessel system data. Three minutes later, the Dali collided with the bridge. Nothing suspicious at all. Let's go get some booster shots!
  • Darren Mertz Where's the heater control? Where's the Radio control? Where the bloody speedometer?? In a menu I suppose. How safe is that??? Volvo....
  • Lorenzo Are they calling it a K4? That's a mountain in the Himalayas! Stick with names!
  • MaintenanceCosts It's going to have to go downmarket a bit not to step on the Land Cruiser's toes.
  • Lorenzo Since EVs don't come in for oil changes, their owners don't have their tires rotated regularly, something the dealers would have done. That's the biggest reason they need to buy a new set of tires sooner, not that EVs wear out tires appreciably faster.
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