NAIAS 2014: Volkswagen Golf R

by Phillip Thomas

Updated: February 5th, 2014 Published: January 13th, 2014

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.

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Phillip Thomas

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3 of 39 comments

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.

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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.

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- Fred on Jan 14, 2014
  
  That is pretty much what the MQB Audi S3 is.
  
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