“230 kilometres an hour? In a Volkswagen? Down which hill exactly?”
My neighbour, John, a living encyclopaedia on the subject of classic cars who remains stubbornly uninterested in the newer, shinier, faster stuff, can’t hide his incredulity as we discuss my drive in Volkswagen’s facelifted Golf R, beginning in Orange, stretching across a picturesque collection of hills & valleys in the Western Plains, before reaching a raucous climax at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The conversation is an amusing reminder of the curious space the Golf R occupies in the food-chain since its inception in 2002: polite enough for the daily commute, weekends away with luggage and passengers in tow, but quick enough to fill the rear-view mirrors of a few supercars at the occasional track-day.
If the 54,000 posts in just one Golf R Mark 8 forum are anything to go by, VW must’ve felt the heat to deliver on this latest facelift. If you listen closely, you can hear the focus groups yelling “Don’t change it, but make it better!” from across the Indian Ocean.
Thankfully, the R Division in Wolfsburg is likely to keep the mob at bay with improvements to that familiar recipe for $71,000 – buckets of power, a smartly appointed interior, and grip like you would not believe.
The car’s 0-100 sprint is now dusted in 4.6 seconds (down from 4.8 seconds) thanks to an extra 10 kilowatts and 20 Newton Metres brought about by software changes, but the company says the fun is in the developments not easily shown on the specs sheets.
We’re talking about newly introduced launch-control, revised torque-vectoring, a smarter gearbox, anti-lag capable of keeping the car in boost, and “Nürburgring mode” – more on this later.
If you agree performance cars have been more than fast enough for years, and that manufacturers should instead develop useful systems that will delight their fans rather than extend their license suspensions, then you’ll be pleased to know the Mark 8.5 has Golf R fans, the ones society loves to hate, covered.
While the sales data proves the customer base is more diverse than you’d first expect, many of the R’s more adventurous drivers will likely be making good use of the new “Emotion Start” feature, which starts the engine at higher revs, before proceeding to offer a healthy serving of pops and crackles.
Out on the open road, accelerometers for measuring 0-100, 80-120, and quarter-mile times will be used and abused, while drivers can now hold the downshift paddle to quickly snap down to the gear offering the most revs, which VW reps claim is “perfect for overtaking”, as if a slightly firmer prod of the accelerator in Comfort Mode isn’t plenty.
For an extra $1,500, those looking to give the “blacked out” treatment to their R can now choose the “Black Edition” which offers black wheels, smoked headlights and tail-lights, logos and other trim changes right out of the factory.
The fun doesn’t stop there, particularly if you happen to find an extra $6,500 behind the couch for the Warmenau package, yet to arrive on Aussie shores.
Named after the village home to VW’s R development centre, it spices up the offering with a set of handsome, fully forged wheels reducing unsprung mass by a meaningful two kilos (or twenty percent) per corner, a light touch of genuine carbon trim inside, and a titanium Akrapovic exhaust kit. While the perforated quad-pipes look the business, judgment on their sound must be reserved until a Warmenau-specced car makes it here. When did a Golf get so fancy?
The winter air surrounding Orange Regional Airport is decidedly brisk as I touch down and meet Shaun, who has a box-fresh car prepped to deliver me to Rowlee Wines, the location for lunch with the development team and the starting point for my drive.
The interior is a great place to spend time. It’s spacious and simple without feeling under-cooked, trimmed with high-quality plastics that feel solid, and is styled with just the right amount of “edge”. The much complained-about haptic buttons on the steering wheel remain, if only to accommodate the new “R” button for drive-mode selection, but later first-hand experience would suggest other much-publicised gripes are a little dramatic – that’s not to say significant room for improvement in the form of physical buttons and knobs doesn’t exist.
The car is comfortable enough with a firm (but not harsh) ride, but road-noise from the low-profile tyres straddles the lines of acceptability, while I struggle to understand the need for such a gigantic screen, which at 12.9 inches, dominates the centre of the dash.
After proudly being talked around the car, the clouds that threatened the dry conditions all morning finally chuck down cold, driving rain – it’s my turn to experience the car for myself.
Before BMW’s M Division adopted X-drive, it was said an M-car owner’s worst nightmare was a Golf R pulling up next to them at a set of lights on a slightly damp day. These conditions, with over 150 kilometres of winding, undulating, poorly surfaced roads ahead of me before an overnight stay in the Blue Mountains, would usually spell the end of the excitement for most other performance-based road tests, but happen to be home-turf for this All-Wheel-Drive Vee Dub.
Road manners around town in Comfort Mode are great, and after just a few corners through the sparsely populated country roads with a more assertive driving style, it’s clear the essence of the Golf R, that special sauce, hasn’t gone anywhere.
I’m goading it, coaxing it into revealing its flaws on this soaked, crappy road with speeds, steering and throttle inputs that – in cars faster on paper and often several times the price – would spin me into a herd of unsuspecting sheep, but the steely-eyed R doesn’t break a sweat.
Morning comes, and after having the previous day’s debris sprayed off the car at Sydney Motorsport Park I join the track – the R’s speed and effectiveness continues to impress with the smarter torque vectoring feeding power to the right wheels at the right time, dragging me around the sharp left-hander that is turn two nicely, the brakes are strong and durable with a reassuring feel through the pedal, but misjudge a faster corner by even a little and the car won’t hesitate to push wide – classic Golf R then.
Enter Benny Leuchter, FIA World Touring Car driver, Nürburgring lap-record holder and Golf R development driver, who has flown from Volkswagen HQ to communicate to local media improvements to the Golf R, then test their stomachs with a few hot-laps of his own.
I join him from the passenger seat for his third ever lap at Eastern Creek, but his immediately unceremonious assault of the circuit has me quietly believing he was born next to the vending machines in pit lane. We blow past the braking zones politely called out to me by my earlier instructor, pile into every apex with tyres squealing under the abuse, before I emerge from each exit stunned, but unharmed.
He explains to me, mid-corner, that the car’s new “Nürburgring Mode”, which sets the drivetrain to maximum attack while softening the suspension for compliance over less-than-perfect surfaces (read: anything that isn’t Phillip Island) is his preferred tool for going fast. With the only ounce of comprehension I can muster given my astonishment at Benny’s pace, I can conclude it works well.
The second and final hot lap arrives in a blink, and using the Sony Bravia sized screen that occupies the dash, Benny switches to “Drift Mode” at well over 200 kilometres an hour on the approach to turn one. The company says the mode enables sideways action by de-activating stability control and sending more power through the outside rear wheel.
He lets off the gas, rapidly changes steering direction then buries his right foot into the carpet, bringing us into a hilarious slide before an okay-ish transition on this completely dry track – but it’s clear he’s working hard for it. Given it takes a credentialed expert this much effort to keep a slide, us mere mortals shouldn’t yet be day-dreaming of wowing track spectators with skids à la Chris Harris in a Ferrari F12. In fairness, Drift Mode earns its keep as an honest-to-god way of drawing more playful rear-wheel-drive characteristics from the available hardware – it’s a naming thing, baby.
Though the winds of change threaten to further sanitise the driving experience for those who love speed, drama, and drawing more than a little attention to themselves, the team of clearly passionate drivers and engineers in Volkswagen’s R Division have likely managed to please the faithful yet again with the latest version of this car, finding the sweet spot of daily usability, performance, and just the right amount of naughty – roll on Mark 9.
The author reviewed the new Volkswagen Golf R as a guest of Volkswagen Australia
