If you're in the market for a German hot hatch and the GTI just won't do it for you, Volkswagen offers the more potent Golf R as well. And if you live in markets that aren't the United States, you can get your hands on the Scirocco R, too. But word has it that VW is keen to expand its flagship performance line further.
Most people don't have two, open spots in their garage to fit a practical daily driver and a fire-breathing performance car for the weekends. That's what makes vehicles like the latest Volkswagen Golf R and BMW M235i just about perfect for the average person. Both of these Germans can lope around as a commuter 90 percent of the time and be perfectly comfortable. However, when you want
Not-so-secret confession time: I love the Volkswagen Golf R. In fact, I always have. And now it seems that Volkswagen is sweetening the deal on its hottest hatch, with recent creations like the Steven J. Ewing
When Volkswagen revealed the Golf R 400 concept at the Beijing Motor Show last month, it emerged as the most extreme version of the hatchback we once called Rabbit since the bonkers G
UPDATE: A previous version of this story listed the Golf R 400 Concept's top speed as 201 miles per hour. This is incorrect. The correct top speed is 174 mph and the story has been edited to reflect that.
Several years ago, Volkswagen showed up at the annual Wörthersee expo with what could only be described as a concept worthy of pants-wetting excitement – at least, for hot hatch enthusiasts like me. What VW had done was shoehorn its twin-turbocarged, 6.0-liter W12 engine behind a Golf GTI's front seats, creating the Steven J. Ewing
This week in New York, Volkswagen had a new production car to unveil in the updated Jetta as well as a new concept in the Golf TDI SportWagen. But at the Noah Joseph
Volkswagen's array of performance-oriented Golfs keeps getting bigger and bigger. What started with the GTI has since grown to include the diesel GTD, the hybrid GTE and the most powerful Golf R. But the additions haven
Three cheers for the handbrake. For driving enthusiasts who live in climates where the winter months produce seemingly endless days of snowy, icy conditions, nothing cures the seasonal blues quite like finding yourself on an empty road, pulling the handbrake, halting the rear wheels and happily drifting around a turn. Hooligans, we are. And it's all great fun.
I had a lovely first date with the Volkswagen Golf R a couple of years ago, blasting through the French Alps just before attending the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. I loved that car, and I'm super stoked to get behind the wheel of this new, 2015 model.
We've got good news, boys and girls, and we've got bad news. First the good news: Volkswagen is bringing the new Golf R to the United States. The bad news is that it won't have as much power as the European version, however slight the drop in output might be.
Volkswagen's R lineup currently consists of the Golf R in North America, and the too-cool-for-school Scirocco R in Europe. It hasn't exactly been a secret as to which VW would next get the R treatment; the German manufacturer reportedly confirmed that a hotter Brandon Turkus
The VW Golf R has always been a GTI on steroids. But even with a bigger dose of performance-enhancing power than the GTI, every generation of R has left us wanting more. Until now, we think. The fourth generation Golf R, based on the seventh-gen Golf, has officially debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and under its hood is a
Volkswagen has seen fit to release an additional 21 images of the 296-horsepower, all-wheel-drive 2014 Golf R. Our crack team covered the monstrous little hatchback ahead of its debut at next week's Frankfurt Motor Show, but know that a brand new gallery of the thing couldn't hurt, either.
Volkswagen has been making R-badged Golfs for longer than you might think. In fact, what you're looking at here is the fourth such model. But while previous generations have moved the power game incrementally forward, this latest version moves it on by leaps and bounds.
According to Edmunds, Volkswagen is currently developing a carbon fiber roof option for performance versions of its Golf hatchback. This feature would not only save weight, but could slightly improve fuel economy as well.
To help tell the story of the 256-horsepower 2012 Golf R, Volkswagen has enlisted aid from an unexpected quarter: hot rodder and kandy-kolored-tangerine-flake-inclined Chip Foose.
Volkswagen Golf R and Scirocco R – Click above for high-res image gallery
