The Volkswagen Golf R is the quickest, most expensive version in the Golf line-up. Thanks to its potent 267bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, plus VW’s 4Motion all-wheel-drive system, the R will accelerate to 62mph from standing in just 5.7sec (or 5.5sec with the optional DSG transmission) and go on to a top speed of 155mph.
Despite the Golf R’s ferocious bite, however, restrained styling makes the hot hatch a real wolf in sheep’s clothing. External features of the hottest Volkswagen Golf yet include twin exhausts, mildly restyled black door mirrors, LED daytime running lights and an inconspicuous rear boot spoiler; in reality, a GTi on 19-inch wheels would probably look meaner in the raw, despite the R’s tinted rear windows and its almost too-subtle badging front and rear.
The most notable difference between the 'R' and GTi version is the 25mm reduced ride height and stiffer spring rates, which gives the quicker car enhanced stability at speed and enables flatter cornering.
Driven in anger, the Volkswagen Golf R is naturally a very rapid machine. But it’s also a smooth, grown up, refined kind of hot hatch, and one that feels as refined as a Passat, or, indeed, a more regular member of the Golf family, when driven on a motorway.
It rides extremely well for such a rapid hot hatch, too, and the noise emitted from its large 225/40 18-inch tyres is unusually well suppressed.
