Volkswagen Golf R

Rear bias brings applause from the front row

- Greg Kable

After a seemingly endless number of new eighth-generation Golf models over the past year, the headlining R has finally arrived to complete the line-up.

It hasn’t landed in Australia just yet, and probably won’t until the second half of the year, but amid all the regulatory controls surrounding COVID right now, we managed to snare one of the first examples to head out of Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg for an initial run in frosty German winter conditions ahead of its local debut later this year.

There is tradition here of course. The new model is the fifth Golf in 18 years to wear VW’s (newly restyled) Rennsport badge, and every one has been as memorable as those that went before it. A purebred pedigree.

But with five-door competition that now includes the Audi S3, BMW M135i xDrive and Mercedes-AMG A35 4Matic, the new Golf R will need to be very much at the top of its game to make a lasting impression.

Up front, the latest uber-Golf runs a more powerful version of the familiar EA888 turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine. With detailed changes, power peaks at 235kW with torque extending to 420Nm from 2100-5350rpm, making the new 1551kg R the most powerful series production Golf model yet.

By comparison, its direct predecessor offered 218kW and 380Nm, so this is more than just a token increase in reserves, giving the new model a power-to-weight ratio of 151kW/tonne. Of its rivals, it’s the new Audi S3, which runs the same engine in another state of tune, that gets closest to challenging the Golf R’s onpaper figures with 228kW and 400Nm.