Make no mistake, the new Golf R is a thing of beauty. If you are interested in standing out from the crowd in a city brimming with white Range Rover Sports, then Volkswagen’s latest offering is tailor-made for you.
From the looks perspective, there’s no doubt that the designers have thought long and hard over this model, with ‘Talladega-style’ 19-inch black alloy wheels and bi-xenon headlights in black combining to give a meaner look to a car more frequently thought of as a city runaround rather a fully-fledged hot hatch.
The careful design also extends to the twin rear tail pipes, which contribute to an impressive roar at the slightest touch on the accelerator. Elsewhere, bucket seats and a leather multi-function steering wheel complete the sporty look, and for gadget fans, there are bells and whistles aplenty. Keyless access, an eight-speaker radio system with multimedia socket, a radio navigation system that talks to you and ParkPilot for those pesky apartment block carparks – it’s all there, and it’s there in style.
One word will suffice to explain the driving experience: fun. This is a car that clearly wants to be going places; if your eye is not constantly on the speedometer, you will soon find yourself in multiple black-point territory, ably assisted by the four cylinder 2.0-litre TSI Turbocharged engine. You’ll also need to hang on for dear life from a standing start; the Golf R zips from 0 to 100km/h in a frenetic 5.7 seconds, with an electronically limited top speed of 250km/h to boot.
But it’s not just in the city where the hatchback attracts admiring and envious glances in equal measure. On a trip down the notoriously uncongested Sharjah-Kalba highway, your correspondent was challenged to a side-by-side race by several smiling locals. The good folk at Volkswagen will be happy to know that discretion won the battle against temptation on this particular occasion – but suffice to say it was a pretty close run thing.
Volkswagen have also put their thinking caps on the greener aspects of the Golf R as well. It’s 21 percent more fuel-efficient than its predecessor, with significantly reduced CO2 emissions. That translates to a smile at the pump as well as behind the wheel, especially given the rising fuel prices in this part of the world.
Perhaps the only catch here is the price, which starts at a hefty AED160,000 ($43,600) for the basic version, going up to AED169,000 for full navigation kit included.
But then again, scientists have been struggling for centuries to find the elixir of youth. Volkswagen appear to have hit upon their own version of it with the Golf R, and who can put a price on that?
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