Volkswagen Golf R: PH Fleet

What could be better than our Golf R? One with a bigger boot maybe, or perhaps another with 450hp...

It's loads easier to write about a bad car. To be fair, at the other end of the scale heaping praise on an exceptional vehicle isn't all that hard either. But when a car comes along that simply cracks on with being very good at the expense of character - positive or negative - it's more of a challenge.

For all the R's much-discussed abilities many people just struggle to be excited by it. The reality is Volkswagen played it all a touch too safe, apparently missing the point that enthusiasts crave just a sense of involvement on top of the whole crushing, all-conditions performance thing the R does so well.

Thank heavens for the thriving VW tuning aftermarket then.

I'm lucky enough to have driven some extremely accelerative cars in my time, but even so I was a bit taken a back the first time I planted the throttle in Revo's re-worked Golf R. Truth be told, we only borrowed the car from them for a quick comparison to our standard car, but a few hours and a lot of giggling later we'd extended the loan and decided that it deserved a standalone review.

Effectively Revo has given the R some teeth with some chassis fettling and minor modifications to the engine. I say minor, the word I should have used is bonkers. It turns out that giving a Golf R 450hp makes it really quite exciting. You read that right. Four hundred and fifty horsepower. I find this ridiculous even as I type it, but the chassis can more than cope and make use of the power, giving a clear view of why the standard 300hp can feel a bit underwhelming.

This marriage of extreme power levels and incredible traction means 0-62 in a supercar-bothering 3.4 seconds. That's not a made up time either - we tried it ourselves with our trusty V-Box. Combined with the chassis modifications this 'Stage III' car answers pretty much all of the questions I had about the standard car, and raises a few new ones. Like which supercar we'd most like to see it out-drag.

Also this month, the Golf faced a challenge from within as I spent some time in the newly launched R Estate. As Matt discovered in his initial drive it is unsurprisingly very similar to the standard car. The additional mass over the rear axle does blunt acceleration and the handling fractionally. On the plus side, whilst it isn't as eager to turn in, it does feel like it has more character with a touch more throttle adjustability in the form of lift-off oversteer as the chassis works hard to try and rein in that more pendulous (and impressively big) estate body.

On the subject of the body, to my eyes it actually looks better than the standard car and - whisper it - somehow four exhaust pipes are slightly more acceptable on an estate. And they sound slightly better than the hatch too, with a noticeable raspy burble on full throttle upshifts. Now, I freely admit I'm a sucker for a fast estate car but too me this means I'd happily stump up the £695 extra over a five-door DSG hatch. And then I'd take it to the good folks at Revo. Now there is a combination I'd like to try.

FACT SHEET
Car: 2015 Volkswagen Golf R
Run by: James
On fleet since: March 2015
Mileage: 11,107
List price new: £32,220 (£36,055 as tested including £895 for 19-inch 'Pretoria' wheels, £1,765 for Discover Pro Nav, £815 for Dynamic Chassis Control dampers and £360 for Winter Pack).
Last month at a glance: What's better than a Golf R? A Golf R!

Previous updates:
All The Internet owns one, now PH has a Golf R!
Golf R great everyday; who'd have thought?
Track test for the Golf and it's fairly ace there too
Launch control on a Golf?
Getting rid of the electrical demons and planning more power