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Hot Hatch Volkswagen Golf R Coming to the United States

The European Volkswagen Golf R, a car lovingly called a hot hatch by the British, is coming to the United States by the end of 2011. Top Gear calls it “unbelievably good” – it’s about time it came to our shores.

The announcement was made by Jonathan Browning, CEO of Volkswagen America at a meeting of the International Motor Press Association in Manhattan that TorqueNews.com attended. It came in the midst of other remarks about the future of the brand, which is aiming for world dominance (seriously) by 2018.

The Golf R is the most powerful VW hatch ever built. It has gobs and gobs of power. The Golf R’s 2.0-liter turbo churns out 256 horsepower. A car can rightly be called high performance when it turns out 100 horsepower per liter. The Golf R accomplishes that and then 50 percent more. It will come in only a six-speed manual transmission.

Other outstanding features of this hot hatch include 18-inch wheels, a sport tuned suspension (but of course) and sport electronic stability, which seems like the electronic stability will be less of an electronic nanny and more like a fun uncle who lets you sip a little beer when you’re a kid. It also has 4th generation Haldex 4Motion all wheel drive.

Browning claims that the Golf R is his favorite car in the Volkswagen portfolio. He drove one for three months while in assignment in Germany and made it sound like they had to pry his fingers off the steering wheel when it came time to leave.

He did add that there is no announcement about the Scirocco coming to the US market.

Automotive News
Volkswagen

Comments

Patrick Rall    December 9, 2010 - 10:43PM

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You know, with all of the popularity of these "hot hatches", its a wonder that the Caliber SRT4 didnt do better. The car made more power then than the hot hatches of today, yet it was a pretty severe flop...i suppose that it says something about the styling.