Recently we brought you teasing sketches of the VW Golf R 400 Concept. Now Volkswagen has actually unveiled the proper car, so we can now give you photos, instead of just drawings of the 395 bhp super-hatch.
Revealed at the Auto China Show in Beijing, the R 400 is intended to display the potential of the flagship Golf R. Whether this means the potential for a limited production run is still very much debatable; this could just be VW getting in early for the Wörthersee-Treffen event in May, which has featured previous exotic Golfs such as the 2007 GTI W12-650. Volkswagen does, at least, have a track record for producing limited production versions of tuned Golf models. The Mk2 Golf G60 Limited made in the late 1980s packed over 200 bhp, with just 71 cars being produced.
Interestingly, VW cites the Mk2 G60 as inspiration for the R 400’s huge wheel arches, meaning that whoever designed this 400 PS monster clearly had the second generation Golf on their mind. Adding 20mm to the width of the car, there’s no denying those ‘arches give the R 400 added presence, along with the redesigned front bumper and carbon fibre splitter.
At the rear, there’s even more aggression in the shape of a heavily vented rear bumper, twin-deck spoiler and two fat centrally mounted exhaust pipes, mimicking the original Golf R32.
As mentioned in our earlier post, the paintwork is ‘Silver Flake’ metallic with gloss black for the roof and wing mirrors. However, we’re still no further forward understanding the ‘Lemon Yellow’ piping applied to the grille, badges and brake calipers on the outside. The Golf G60 Limited featured bright blue trim – that this may be a tribute on a similar theme is one theory we came up with.
Inside there’s more ‘Lemon Yellow’ detailing, with bucket seats covered in Alcantara and an interesting carbon effect leather. The rear gets two individual seats, as opposed to the regular bench, whilst the ‘carbon leather’ makes an appearance on the steering wheel and DSG gear knob too.
Using the existing, albeit modified, EA888 2.0 litre four-cylinder turbo engine means that there is nothing too exotic about the mechanical components used in the R 400. In fact VW only mentions a revised turbocharger as being the main component upgraded to extract the additional 99 bhp and 52 lb-ft of torque over the regular R. This, surely, adds weight to the production potential with the 4Motion drivetrain and DSG dual-clutch gearbox seemingly unchanged.
Does the world need a 174 mph Golf? No, but it’d certainly be a better place for having one in our opinion. We’ll keep hoping VW decide to pull the trigger and make it a reality.
