Had the opportunity to briefly drive the new Golf R with 300 hp yesterday. Car with dsg and very small winter tires, looked terrible. Was curious though as i used to own the predecessor with 270 hp (also 4 door with dsg). 

Was kind of skeptic as to what 30 hp difference would deliver as usually u dont really feel such a small increase (the engine is still 2.0). I must say though that I was really impressed! The car ist clearly faster than the old one, the engine has been much improved. Personally i am not so much a friend of the downsizing trend and indeed it felt to me that the engine in the old car often was too small for the car. Not anymore: throttle response at low revs has wastly improved and power delivery around 4-5000 revs is great. Engine also revs more freely than the old one. Sound is better too, but i am not sure if there is a loudspeaker working on that somewhere :-) 

I could not test the handling as i wanted and the car was on winter tires as i said, but it appeared very responsive and agile, will need to drive it again in different conditions. I must say that the audi rs4 i drove under similar circumstances did not feel much quicker. Objectively is probably was, but it also felt heavier than the Golf. This Golf seems to have much more sporty genes than its predecessor! Still it sits 4 and is comfortable witht the adaptive dampers. Additionally it now also is avalable with adaptive drive (a must imo) and the sun roof is quite large. The new navigation system Pro is just great! Could come straight out of a 991 or upper class car, lots of intelligent features. Vienna seats are unchanged and superb too. Launch control works very well, although one will never use that. 

All in all i must say i was skeptical about the improvement potential but i came away impressed. Would love to get more exposure to it dynamically, this could be a fun car! Smiley

 


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turbolite