Volkswagen Golf R: Does this new engine and platform reform the buttoned-down R?

摘要

The catchment area for the already ill-defined category beyond 'standard' hot hatches has become even more hazy recently. The new Seat Leon Cupra, blessed with 276bhp in its more powerful format, arguably earns a place at one end of it - despite costing only very marginally more than a regular Volkswagen Golf GTI - while at the opposite extreme, Mercedes-Benz or, more accurately, AMG has almost left the reservation entirely with the outrageous and very pricey 355bhp A45. That leaves a Sudetenland-sized tract of real estate available in between, which this week's subject - the new Golf R -appears well qualified to annex.