It’s been speculated about since the Golf 8 GTI made its debut, it has also been spotted testing at the Nurburgring and today the Mk8 VW Golf R finally broke cover.

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Bespoke appearance

The newest hot hatch to join the market gets a number of model-specific touches to differentiate from its siblings. These include a new front bumper with a splitter, R-specific air intakes and 19-inch alloy wheels. The rear has a quartet of tailpipes poking out of the bumper. Bespoke touches in the cabin include R branded seats, logos and an “R” button on the steering wheel, which allows quick access to a race mode.

Most powerful

The Mk8 VW Golf R sits atop the Golf pecking order. With all-wheel-drive the variant typically has the most powerful engine of any Golf on sale. The same holds true for this Mk8 version. A turbocharged 2,0-litre engine delivers 235 kW of power and 430 N.m of torque. This outputs make it the most powerful series production Golf of all time. Drive, as is usual for R derivatives, is sent to all four wheels. The standard transmission is a dual-clutch seven-speed item called DSG.

Thanks to the added grip provided by the 4Motion system, Volkswagen says the Mk8 Golf R can sprint from rest to 100 km/h in 4,7 seconds. Top speed is limited to 250 km/h, which can be lifted by 20 km/h with an optional R-Performance package. VW says the new all-wheel-drive system is controlled by R-Performance Torque Vectoring that distributes power to the four driven wheels. A new rear diff divides power between the front and rear axles, and also between the two rear wheels. This allows for tail-out antics with a drift mode that is part of the car’s driver selectable modes. VW says the latest Golf R is up to 19 seconds quicker per lap around Nürburgring Nordschleife than its predecessor with a time of 07 min 51 sec.