Can Akrapovic bring some R32 magic back to the Volkswagen Golf R [Review]

16 years ago , Volkswagen released one of its most special machines .

The Mark four Golf R 32 it had a 3.2 liter naturally aspirated six cylinder V R six petrol unit , all wheel drive and a quite unique and fantastic soundtrack .

It was the first ever production car to be fitted with a DS G transmission in 2005 .

The German upped the game and gave the Mark five R 32 more power , more stylish appearance and a bare interior .

Unfortunately , the next two generations were a bit of a letdown .

They both featured two liter , four cylinder turbocharged petrol engines that produce lots of power and torque , but they've lost the thing that made the original R 32 special .

But can the new Mark 7.5 version ?

Do something about that .

Hello , everyone .

Welcome back to cartoon and welcome to the fastest golf you can buy right now .

The golf R and boy .

Oh boy .

Do I want one of these really , really bad ?

What's this golf R all about ?

You might be wondering , isn't it just a faster version of the G T I ?

You reviewed a few months ago ?

Well , no , and I'll go into more details on this topic in another video .

But the car I'm driving today has a two liter turbocharged petrol unit that can produce 310 horsepower and 400 Newton meters of torque .

It also features the all wheel drive system , bigger and better brakes and get this .

You can order the new golf R when on a crap of each exhaust from factory and now that we've got that out of the way , let's take this new golf bar to some Swedish bureaus .

Listen to that exhaust and yes , it is a factory option .

A Crapo which work their magic on this new golf R and well , I think this is the first golf that can scare pedestrians with its stock exhaust .

The brakes on this car are so good .

They're part of the performance pack .

This car has , they're bigger than the standard ones and they're two kg lighter .

They have a lovely pedal feel .

They give you real confidence when trying to slow the car down and well , they just scrub off speed so fast from the car .

And I must say that these two options , the performance pack and the avi exhaust , although they are kind of pricey put together , they really do enhance the driving experience of this new golf R .

I really do think they're worth the asking price .

I really do .

God do .

I love the dual character of this car .

It's so easy .

To drive around town , it's comfortable , it's refined , it's quiet and you don't really draw any attention to yourself .

Thanks to its understated looks and come to think of it .

This golf r fits really well into the description of a sleeper car , but put it in race mode and the steering sharpens up , the gearbox goes into its sportier setting and the throttle response sharpens up as well .

It feels just like a car that has four wheel steering .

If you know what I mean , it's really so sharp and so precise .

And when you chuck it into a corner , you almost feel like the entire car is dragged to the inside of that corner , it handles so well and it's so predictable .

It's just a lovely machine to drive fast and speaking of fast , the guilty party here is the engine which is exceptional .

It's quite unrefined when you're just cruising around , but it's powerful and punchy .

When you put your foot down , it pulls really well from anything above 2000 R PM .

Power delivery is smooth and it really never runs out of puff .

The acceleration from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour is dealt with in 4.6 seconds .

It's faster than most of his drivers and the only let down of the driving experience for me at least is the fake noise on the inside .

Have a listen .

Oh , the steering is perfectly weighted and the suspension keeps the body roll to a minimum even though it feels like it's gliding over pumps .

Like there are nothing even in their most sport of settings .

The dampers don't really upset the handling of the car at all by being too firm .

I don't know how else to put it , but it feels like this car has really sophisticated tampers .

They don't really sacrifice right quality for sports .

But somehow the car is sharper and more agile round corners than in comfort mode .

For example , the all wheel drive system is not permanent .

Meaning that in everyday use , the golf R is essentially front wheel drive .

But if the situation demands it , the all wheel drive system can set up to 50% of the power to the back wheels .

And because of that previous golf R s understeer quite a lot when you pushed them hard corners .

And , well , I'm happy to report that in this new one , they've reduced the understeer dramatically .

It's not completely gone , but it won't interfere with the driving experience as much as before .

Volkswagen threw all of his resources into developing this 7.5 generation of the Gulf .

And even the excellent DS G transmission is all new .

You now get a seven speed wet clutch unit instead of the old six speed .

And well , it's just flawless in the way it changes gear .

It's very smooth around town in comfort or normal mode .

You can barely tell when it's changing gears , even down shifts or up shifts , but it becomes very aggressive when you put the car in race mode .

It's as good as it gets when it comes to automatics .

Now , obviously , this car isn't perfect .

No car is for that matter .

And there are a few things that I don't really like about it .

So make sure you subscribe because I have an entire video on that topic coming up very soon .

But all in all I really like this car .

I think this is the most exciting golf I've ever driven .

And beside being quick , practical and comfortable , this new one also has tons of character and personality .

And in my opinion , that's the key ingredient that was missing in the last two versions of this car .

And you know what the best thing about the golf R is , you can buy it as an estate version .

How cool is that ?

But anyway , my friends , this has been my review for the new golf R .

I really hope you've enjoyed it .

If you did , please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to cartoon for lots more content to come .

We've made a golf R versus BMW M two comparison .

Just for fun .

Yeah .

Yeah .

So stay tuned if you don't wanna miss that and until next time , take good care of yourself and I'll see you around .