How’s this for a racy Golf? It’s called the Volkswagen Golf R 400 concept, and it’s based on the latest Mk7 Golf R road car. It shows the potential of the high-performance hatch.
Volkswagen has tweaked pretty much all areas of the car, including, perhaps predominately, the engine. The 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder is boosted from 221kW to a whopping 294kW. Torque is also lifted from 380Nm to 450Nm.
Out on the tarmac, accelerating from 0-100km/h takes just 3.9 seconds. This makes it around 1.0 second quicker than the factory model. A limited top speed is also raised from 250km/h to 280km/h.
In terms of styling and exterior revisions, the Golf R 400 is about 20mm wider than the factory model thanks to bolstered wheel arches. These pay respect to those featured on the 1998 Rallye Golf G60. The arches envelop a set of 19-inch alloy wheels wearing 235/35 tyres.
There’s also a neat bodykit, with a carbon fibre front spoiler and side wings, side skirts, and a chunky rear diffuser and a black spoiler at the back. Most of the body is painted in a special ‘Silver Flake’ metallic theme. Twin exhausts poke out in the middle, measuring 110mm in diameter.
Stepping inside you’ll see most of the upholstery has been swapped for a more sporty Alcantara and carbon leather theme, with big bucket seats in the front to hold passengers in. Some Lemon Yellow stitching adds contrast and makes the interior more lively.
Unfortunately, Volkswagen has no plans to put this beast into production any time soon. At the very least, it shows the company is an enthusiast at heart and still has the ability to create such projects. Fingers crossed some inspiration is taken from this for a future production model.
