Volkswagen: lots of driving fun in the Golf TCR 🎥
RENNSPORT-GENE The production sports model derived from the TCR race touring car delivers tremendous driving pleasure. No Golf GTI from Wolfsburg has ever been this fast without tuning. The Golf R may be more powerful and faster at the top. But with the GTI TCR model, Volkswagen has crowned its sporty endurance runner for everyday use. The tame brother of the Golf R, which has been [...]
The Golf R may be more powerful and faster at the top. However, with the GTI TCR model, Volkswagen has crowned its sporty endurance runner for everyday use for the time being. The tame brother of the touring car, which is successful in a number of racing series according to TCR regulations (front-wheel drive cars with a maximum two-liter turbo engine), has nothing to hide on the racetrack either.
Not an empty promise
When you step on the gas pedal and brake, when changing gear via the 7-speed DSG, when turning in, during load changes, simply in all areas, you can feel that the engineers from Wolfsburg have kept their word - this really is a Golf with racing genes and not just the most powerful GTI in the current model range.
Of course, it is still no comparison to the pure racing car, which we were also able to drive for a few laps on the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão. In the touring car, the four-cylinder turbo delivers 350 hp and 420 Nm to the front wheels, in the now standard offshoot it is 290 hp and 380 Nm. This is enough to sprint from 0 to 100 in 5.6 seconds and reach a top speed of either 250 or 260 km/h on the German autobahn or a racetrack.
Even professional racing driver Florian Thoma, who has already driven the Golf GTI TCR to various successes, is enthusiastic about its qualities.
Lots of know-how from the TCR
You can see and hear that the 23-year-old from Bern really means it. Compared to his Golf GTI Performance with Abt tuning, which he is allowed to use for business trips as an official brand ambassador for Volkswagen Switzerland, the 45 hp Golf GTI TCR is a different car.
Florian Thoma: "The Golf GTI TCR is more agile, much more tuned for racing. The chassis is much more direct. You never understeer, as is the case with many front-wheel drive cars. And you can easily get it to oversteer. There really is a lot of know-how from the TCR car in there."
A sports car at an economy price
The differential lock adopted from the Golf GTI Performance ensures that the wheels do not tend to spin in every bend. The high-performance brake system with perforated discs and special pads brings the 1410-kilogram GTI TCR to a halt in no time at all. Deceleration values almost on a par with a sports car. With the difference that it costs a fraction of the price of a sports car and comfortably seats five people and their luggage.
From CHF 45,950 - just CHF 2250 more than for the "normal" GTI and CHF 5900 less than for the Golf R with 310 PS and 4WD - you have been a TCR driver with a license to enjoy since January 2019. For an extra charge, there are two so-called wheel packages with a special sporty set-up and 19-inch wheels instead of the standard 18-inch wheels.
They make the experience on the country road, on the highway or on a racetrack (with semi-slicks) even greater. And thus increase the risk of not wanting to get out of the car. But the buyer is certainly happy to take this risk.
