Skip to main content

Watch: The Golf GTI Clusport S Proves that FWD is the Correct Wheel Drive

A scant eight years ago, Renault went crazy with weight-saving fever (an affliction the autocrossers among you are no doubt familiar with) and took the back seats, back glass, sound deadening, radio, a/c and just about everything else that wasn’t absolutely central to business of driving out of its Megane and called it the R26R.

Although we did not get it here, it was, according to Drive Tribe’s Henry Catchpole, the gold standard for searing hot hatches. Taking things one step farther than the normal hot hatches, it set a Nurburgring lap record for front wheel drive cars. And though its record may have been beaten in the subsequent years, according to Catchpole, nothing has quite been as good since.

Nothing, that is, until Volkswagen decided to celebrate the Golf GTI’s birthday. Wolfsburg’s engineers weren’t quite as fever, leaving in the glass and the radio, but they did take out the back seats and put a roll cage in their place, so it’s not exactly a runabout.

The result was a Nurburgring lap record of its own (since beaten by Honda) and one of the only cars to match and perhaps exceed the Megane’s brilliance, according to Catchpole. With 300 hp, a chassis designed by the engineer behind a Porsche 911 GT3, and only one transmission option (6-speed manual), the Golf GTI Clubsport S is the business.

“Such is their brilliance,” says Catchpole summing up, “that they even question the need for all-wheel-drive.”

The post Watch: The Golf GTI Clusport S Proves that FWD is the Correct Wheel Drive appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2rmwsOS
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan

Filed under: Government/Legal , Green , Mitsubishi , Fuel Efficiency , Japan Mitsubishi says its shady fuel-economy test practices may have been used on all vehicles it sells and has sold in Japan. Continue reading Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 May 2016 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments from Autoblog Volkswagen http://ift.tt/21X3bHv
Post a Comment
Read more

More 3.0-Liter TDI Settlement Details Expected by January 31

Volkswagen and the TDI Plaintiff’s Steering Committee were in court today for another status conference following the agreement in principal reached earlier this week. Little new information was given at the conference held before Judge Charles Breyer today, but the court ordered the parties to develop a formal settlement agreement, class action notices, and a class notice plan by January 31, 2017. For now, though, owners still don’t know how much to expect in compensation. Elizabeth Cabraser, lead Counsel for the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee reaffirmed in a statement today that the compensation would be “substantial.” The potential cost to Volkswagen is widely reported to exceed $1 billion, though, with an additional $225 million going into an environmental trust to help offset excess emissions. Buy back offers are still only expected for the oldest 20,000 of the roughly 80,000 VW Group vehicles sold in America with the 3.0-liter TDI engine. Those vehicles are mostly SUVs, like ...
Post a Comment
Read more