2018 Golf 7.5 R

THE TORQUE POST

Hello and welcome to The Torque Post!

My name is Chris. I got into cars at a young age and have been hooked ever since. I grew up around many types of vehicles from pick-up trucks to tractors and from Mercedes to VW.

End of last year I moved to Johannesburg and that’s where my love of cars took off to a whole new level. I was introduced to track racing and car meets, which I was never brave enough to attend. I was also lucky enough to get a gig translating articles from German to English for Motor Magazine.

Anyway, enough of me and let’s get into this week’s article! As promised: THE GOLF 7.5 R

POWER: 213KW

TORQUE: 380 N.M.

0 TO 100 KM/H: 4.6s

MOTOR: TURBO INLINE 4

GEARBOX: 7 SPEED DSG

·       Data from Cars.co.za

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Volkswagen Driving Academy High Performance Driving Course in which I was able to push the R to its limit.

The academy is based at Zwartkops race way which is located in Centurion, Gauteng. It boasts a Skidpan, Kart track and a 2,8 Kilometer race track that has a hairpin, straight, chicane and an uphill and downhill. It is also the slowest track in South Africa.  

The day started on the skidpan in we got to explore the cars handling. Let me say it handles like a dream in sport mode, but the moment you put it into normal mode and suspension relaxes, it does not handle well at all. It kind of wallows a bit and struggles to put down power.

Driving from the meet up venue to the skidpan in normal mode, I discovered that everyday driving would be hell in this car. The suspension is rock hard and does not absorb any of bumps on the road and sends the shock wave right up the spine.

The Golf R uses a Haldex system to send the power to all for corners. It is however, front wheel drive biased and only sends the power to rear wheels if it is needed such as when it starts to oversteer or understeer.

The second part of the day and the part of the day which I was looking forward to the most was the track driving experience. Let me say that the car is amazing on the track! The suspension, chassis and engine are set up for this!

The car corners like it is on rails and pulls away like a cheetah who just spotted its dinner. The acceleration is amazing, and the quick shifts (curtesy of the DSG ‘box, quickest in the business) make sure that there is power on tap for when you exit the corner and need the power to chase down that lap time!  

The exhaust note is something that come with an age restriction! The system burps and snorts and sounds angry even in normal mode. Put it into race mode and the exhaust valves open and then the noise is something that is ungodly!

At the end of each of these weekly reviews, I will give each car I review a rating out of 5.

So what would I give the Golf R?

4 OUT 5

Now this next section is for those of you who don't like reading a such a long Article or, I'll give the benefit of the doubt, don't have time in todays fast paced world:

TL;DR:

Good: Race mode, chassis and suspension

Bad: Not a good daily car

Keep an eye out for next weeks post about my Road Trip from Jo'Burg to Cape Town in a 2015 Polo 1.2 TSI Comfortline.