With the regular 2024 Volkswagen Golf and GTI Mk8.5 already unveiled earlier this year, it’s now time for the top dog Golf R facelift to make its debut. And the headline for this mid-cycle update? Extra firepower.
The new 2024 Volkswagen Golf R is still powered by the same EA888 2.0-litre turbocharged inline-four engine, but its outputs have been turned up to now supply 333 hp and 420 Nm, or 14 hp more than the outgoing model.
With that extra horsepower, Volkswagen says that the new 2024 Golf R can now complete the 0-100 km/h sprint in just 4.6 seconds. Like before, it still gets the seven-speed DSG gearbox and 4Motion all-wheel drive system, the latter with R Performance Torque Vectoring that further divides power to the individual wheel on the rear axle.
Top speed is limited to 250 km/h, though opting for the R-Performance package raises it up to 270 km/h – making it the fastest VW production model alongside the Arteon R Shooting. Sounds good? Well, not so fast – because like the GTI, the 2024 Volkswagen Golf R has now dropped the option for a manual gearbox, so your only choice now is to use the flappy paddles behind your steering wheel. Boo.
ALSO READ: Volkswagen Golf Mk8.5 debuts – manual dropped but GTI gets power boost
As a bit of a consolation, the new 2024 Volkswagen Golf R gets a redesigned front end with new aerodynamic bumpers with brake cooling ducts, LED Plus headlights (upgradeable to IQ.Lights LED matrix items), and the illuminated VW emblem and light strip above the grille as standard.
The 18-inch Jerez wheels are standard on the 2024 Golf R, but customers can also opt for a Performance Package that swaps it out for the 19-inch Estoril design, alongside a large roof spoiler, G-meter, a GPS lap timer, and two new driving modes – Drift and Special. The former is pretty self-explanatory, while the latter is specifically tuned for the Nürburgring Nordschleife for the car to better handle the track’s wild undulations.
Inside, the 2024 Volkswagen Golf R now gets the new 12.9-inch infotainment touchscreen atop the dashboard, which offers reworked software and the ChatGPT-powered voice assistant feature. The 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster also gets new R-specific displays.
If you do want to amp the interior up a little bit more, you now also get the option to have real carbon fibre trims applied onto the dashboard and door cards, though the standard equipment is already a “carbon-look” design, and we’re not so sure many people can tell the difference.
Also, we don’t know why the Golf R still gets touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel, instead of the actual buttons the GTI and standard Golf now have, but VW says that the responsiveness have been “optimised”… so there’s that.
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