The VW Golf R Is Now Less Powerful And No Longer Available With A Manual
The Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (or WLTP) has claimed its latest victim. Having led to the demise of Jaguar’s supercharged V6 vehicles in the Europe (and, we’ve since discovered, the only recently introduced XJR 575), the VW Golf R has been hit by the more stringent, more realistic emissions test.
But don’t panic: it will stay on sale, albeit with a drop in power. Having been bumped up to 306bhp during last year’s facelift, it’s now been, erm, bumped back down to where it was. The car now produces 296bhp. A VW UK spokesperson told Autocar that “in the context of new homologations” it’s been necessary to make “adaptions for the exhaust gas treatment and for the power output”. No technical details were given, but this presumably means a more restrictive exhaust, perhaps with a petrol particulate filter included.
Current orders are affected, and VW will be in touch with buyers to let them know that they’re missing out on an extra 10 ponies. We’ve driven the car in both 296bhp and 306bhp forms, and we can confirm that the difference isn’t really noticeable.
It’s not the only change for the car though: the manual gearbox option has been dropped in the UK and Germany at least - we’re waiting to hear back from VW to see if this affects other markets too. It’s unclear if this is WLTP related - it may just be due to low demand, with the dual-clutch ‘DSG’ automatic version being the clear favourite up until now.
The Seat Leon Cupra - which uses the same VW Group EA888 inline-four turbo engine - has been hit by WLTP too. It’s dropped from 296bhp to 286bhp, although it’s a little more awkward for Seat, which has been badging the car as the ‘Cupra 300’ to tie in with its PS power rating. It’ll go back to being dubbed ‘Cupra 290’, as it was known before the last update.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I know which mod I’ll do first…
Exhaust 4 lyfe
Cough remap cough
Nuuuuuuu! Well, then it’s Focus RS for me :)
Which is out of production.
Can’t upvote bad news :(
WLTP is so stupid.
First, they cancel my beloved V6 jags and then they make the R and the Cupra less powerful. The Cupra R is also probably effected. Who will be the bext victim?
Why victim? It’s been known for a very long time, that WLTP will come this autumn. VW just didn’t give a sh*t because they put too much trust in their lobbyists. That didn’t work out, so now they come up with these cheap solutions
Noooooooooooo!
It’s still the same engine, so just do a litte software-tuning and you have more power than before.
The article said it had something to do with the exhaust though, so you’d have to replace that.
I think we’re becoming too obsessed with power. Power shouldn’t be a driving factor for hot hatches but rather pure unadulterated fun. If I were to buy the R, I wouldn’t mind paying for less power as long as the car weighs less and handles better.
I agree
But the R doesn’t handle better or weigh less with the power decrease…
With awd, it should be ober 350hp in my opinion. 300 hp is near todays gti category and i don’t really see the point of a golf r with ‘’so few’’ horsepower. It will surely get tuned, but will the performance gain justify picking one over a gti or a cupra?
But it’s an auto now
I really don’t care about the 10 horsepower. But no manual is a shame for a non-premium hot-hatch.
Hoenstly all people that I know who drive a Golf R own it in black, with tinted windows, 2 doors and DSG. Literally never saw any other spec
Unfortunately, car manufacturers don’t care about manuals because at the end of the day, the people who can actually afford their performance cars brand new are more interested in automatics. The only people I personally know that are die-hard manual fans are usually broken driving a car from the 90’s
Never really liked it anyway. For me, the GTI was the better car since it was less serious about all-out performance.
A step by VW itself to silently kill a Golf R, number one.
You my friend are a complete idiot. Theres no way in hell that VW is going to ever kill the Golf R. Period