Yahoo Autos VW Golf R Celebrates 20 Years with More Powerful Special Edition
There's a new version of the VW Golf R to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the R-badged hot-hatch models.
The Golf R 20 Years has extra power from its turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, producing 329 hp.
VW says there will be a version of this model coming to the U.S., but it won't be exactly the same.
While the Golf R doesn't have as long of a history as the GTI, Volkswagen has been building hot hatchbacks with R badges for 20 years now. To celebrate, it's releasing a Mk 8 Golf R 20 Years edition with the expected anniversary-edition tweaks plus an upgrade for the turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four that brings on more power. The model you see here is the Europe-market version, but a VW spokesperson told C/D that a U.S. version is set to arrive later that will be slightly different.
The Golf R 20 Years' engine is tuned to produce 329 horsepower, an increase of 14 hp over the U.S.-spec car's 315 hp. There's also a feature called Emotion Start that revs the engine to 2500 rpm when you start up the car—basically just to create more noise.
Visual tweaks are subtle and include a "20" badge on the B-pillar, lights that project a "20 R" logo onto the ground, a different spoiler, and blue trim for the wheels, mirror caps, and seats.
The first R-badged Golf was the R32, based on the two-door Mk 4 hatchback, and it had a naturally aspirated 3.2-liter VR6 engine. The Mk 5 R32 continued on with this six-cylinder powerplant, while the successive Mk 6, Mk 7, and Mk 8 models have all used turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-fours.
VW says it will be sharing details about the U.S. version of the Golf R 20 Years at a later date, as it will arrive a few months after the European car.
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