VW tees up even more Golf variants in bid to become No.1 carmaker

March 28, 2014 by Alastair Sloane

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Golf-GTI-Club-Sport-...-motorsport-edition — Golf-GTI-Club-Sport

VW-Golf-R-...-Audi-rival — VW-Golf-R-…-Audi-rival

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Volkswagen is cashing in on the award-winning Golf by spinning off one new variant after another, all in a bid to help replace Toyota as the world’s biggest carmaker by 2018.

The standard front-drive, seventh-generation Golf hatchback of 2012 was followed in 2013 by the front-drive GTi, followed this year by the front-drive Golf station wagon and a Performance-badged version of the GTi, followed last week in New Zealand by the all-wheel-drive Golf R, the flyer in the line-up.

Now photographers from spy agency Automedia have captured the Golf R all-wheel-drive wagon testing on Germany’s Nurburgring circuit. Not only that but they found yet another Golf variant on a public road leading to the circuit, this one escorted by two official VW support vehicles. One cameraman said the “support crew were clearly less than amused to see us at work.”

There is speculation in German motoring media that the GTi with the Wiechers badge (Wiechers is a motorsport development team) is in fact a sanctioned VW prototype with lowered suspension, front and rear spoilers and an upgraded 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine that delivers around 190kW – about 27kW more than the Performance GTi and roughly 30 fewer kilowatts than the Golf R. Reports say it is likely to be badged the Golf GTi Club Sport and used in a special motorsport series.

There is just as much speculation around the Golf R wagon. VW has acknowledged that it is indeed testing the all-wheel-drive car but says it hasn’t decided whether to put it into production. One obvious rival, if not in price, would be the in-house Audi A4 Avant.

If VW does decide to build it, the load-lugger will come with the same performance modifications as the Golf R hatchback, including its boosted 221kW engine.

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

A go-anywhere EV concept for the US military uses an onboard 12kW diesel generator to top up the batteries on the move. The all-wheel-drive has 800-volt technology and a 200kWh battery pack to power three electric motors, two in the rear and one up front. Claimed output is 745kW/15,590Nm, or 1000hp and 11,500 ft-lb of torque. The four-seater was developed by the defence division of General Motors and is based on the platform of the Hummer SUV. It rides on Fox performance shock absorbers and 37-inch tyres and comes with “exceptional” approach and departure angles for off-road mobility. Maximum range using the generator to keep things ticking over is said to be around 500km.

The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.