VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R

Performance Golf takes us on a high-speed trip down Memory Lane, but is it fit for a family?

- Richard Ingram

IF you managed to flick though the previous 14 pages of our hot-hatch twin test, you'll surely not mind another couple on one of their toughest and best-established rivals: the Volkswagen Golf R.

It’s the latest addition to the Auto Express fleet and is a car I hold particularly close to my heart. To understand why, you'll need to rewind the best part of a decade, when I grabbed the keys to VW’s then-new Mk7 Golf R for the two-week festive break. I'd been using it to tour the country, seeing family and friends, loaded with gifts and other gubbins; everything my then-fiancée and I would need for a fortnight away from home.

Yet I don’t think I was prepared for the lasting effect it would have on me - that’s me, reminiscing in the main image. It spent a lot of its time slogging between London, Hampshire and Devon, but when it wasn’t sitting at an indicated 70mph on a monotonous stretch of the M4 or A303, it transformed into one of the finest all-rounders I’ve driven. Compliant, fun on the right road and, from what I remember, blisteringly quick point-to-point.