VW Golf R

The Mk8 Golf R has never really wowed us. But can the Mk8.5 change all that? A drive in a prototype version provides some clues

- YOUSUF ASHRAF

'BE CAREFUL, THIS IS THE ACTUAL CAR we'll be timing at the Nürburgring,' says Volkswagen R engineer Jonas Thielebein as I open the door to a pre-production Mk8.5 Golf R in the paddock of Germany's Lausitzring. It'll be a little while before we see the final car, but it's clear that the camouflage isn't hiding any sort of radical redesign, and the signs are that it won't be much different to drive than the Mk8 either. 'It was a case of refining a few things,' says Thielebein. 'We were very happy with what we had before.

It's fair to say that evo's assessment of the Mk8 R hasn't been quite as positive as that. It's a hot hatch we respect rather than adore, one which makes its performance effortlessly accessible but somehow doesn't deliver the satisfaction of the very best. On some of our favourite roads its point-to-point speed has left a big impression with a willingness to carry good momentum almost everywhere. However, alongside Honda's Civic Type R, with its crisper responses and sports car-like sensations, you feel that your inputs have far less influence on the car's behaviour in the VW. It's a good part of why the Type R won evo's 18-car hot hatch megatest in issue 318, while the Golf only just scraped into the top ten.

But this is a new day, a new(ish) car and a chance to approach the Golf R with a fresh mind. The Mk8.5 is very much an evolution of the recipe rather than an overhaul, and pretty much all of the mechanical hardware is carried over from the Mk8. The MQB platform is unchanged (and shared with the likes of the Audi S3 and Skoda Octavia VRS), so too the seven-speed DSG gearbox and four-wheel drive. The latter uses a variable torquevectoring differential to apportion power between the rear wheels, with the ability to overdrive the outside rear to rotate the car through corners - or induce bigger angles when using the track-only Drift mode.