I just did 2 test drives. Lovely car, you can feel the weight difference from the GTi (which weighs less), naturally slower off the lines. In the higher spectrum of the KMs, the car doesn't require much rev at all
Maybe it needs to be broken in and taken track-side to really feel the difference
Not saying its a bad car. It's a lovely piece of work. Worth making the switch from a GTi to the R badge... hard to qualify just yet.
Since I am hesitating on which car out of these 2 brilliant hatches to buy; I wanted to compare test-drive both before flying back home to place an order, so I went for a comparison drive with a friend (Mk6 GTI owner) last week-end, (both cars 2 doors DSG, and 18') here's what our shared impressions were:
On a straight off the line start;
The GTI feels so instant-torquey, you feel an immediate surge as soon as you hit the accelerator, however higher in the revs the acceleration settles, the pace becomes very linear.
The R definitely has turbo lag (especially if you compare it to the GTI), however as soon as the torque band opens the R is noticeably quicker and the acceleration feel keeps on increasing until red line.
I have read so much about the GTI being "quicker off the line", well it does feel so but only for about the first 1000 rpms off idle, because past this point the acceleration of the R is much more impressive and keeps on increasing rather than settling.
On the outside? After several tries on a straight off the line start side by side, at no point the GTI front bumper came out ahead and (obviously) the R quickly started to widen the distance gap.
On the bends and twists;
The GTI is very nimble, we did have the impression that it feels more agile and composed than the heavier R, even (surprisingly) more reactive. At higher speeds though understeer remains the enemy despite XDS. The R does have a slight tendency to understeer, but the rear of the car is much more involved; at some point it did not even feel like a golf
, and rather than being limited on the bends at (much) higher speeds the golf R surprised us with a "whole new world" of track-oriented feel.
Bottom line:
Thx VW for these 2 amazing cars. The performance feeling of the GTI is more accessible and immediate, the R demands (just a tiny bit) more to reveal its more extreme arsenal.
The tarmac grip-grading in my country is rather low, and I have lots of twists and bends to play with on my daily commuting so I went for the R