Talk about a tease. A breaking report from AutomotiveNews says that Volkswagen is apparently axing the highly-anticipated Golf R400 as a result of the damage done by Dieselgate.
The sad news was apparently voiced by some “insiders” at the company, after former research and development chief, Heinz-Jakob Neusser, confirmed that the Golf R400 Concept from the Beijing Auto Show a while back, was headed for production.
But now, it appears that this won’t happen at all.
This bit of news comes in after Volkswagen reported even greater losses and the need to dedicate more money to the “relief” fund being used to fix the issues that plagued the Wolfsburg-based auto giant. So far, Dieselgate damage estimates have leveled off at costing the company around $11.2 billion.
This so-called “Super Golf” would’ve featured Volkswagen’s most powerful production 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder with around 400-420hp. The name was also changed to the R420 because they were gunning for 420hp in the production model. It would’ve handled the power with 4MOTION all-wheel drive and a DSG gearbox. There were even prototypes based off of the latest Golf R spotted.
But now, that’s not going to happen any more since the business case for the Golf R420 was entirely butchered by Dieselgate.
So, there’s that. Are there alternatives? Luckily, yes.
Volkswagen said in place of the R420, they want to focus on the next-generation flagship Golf R, which could lose around 300lbs and still get a more powerful 2.0L turbo four than the one currently on offer.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: AutomotiveNews
Source: egmCarTech http://bit.ly/1rDnYDJ
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