We’ve yet to see the Volkswagen Golf Mk8 officially hit our shores in any guise, but there’s good news in store. Not only will we get the new GTI next year, but a new Golf R is coming as well. Even better: We don’t have long to wait for the new top-dog Golf to arrive.
Thanks to a tweet from RallyCross champion and former Top Gear America host Tanner Foust, we have a reveal date. The new Volkswagen Golf R will debut on November 4. The trailer below is more a promo for the R brand, but we do see the Golf R for a split second:
What do we know so far?
The clip did show a distinctive feature of the 2022 Volkswagen Golf R: its new headlights and LED light bar. We don’t see much more in terms of styling, but we can extrapolate what it will look like based on the Mk8 GTI and the standard Golf. For the R, expect different wheels, as well as a bespoke hatch spoiler and slightly different front and rear bumper designs. The latter of the two should accommodate quad exhaust outlets, as the Mk7 did.
We expect the new Golf R to retain a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine under the hood. However, this time VW will reportedly turn up the wick to around 330 horsepower. That power should route through a DSG dual-clutch gearbox to all four wheels. And if you’re an enthusiast asking, “wait, where’s my manual transmission?”, have a seat. While we are still waiting for official information, there’s nothing to suggest a six-speed manual option will accommodate the next-gen Golf R. After all, the final year of the last model didn’t offer a manual transmission, because so few people buy them. In fact, in 2019 only 4,223 people bought a Golf R period.
One reason for that is its price. At just over $40,000, the last Volkswagen Golf R was a big ask over the GTI, which offers 90 percent of the fun with front-wheel drive. This time around, we expect the price to go up from there, though we likely won’t have an official MSRP for several months.
Stay tuned for more updates!
