Volkswagen Golf R 400: Super-Golf GTI 400hp

2015 Volkswagen Golf R 400

Earlier this year at the Beijing Auto Show, Volkswagen unveiled a concept hatchback known as the Golf R 400. It sported all the understated looks and cleanly hewn lines of the standard Golf R but with one rather notable addition, a power bump to the tune of around 400 horsepower.

2015 Volkswagen Golf R 400

Understandably, fan reception was good. So good in fact that this Golf to rule all other Golfs will allegedly go into production and could be heading to a Volkswagen dealership near you.

Though yet to be confirmed by Volkswagen, the UK’s CAR magazine is reporting that a production-ready R 400 is a sure thing, and expected to make its debut at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show just ahead of a late-2015 ship date. Final output figures are still unknown, but the publication’s sources indicate somewhere in the area of 400 to 414 horsepower.

2015 Volkswagen Golf R 400

So where will those 400-plus-horsepowers come from? Astonishingly, it’ll be a high-output variant of the Golf R’s current 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder, which produces a punchy 292 horsepower as stock. We’ve already seen this tuned version in both the Golf R 400 concept as well as the 420-horsepower Audi TT Sport Quattro concept. If the car does get the green light, it should spin up all four wheels quite readily.

Befitting its massive horsepower figure, the potent Golf is pegged to receive subtle aerodynamic tweaks and beefy brakes. Though since it has to roll down the same Wolfsburg production line in tandem with every other Golf, wheelbase and other hard figures are expect to remain unchanged.

So what makes this hatchback so special? As indicated in the name, the "400" in Golf R 400 is a reference to the 400-horsepower engine lurking beneath the hood.


All of those ponies are generated by a 2.0 turbocharged inline 4-cylinder engine the 400 shares with the regular Golf R (the Golf R cranks out 292 horsepower). All of this translates to a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 173 mph: Porsche territory.

The price? That too is unknown, but estimates price it less than €50,000 in Germany, which would put it somewhere in the $62,000 range on these shores … if it even arrives. Stay tuned for more on this.