In the middle of the industry mess that has become the Volkswagen diesel scandal, consumers have lost a lot. We have lost trust in a company, we have lost potential new turbo diesel motors from other manufacturers, and we have lost and entire gaggle of executives and employees, many of whom where known advocates for buyers and owners (looking at you Herr Horn). Now though, it seems that the pendulum of loss has swung in our direction once more, and carried with it the tears of a million enthusiasts. The Golf R400 project has officially been killed.
Revealed as a concept at first, the Golf R400 took the already phenomenal Golf R and cranked its horsepower up by more than 30-percent to 400 angry ponies. This would have made the little VW one of the most powerful and fastest hatches available in the world. After the public swooned and clamored over the concept, VW decided it was going to do a limited run series of the super-hatch. All of that has been retracted and the R400 is no officially dead.
Now this is not all bad news. Automotive News claims they have information from inside sources that say the Golf R400’s motor will live on in future products, likely from Audi. Other bits of info from the report say that some of the technology and weight savings being developed for the R400 will instead trickle down to the Regular Golf R. While power won’t increase by much, if at all, it is expected the car could shed as much as 300 pounds, making it perform dramatically better.
