SPY PICS: Volkswagen Golf R cabrio

Volkswagen’s Golf R Cabriolet is due to become a bitumen-eating reality as photographs emerge of a prototype recently caught testing at the Nurburgring in Germany.

The hot-shot soft-top, which was previewed as a concept in 2011 at GTI-Worthersee meeting in Austria, will be powered by the 199kW/350Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine used in the Golf R hatch.

It will drive all four wheels through Volkswagen’s 4Motion all-wheel drive system, tuned for proactive engagement and capable of directing as much as 100 per cent of its power to the back wheels if appropriate.

Seen in these Carparazzi photos in restrained Golf GTI trim, the car is expected to morph into something altogether more aggressive by the time it reaches production.

19-inch wheels (maybe identical to the five-spokers seen on the prototype), sports suspension, high-performance brakes and a big-bore centre exhaust outlet are all expected to make the cut. The Golf R Cabriolet should also get a body kit with a more menacing front-end, side skirts and rear fascia.

And it would be no loose prediction to say the Cabriolet will replicate the hatchback Golf R’s interior, with Recaro sports seats, piano black trim and the odd touch of carbon-fibre.

Volkswagen is talking about zero to 100km/h times below six seconds and a top speed of 250km/h – pretty much the same as the Golf R hatch.

If the cabrio is anything like the hatch, these figures could prove conservative as our testers have in the past recorded Golf R 0-100km/h times in the low five-second bracket. Our Golf R engine, at 188kW/320Nm, is less powerful than the Euro engines too...

European introduction dates are purely speculative at present, but the Paris Motor Show in September could be a good guess.

- With Carparazzi

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