No, it’s not the fastest compact car on the Nordschleife, but it’s still the fastest Golf R: VW has made the strongest of the Golfs even tougher and given it the nickname “20 Years”. With a time of 7:47.31 minutes, the jubilarian undercut the production model by at least four seconds on the 20.832 km long traditional route in the Eifel.
The particularly sporty version for the 20th anniversary is 10 kW more powerful than the current Golf R series model. Motorized like this, the Golf “20 Years” accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.6 seconds, its electronically limited top speed is 270 km/h. The responsiveness has also been improved. But an increase in output of 13 hp in the two-liter turbo is not enough for four seconds on the Nordschleife, the “20 Years” has also received a number of other standard special equipment, such as an “R-Performance Package”, a driving dynamics manager and “R-Performance Torque Vectoring”, as VW calls the features. There are also two new driving modes, Special and Drift, with the former tuning the vehicle specifically to the Nordschleife. This also means that the dampers are set rather softly and comfortably because of the bumpy track. As one of 15 possible settings for the controlled shock absorbers, this should guarantee optimal road contact on slopes with lots of bumps, such as here at the Nürburgring. Together with the adjusted steering wheel and drive setting, the large number of fast and medium-fast corners on the Nordschleife can be taken optimally. Engine retuned The changed shift characteristics of the 7-speed gearbox promise more intensive feedback when changing gears, the exhaust should sound better in the low speed range and the The engine not only sounds rougher in general, it has also been tuned differently: The preloaded turbocharger is kept at a constant speed even when overrun, which means that the engine develops its power more quickly during the subsequent acceleration. The process is supported by the permanently open throttle valve. When decelerating and accelerating again, this allows torque to build up more quickly. The fastest compact car on the Nordschleife is a close relative of the VW Golf R: the Audi RS 3.
source site-13