Volkswagen Golf Race Car Concept

Move over Golf R, you are no longer the most insane Volkswagen Golf produced by the German automaker. The above picture race car concept would easily blow any street version of the R out of the water and the competition wouldn’t even be all that close (as is normally the case with a race car versus street car).

Having said this the concept is based on the street car and then it has been given steroids. The power alone from that turbocharged engine is enough to make most VW fans wish they could get that in a street car.

For more about the Volkswagen Golf Racing Concept click past the jump (or scroll down if you came directly to the full article).

At the heart of the Golf Race Car is a turbocharged 2.0-liter four cylinder engine sourced from the Golf R that manages 330 horsepower. A six-speed DSG gearbox helps get power to the front wheels (yes even the racing version is front/wheel drive). With all that power in a layout prone to understeer it will be interesting to see how skilled drivers are able to manage it around the track.

The horsepower may only be 34 more than the R, but thanks to weight reduction it should be quite a bit quicker around a circuit. Having said that, we would be surprised if they could get 400 horsepower out of that power plant.

You won’t have to wait long for the concept to make its racing debut. It has been built to meet Touringcar Racer International Series (TCR) requirements and will be tested in real world races for the rest of the season. That makes the first race this weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

“The newly created TCR category provides a promising platform for customer racing – on a national and international level. With exciting races, production-based technology and reasonable costs, it offers a new outlook for private racing teams,” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito. “When developing the Golf-based concept car, we are able to fall back on the resources at Volkswagen. This reduces both development time and costs. We will also use the rest of the season to test the car under competitive conditions and evaluate a possible customer racing project from 2016.”

Volkswagen Group also owns SEAT and they will be able to gain knowledge learned from the Leon Cup Racer. Add this to what will be learned in real competition and the finished product could be a good one.

Below is the remaining schedule for the TCR season.

July 11th and 12th Austria (Spielberg)

September 19th and 20th Singapore

October 24th and 25th Thailand (Buriram)

November 21st and 22nd Macau