Had the opportunity today to drive mk7 gti golf manual with performance pack and the all new mk7 golf r dsg.

Gti drove almost the same as my octavia Vrs. Both great motors but I could swear my Vrs was stronger than the 230 bhp in the golf. I put this down to my motor coming up on 7k miles so well bedded in.

The r was a real disappointment. Only felt slightly stronger at the top end and in no way worth the extra 6k and 8 month wait on a Vrs.

Just shows how far skoda have came along the last few years. Still love this wee motor

The diff on the GTI makes a huge difference. You can plant your foot when accelerating out of or round a cornor..more nimble on b roads to.

But vRS great cars 2.

Yes the diff was nice but unfortunately not available on the vrs.

Yes the diff was nice but unfortunately not available on the vrs.

It's also good value on the vw as it costs the same as a set of 19"wheels...but even better value on the Seat Cupra as its standard..I think the air inside the vw was extra also..typical vw

Had the opportunity today to drive mk7 gti golf manual with performance pack and the all new mk7 golf r dsg.

Gti drove almost the same as my octavia Vrs. Both great motors but I could swear my Vrs was stronger than the 230 bhp in the golf. I put this down to my motor coming up on 7k miles so well bedded in.

The r was a real disappointment. Only felt slightly stronger at the top end and in no way worth the extra 6k and 8 month wait on a Vrs.

Just shows how far skoda have came along the last few years. Still love this wee motor

 

Totally agree re the Golf R, however it is a 1.54 t car (with the extra doors) in comparison to the 1.35 t VRS and if you spec the R with all the goodies, well it would tip the scales well over 1.6 t. Overall the power and torque to weight difference isn't that big hence why you'll only really see the advantage perhaps on the initial grip and maybe a little top end,..

 

Don't get me wrong, it is a great car, however the margin just isn't big enough for me too.

 

The bottom line for me though was I needed the practicality and a few thrills and there isn't many cars that can do both as well as the VRS.

 

I did try the Cupra 280 DSG although the dreaded window whistle from the drivers door and a few rattles put me off straight away,...

I went to the seat dealer across the road but they only had low spec models. Would've like to have got a run in the 280 but they didn't have one and the sales guys were not interested so I walked. I did sit in the lower spec one and the interior quality is a step or two down from the octavia IMO

Golf R is significantly faster in every way?

Go and take a drive in one, it's not significantly faster in day to day driving

Golf R is significantly faster in every way?

Might be in 3 door standard spec, not in the 5 door full spec I tried,...it is heavy car compared to the VRS,.....190bhp/ton vs about 165 bhp/ton,...

 

Not the huge step I thought it would be,........

Go and take a drive in one, it's not significantly faster in day to day driving

In the same way the 1.4 octavia isn't much slower in day to day

Can't comment as haven't driven the 1.4. But off the top of my head the torque is 258 for the golf gti, gti pp, golf r, cupra and most of the very recent vag 2.0tsi engines which brings weight/drivetrain loss very much into play. The higher horsepower is only noticeable well up the rev range hence they feel similar day to day driving.

Also please understand I'm not putting either cars down, I am looking to buy a second smaller hot hatch and was impressed with the Vrs so decided to try her sisters so to speak.

It's also also nice that front brakes we get on the vRS only come with the performance pack on the golf.

Correcting myself the new r has 280 torques

Can't comment as haven't driven the 1.4. But off the top of my head the torque is 258 for the golf gti, gti pp, golf r, cupra and most of the very recent vag 2.0tsi engines which brings weight/drivetrain loss very much into play. The higher horsepower is only noticeable well up the rev range hence they feel similar day to day driving.

Also please understand I'm not putting either cars down, I am looking to buy a second smaller hot hatch and was impressed with the Vrs so decided to try her sisters so to speak.

If the figures are to be believed the power to weight for a manual Golf R is around the 205hp/ton mark, whereas the octavia around 163hp/ton for a manual vRS TSi hatch...42hp/ton would translate to a fair amount of extra go. Also the Golf does have 280lb/ft peak torque as per the S3 and 4wd traction.....real world though id agree you'd have to be really pushing on to see the difference...also at 30+k the Golf is just ludicrously expensive.

I was comparing the 5 door Golf R which comes in at 199 bhp/ton and 185flbt/ton.

 

Vs the VRS @ 163/ton and 191flbt/ton.

 

The VRS doesn't lose out in torque and only 30 bhp/ton which in real world isn't a huge margin. This explains why the power delivery between the two isn't massively different.

 

The Golf R is a great great car, (I had 2 x GTI's in the past plus a Passat R36) however I like the original OP, didn't feel a huge difference and was pleasantly surprised with the VRS.

to be honest you might not feel a difference (which im surprised at as I do) but nearly 2 seconds to 60 and a fair few more to a 100 is a lot. in reality the vRS then isn't much different to a car that is 8.5-9sec to 60.

 

I guess the more you split hairs the less you notice the difference which is fair. traction will be the obvious issue to notice first but after that maybe not a  huge deal then

Kenny, glad you do, however the spec I drove meant the Golf R was over 1.6t and only had a 30 bhp advantage over the Vrs, however less torque, hence why it did not feel that much faster, defo not 2 sec faster.

Lovely car though and I do know what fast can feel like, I'd remapped my R36 and Gti ed30 to well over 300 bhp.

But like I said, I needed the practicality so the Golf and Leon were out of scope anyway, I just fancied a go as have had 2 x Gti's in my past and wanted to see how far they've come from the mk5.

Bear in mind we are also talking real world not race track so maybe on the track the margin is more obvious.

All I will say is that VW have made a lovely 2.0 turbo in whatever guise you go for,.....

What the R could do with is 50 more bhp and torque plus at least a 7 or 8 speed box,...

R has part time AWD that can be worth the difference, 

so there is a difference that the Octavia does not get yet in the form of a vRS 'R'.

Not disputing the advantages of the awd system, I've had the early versions on the r36 and a Volvo s60 r,....the new R has the latest haldex system and it is a peach of a system, it still weighs a bit though although if they could release a vrs R, keep the weight below 1.4t and put in 330 bhp,.... Where do I sign!!!

Thing is, with all wheel drive (even if on demand) you can just put more power down coming out of corners, off the line and when it's pishing down.

But unless you drive everywhere like your hair is on fire you don't really need to.

 

So while the Golf R is a great bit of kit (and it's why I like my remapped Yeti 4x4 so much) the Octavia is still a contender in it's natural environment.

Which is mostly more open roads when already rolling, so traction is not such an issue.

 

Go to a track where you can drive on the limit and there are plenty of corners and the Octy vRS suffers due to no front diff.  Simple as that.

But that's not what it's designed for, so hardly a criticism.

Doesn't the Golf R have almost 300 BHP near 80 BHP on a vRS?

Doesn't the Golf R have almost 300 BHP near 80 BHP on a vRS?

 

Yes, but it's also got more drive train losses and weight to move.

Overall it has more bhp/kg, but not as much more as you'd think at first.

 

With a rolling start from 50mph it won't rocket off and leave the vRS a spec in distance.

But on a twisy B road or track it would.

Ye, but it's also got more drive train losses and weight to move.

Overall it has more bhp/kg, but not as much more as you'd think at first.

 

Will still own a vRS in every way though.

Doesn't the Golf R have almost 300 BHP near 80 BHP on a vRS?

Even with the extra bhp, due to the weight (with the 5 doors which I would need and the spec the R had) and drive train losses, you'd be lucky to see 30 bhp advantage, plus the R has less torque per ton due to it's weight.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely car, however and as already mentioned, the margin isn't that big in real world.