BAD NEWS: VW WILL DETUNE GTI R AND SCIROCCO R

Good and bad news for Volkswagen fans in South Africa. Next year sees the introduction of the two hottest hatches ever to come out of the company in the form of the GTI R and the Scirocco R. The latter makes 199kW and 350Nm while the peppery Scirocco R does with 195kW and the same torque. Unfortunately these figures will be reduced for the South African market.

According to a close source, we are looking at about 188kW and 350Nm for both cars, a step said to have been taken because of the poor quality of our pump fuel. This is extremely disappointing news as it means the GTI R will be on the same power level as the upcoming Renault Megane RS but shy of the Mazda3’s 191kW. VW SA did the same thing with the Audi S3 by detuning from 195kW to 188kW but funny enough the TT S retains its power.

I really hope these are just bad rumours but if they are true then another potentially great VW product will be somewhat dampened. Just like the overrated, overpriced and overweight Golf R 32.