For many years, some of the coolest German cars were forbidden to the American buyer. But just as that was about to change, VW seems to have lost its mojo. This is their sports four-door coupe, the Arteon R, and it doesn't sound particularly exciting.
From a cosmetic point of view, we're pleased with the car. It's has a very stylish shape for a four-door, and the R model adorns it with it numerous sporty touches. These include the bigger air intakes, wheels, upgraded rocker panels, and a diffuser at the back, flanked by the new quad exhaust system. We've seen these elements already in previous spy photos, but our Nurburgring carparazzi have now captured the Arteon R on film.
The Nurburgring is a pretty noisy place, but we expected to hear at least some exhaust over the soundtrack of this track. Yet the Arteon R is relatively silent. There have been two rumors about the engine of the R. One said it's a 400 horsepower VR6, while the other pointed at the 2.5 TFSI from the RS3, which is based on the same MQB platform. But both might be wrong.
Not only has Audi reportedly blocked access to the five-cylinder unit, but we also have a story from Car and Driver saying that it's not coming to North America. Without this market, Volkswagen has no incentive to offer a larger displacement.
So that basically just leaves the 2-liter turbo. We know VW is already going to use that in two more R-badged models, the Golf R and Tiguan R, so a third makes perfect sense.
At about 329 horsepower, it's got a decent output, about 60 hp higher than the best Arteon currently available. And with the magic of AWD+DSG, launching to 60 mph in about 5 seconds should be possible. But can you blame us for wanting a nice VR6?
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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