Volkswagen Golf R Estate Sounds More Like the Leon Cupra than the R Hatch

But the Germans are keen to look at the R badge from a totally different angle and are developing an estate model based on the same hardcore 2.0 TSI + 4Motion technology. Last week, we showed you some revealing spy photos of the R Estate which were quite revealing for a number of reasons. Now, a video from TouriClips sheds further light on the subject.

In particular, we were interested in the sound of the car, since the exhaust that's been fitted is clearly different to the quad-pipe one on the R hatch. Why is Volkswagen changing it? We think it's been co-developed with the one for the new SEAT Leon Cupra ST (estate), also currently in development.

Is that a problem? Well no, not when the Leon Cupra is the fastest front-wheel drive car that has ever lapped the Nurburgring in a stock configuration. In some independent tests, it's proven a more capable track car than the Golf R, though that's partly due to the lightness and the way it uses its power.

Less power?

There's a small chance that the Golf R Estate "doesn't need 300 horsepower like the R hatch". The Japanese market R has already been announced to have the detuned version of the EA888 2.0 TSI with 280 hp, which is also going into the Scirocco R facelift. Volkswagen has always tried to ensure the hatch is their flagship and no other model they make is faster.

Competition: a War Is Coming

Considering there's not a lot of other hot estates with 280 or 300 hp, that isn't really an issue. Even if we consider the Insignia OPC's powerful V6, we'd still find the Golf R Estate powerful enough for its weight and size. However, Volkswagen isn't the only company to consider a powerful, fast and quite expensive estate like this. We've already mentioned the upcoming Leon Cupra ST, but Peugeot also has a hot GTi wagon in the works, powered by a 1.6-liter turbo with somewhere between 200 and 270 hp.