VW Golf ready to race

THE most powerful production Volkswagen Golf ever built is on-track to make its world debut in Australian GTP racing.

Variously referred to as the Golf RSi, R-Line and Type R, depending on who you talk to within VW, the car will be powered by a 185kW, 3.2-litre V6 and transmit power by the 4Motion all-wheel drive system.

Just 2000 are to be built for worldwide consumption in 2002, with the car expected to go on sale in Europe around mid-year.

Four race cars and a show car will be at Volkswagen Group Australia's Sydney headquarters by early January to begin testing in preparation for the first race of the season, a support event at the Australian Grand Prix in March.

That means we will get to see the car in action first.

VGA is confident it will be quick enough to win races outright against the Mitsubishi Lancer Evos, which are the class of the field ahead of the Subaru Impreza WRX and HSV GTS300.

VGA is also debating whether it will import a limited number of the cars for public sale under the low volume import scheme.

That number could be as low as 20, said VGA Press and PR general manager Brad Leach, who is also in charge of the company's motorsport operations.

"It's available to us and we are thinking about it, but there is no pressure to do it," Mr Leach said.

"If we wanted to, we don't have to take any road cars.

"In fact my going-in position was that we wouldn't, but Peter (Nochar - VGA managing director) said 'no, no, we'll take some,' but that number could be as small as 20." Mr Leach said no delivery timetable or pricing had been established.

The spec of the cars certainly sounds worthy of import, with the tuned V6 already seen in the VW Microbus and Audi Steppenwolf concepts mated to a six-speed gearbox and the 4Motion system, 18-inch alloy wheels and the brake system from the Audi RS4 super-estate.

The car is said to have a 280km/h performance potential.

One reason it will not go on sale in Europe until mid-2002 is that there have been some last-minute styling amendments ordered, said to centre around the rear wing.

Nevertheless, the car is not expected to look outlandish, with a deeper front spoiler with additional air intakes to cool the front brakes, extended sills, a larger bumper and exhaust tailpipes all part of the kit. Interior changes include new hoop headrests.

Perhaps controversially, the favoured Australian-only name for the car is the Golf Type R, something that would not impress Honda.

VGA favours Type R because the logo of the factory motorsport division, Volkswagen Racing, features a stylised "R". In Europe, the car is currently talked about as part of the "R-Line" by VW spokesmen, while there has also been reference to an RSi.

"The Type R Golf is an Australian only thing," said Mr Leach.

"All that happened was we spoke to them about doing a car for the race program, it evolved into the Golf, we then talked about the possibility of doing road cars and then we said to them can we use the R from the racing logo for this car and they said yes." Hanover-based Volkswagen Racing will prepare the Golfs for VGA with local preparation and racing operations handled by motorsport expert Greg "Pee Wee" Siddle.

Volkswagen Racing supplied two Beetle RSi for a VGA toe-in-the-water exercise in 2001 but Mr Leach said the intention was to win races outright in 2002.

"That's the whole idea," he said.

"The Golf won't dominate but it won't run away and hide when you compare the spec of our car to the Evo Lancer and the Subaru.

"Some tracks will suit it and other tracks will suit their cars, and that's good for the category." Two Golfs will be run by VGA and two will be campaigned by a privateer team, with negotiations currently under way.

NSW driver Tim Leahey will return as lead driver for the factory team while a second driver has yet to be announced.

Mr Leach said the race campaign would cost more than $1 million and negotiations were under way with potential sponsors to ease the financial load on VGA.

* VGA is also considering campaigning a Beetle RSi in Targa Tasmania. If the plan goes ahead, the car would be driven by New Zealander Steve Millen.