Last year, old Volkswagen Development Chief Hans-Jakob Neusser said all stars were pointing at a 395 horsepower Golf going into production. Then came a black hole known as Dieselgate, only to swallow both Neusser and the Golf R400. On the plus side, the Golf R is here to stay, one way or another.
Autonews reports that while VW is done with the fine tuning of the EA888 2.0 gasoline engine, Audi is likely to work on it some more in order to push its performance beyond the Golf concept’s 395hp, possibly for a time when a fast TT can’t use five-cylinders anymore.
Volkswagen will focus on the standard Golf R instead, although at this point, it’s unclear whether they will simply turn up the power a bit for the generation coming after 2020, or rethink the whole concept by applying lightweight technologies to improve its power-to-weight ratio much further.
Either way, goodbye, Golf R400. You will be missed, though you never really existed in the first place.