What's all this about?
It's a Volkswagen Golf R-S road car.
Seriously?!
No. Sorry. We lied. It's actually the Volkswagen Golf TCR concept, with the TCR standing for Touring Car Racer International Series. Volkswagen wants to offer the TCR as part of a possible customer racing programme for 2016 and beyond, and to that end the Liqui Moly Team Engstler outfit gets the honour of running two concept Golf TCRs in the remainder of the 2015 season - the idea being that development work for the 'real' thing can be finalised in the white heat of competition.
What spec does it run?
Developed in conjunction with SEAT's motorsport department - and thus taking its lead from the Leon Cup Racer - the Golf TCR is 400mm wider than a regular Golf Mk7, has 18-inch competition alloys and front/rear spoilers that are aerodynamically honed; the ginormous affair at the back is carbon fibre. To meet FIA regs, there's a racing seat, roll cage and safety fuel tank on board. It makes 330hp and 410Nm in race trim.
Which engine does it use?
Well, the whole idea of the MQB platform and the whole Volkswagen Group's modularity extends beyond components just being shared by road cars. It's more cost-efficient to utilise that tech for any race cars, too, so the MQB-derived TCR has the EA888 2.0-litre, direct injection turbocharged four-cylinder unit that you might find in a Golf R or SEAT Leon Cupra. It drives the front wheels along through a six-speed DSG transmission.
And who's leading this development?
A certain Jost Capito, whose name you might be familiar with - among the many brilliant things he has done, he was heavily involved with the original Ford Focus RS and the all-conquering BMW E30 M3 touring cars of the 1980s. He said: "The newly created TCR category provides a promising platform for customer racing - on a national and international level. When developing the Golf-based concept car, we are able to fall back on the resources at Volkswagen. This reduces both development time and costs. We will also use the rest of the season to test the car under competitive conditions and evaluate a possible customer racing project from 2016."
Matt Robinson - 9 Jul 2015