What's the news?

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of its most important model, the Golf, Volkswagen revealed the one-off Golf R 400 at the Beijing Motor Show. That's right, it has 400hp.

Exterior

Shown in three-door form, the Golf R 400 is as aggressive as you'd want a Golf to look. The front bumper is dominated by larger air intakes, necessary to help cool the 2.0-litre turbocharged engine. Its front splitter is made from carbon fibre while a horizontal 'Lemon Yellow' stripe runs across the grille and into the bi-Xenon lights - like the red one seen on the Golf GTI.

The Golf R 400 body is 20mm wider on each side and its flared arches are filled with 19-inch alloy wheels, which are fitted on an increased offset. The wheels are also designed to help with brake cooling as their shape acts as air vanes that channel air into the brake discs. The car is painted in a bright 'Sliver Flake' metallic paint with a contrasting glass black painted roof and door mirror caps finished in carbon fibre.

Interior

The Golf R 400 sees the introduction of full racing-style seats that are upholstered in cross-quilted Alcantara and 'carbon leather'. These also feature contrasting stitching in the same 'Lemon Yellow' seen on the exterior.

Mechanicals

It's impressive that 400hp has been extracted from this 2.0-litre turbocharged engine. This has mainly been achieved by means of a newly-developed turbocharger that has a higher maximum charge pressure, along with a reinforced crankcase that allows for higher operating stresses. The gas feed to the turbocharger is water-cooled and integrated into the cylinder head, which also helps to lower full-load fuel consumption. Weight-wise the R 400 tips the scales at 1,420kg - the same as the standard Golf R. Unlike the Golf R though, the exhaust system consists of two 110mm diameter, centrally-mounted tailpipes, which are a hat-tip to the Golf R32 from 2002.

Anything else?

Sadly Volkswagen has already confirmed that the R 400 is merely a concept with 'no production plans'. That said, if there is enough public demand for it, a very limited production run could be considered, potentially for 2015 - the 40th anniversary for the first performance Golf, the original GTI. Here's hoping!