Check Out The 329bhp VW Golf R Before You're Supposed To See It

By the time VW gets around to revealing all the hot versions of the Golf 8, there aren’t going to be many surprises left. Having already seen the rear of the GTI and power outputs for the whole fast Golf 8 range, we now have an image of what is almost certainly the next Golf R to study.

The car lacks any R branding, but it’s packing the tell tale quad exhaust setup of the outgoing Mk7.5 version. The car was papped in the vicinity of the Applus IDIADA proving grounds, which is near Barcelona.

Power is expected to come from the EA888 inline-four turbo engine found in multiple fast VW products - the old R included. It’ll be more potent this time, however, with last week’s leak indicating an output of 329bhp.

If that’s not enough for you, we should point out that an even faster ‘Golf R Plus’ with a figure approaching 400bhp has been rumoured.

We’ll see the R’s front-wheel drive sibling, the GTI, much sooner. It’s due to be released at the Geneva Motor Show in March, whereas the R isn’t expected to appear until the tail end of summer or perhaps even Autumn.