You'll Be Able To Buy This Insane 400bhp Golf At The End Of Next Year

We here at Car Throttle love a good hot hatch. Despite the fact they’re usually front-wheel drive, a well-sorted pocket rocket will provide just as many smiles per mile as any high performance exotic, all while looking like something your mum might drive. There comes a point, however, when humungous horsepower becomes too much for even the cleverest front differential, meaning your bundle of overpowered simplicity needs all-wheel drive.

The brilliant Golf R is one such car that requires a little help from the rears to keep traction, but VW clearly wasn’t satisfied with laying down just 296bhp. Free from the limitations of FWD, those crazy Germans have decided to make the 400bhp Golf R400 concept a reality. Dubbed the R420, it hasn’t been officially announced, however Car reports that it’ll be revealed later in 2015 at the Frankfurt motor show, with deliveries starting shortly after.

All that extra grunt comes from a new powerplant, first revealed in the Audi Quattro Sport concept. It’s a 2.0-litre turbo that is likely to feature in other hot VAG products, but will make its production debut in the R420.

While the engineers have gone mad with the power, the designers are expected to show restraint with the styling, continuing the understated sportiness that make fast Golfs so appealing. Expect more muscular aero gubbins and a subtle spoiler but not a lot else. The brakes will be upgraded to reign in the extra power, but most of the underpinnings will remain pretty standard - this is not a limited edition car, and will be produced on the standard production line.

We kind of already knew this day would come, but it feels real now we have an unofficially official date… and price. It’ll be quite expensive, unsurprisingly. In Germany you’re looking at just below €50,000, so that’s around £40,000 in the UK. Quite the premium over the £30,000 Golf R and £27,000 Golf GTI, but with so much extra power it’ll almost certainly be worth it.