Golf R Observations and Questions

[DDTW]

Having said that, whilst many may consider the Golf a "small" car, it's heavier and more powerful and torquey than the falcons and commodores of yester-year which everyone used to tow their caravans and crap around with anyway....

Totally agree!! With 330Nm of Torque, I reckon that's good enough for towing light stuff around......Standard Falcons have about 380Nm....

[NiNo_LoCo]

I think I will be too busy listening to the exhaust anyway

haha thats soo true. I got carried away listening to the exhaust that I totally forgot to test the sound system. Since I got almost every upgrade I was pushing my budget for 1500 extra. I'm sure I'll get use to it even though i'm a bit of a audiophile. But hey can't have it all

[Corey_R]

ooh, big mistake. If you're actually an audiophile (and not one of the many who abuse that word daily), you won't be happy at all with the stock system. But then, you may not like the Dynaudio either!

I couldn't stand the stock in the MKV, and the MK6 ain't any better. The Dynaudio is "alright" and so I picked it as I could probably stand to listen to it rather than using one of my multi-armature custom IEMs

[Icarus]

Does the Golf R use separate halogen globes for the flash-to-pass headlights or just the standard xenon headlights as I know that the MkV had separate halogen flash-to-pass lights due to the issue of reduced life expectancy of the xenon globes when flashing?

[Corey_R]

Wait... don't you already have a R... you should be telling us

[ethosguy]

But why would you want to? I've never understood the fitment of towbars to small cars. If it is for bikes, then use roof racks. Having towed gokarts/jetskis etc with falcons, nfi why you'd want to tow anything with a small car.

Good luck to you, whatever suits.

Large cars don't appeal to me...I don't like their feel, don't like their running costs.

Why would someone drive a barge (IMO) all week/month/year for the once/week/month/year occasion of extra capacity?

Why pay the running costs of a large performance vehicle that gives no real light towing advantage, a performance Falcadoor will eat it's large, expensive tyres in a few km of sprited tyres. I knocked some real stuffing out of a mates R8 tyres in less than 10mins of Coppins Crossing (ACT semi rural link between Weston & Belconnen). I was flabbergasted...offered to pony up for some new hoops...lucky for me he blew it off at a reputed $600/corner. And brakes and fuel and, and, and...

Did 1/2 Coppins in a R, granted at a lower pace, and the drive hardly didn't show on the tyres.

All wheel drive traction, big brakes, real power & torque. An R would be a great tow vehicle in its' class. I'll load 2 or 3 enduro bikes, gear, riders into/behind my WRX hatch and it goes just fine, thanks! Gets thirsy if you push, but you can (push) it it suits too. An R would be the same or better...

Had a little Corolla AWD wagon and L-Series Subarus which struggle but manage better than many utes with their loads. Hmmm, actually the L-Series were dogs, slow dogs at that...and in FWD, gripless slow dogs.

While not exactly apples/apples, got taken in riding recently a new LWB diesel/auto Patrol and it wasn't as smooth, stable or generally competent as either as my Tiguan or WRX (on sealed surfaces -short travel hard suspension). The Patrol did get along better than the small N/A petrol jobbies but wasn't more stable on loose surfaces as it skated around in RWD on its' substantial unsprung mass. (sorry Mark if your reading). There is more to it than just size.

Probably right about the NFI. The big car mentality doesn't automatically make big cars better tow vehicles or justify them in all cases...IMO.

[G-rig]

If you want to tow something its pretty obvious a family hatch with twin exhausts in the middle is the wrong choice.

[ethosguy]

A simple answer to towing on golf R is..... NO, it cant be done.

Any chance of a qualification?

'Can't' is a pretty strong statement.

Can't because of warranty, not listed in the options list, no ADR compliance - each varient/trim spec needs certification, exhaust?

This is most probably a cost/desire trade-off which would probably cost less than a number of single line options listed and commonly selected - $5k (very nice) Recaros. What's an APR Stage 3 worth, $10k? Can't have 313kw from VW either...many would say a 'family hatch' has no place with that sort of output. Others would look questionably at anyone calling a Golf, especially one with a 100mm shallower boot floor, a family anything.

Originally Posted by dave-
That'd be a poor excuse for being a danger on the roads though.

How do you get to that opinion...a 1500kg car towing up to 750kg unbraked will be more dynamic than a B-double. Both perfectly legal and within social acceptability.

[Corey_R]

If you want to tow something its pretty obvious a family hatch with twin exhausts in the middle is the wrong choice.

Yeah, this is what it comes down to really.
ethosguy, your answer is there really. The twin exhaust prevents any regular or VW sourced towbar being fitted. So VW have no published towing capacity for the R. Therefore, from everything we can see, it's not legal to tow anything with it. If it didn't have the central exhaust, things may be different.

[Serge]

Any chance of a qualification?

'Can't' is a pretty strong statement.

Can't because of warranty, not listed in the options list, no ADR compliance - each varient/trim spec needs certification, exhaust?

This is most probably a cost/desire trade-off which would probably cost less than a number of single line options listed and commonly selected - $5k (very nice) Recaros. What's an APR Stage 3 worth, $10k? Can't have 313kw from VW either...many would say a 'family hatch' has no place with that sort of output. Others would look questionably at anyone calling a Golf, especially one with a 100mm shallower boot floor, a family anything.

Originally Posted by dave-
That'd be a poor excuse for being a danger on the roads though.

How do you get to that opinion...a 1500kg car towing up to 750kg unbraked will be more dynamic than a B-double. Both perfectly legal and within social acceptability.

Yeah, this is what it comes down to really.
ethosguy, your answer is there really. The twin exhaust prevents any regular or VW sourced towbar being fitted. So VW have no published towing capacity for the R. Therefore, from everything we can see, it's not legal to tow anything with it. If it didn't have the central exhaust, things may be different.

Corey is correct.
Basicaly its not because of wiring its actually because of the exhaust positioning.

[shakespeare]

If you want to tow something its pretty obvious a family hatch with twin exhausts in the middle is the wrong choice.

Good point there, any towbar however discreet looking is going to look rubbish between those two sexy pipes!

[ethosguy]

I'd happily blow off the center exhaust (pun not really intended)...cosmetic detail as far as I'm concerned. Could do a custom muffler (and get some flow 'n' tone too boot) each side and use a GTI rear bar as suggested earlier, single offset, custom fiberglass rear bar with subtly wider center twin. Given the 'Q-car nature of the R' a change like this would confuse even the spotters

I stuck my head under a TSI and R this morning and ironically there is a much more space under the R.

Can't say I agree Corey: So far this conversation hasn't offered any real substantive insight to the problem for me...however given I've already got a suitable tow vehicle in the Tiguan, I'm scoping without commitment.

ADR is the likely biggest difficulty but an engineers cert would cover this most probably.

I'd go as far to say it isn't a run of the mill idea; some see impossibilities, others see possibilities. Glass half full or empty?

[Fab_R]

I'd happily blow off the center exhaust (pun not really intended)...cosmetic detail as far as I'm concerned. Could do a custom muffler (and get some flow 'n' tone too boot) each side and use a GTI rear bar as suggested earlier, single offset, custom fiberglass rear bar with subtly wider center twin. Given the 'Q-car nature of the R' a change like this would confuse even the spotters

I stuck my head under a TSI and R this morning and ironically there is a much more space under the R.

Can't say I agree Corey: So far this conversation hasn't offered any real substantive insight to the problem for me...however given I've already got a suitable tow vehicle in the Tiguan, I'm scoping without commitment.

ADR is the likely biggest difficulty but an engineers cert would cover this most probably.

I'd go as far to say it isn't a run of the mill idea; some see impossibilities, others see possibilities. Glass half full or empty?

ethosguy why would you want to remove the trade mark R twin exhaust set up for the sake of putting a tow bar on?
You would be spoiling a perfectly well styled "ass end"....

Dont do it.....

[Big_Dave]

Fab, he wouldn't, as you can see from his text he has no intention of using his R "scoping without commitment" as he intends to use his Tiguan.
Rthosguy as you know there are a lot of cars out there that arent made for towing.
When was the last time you saw some one towing behind a Ferrari, Lambo, Aston, TVR, Etc.

Of course you can engineer any car to do almost anything.
But of course you compromise something in the process.

That's my 2c worth.

[SilvrFoxX]