VW confirms supercar-baiting Golf R400 project on ice

Volkswagen has scrapped plans to release a production version of the 300+kW Golf R400 despite announcing it had green lit the Porsche-baiting hatch for production last year.

Developed to be a more affordable and even faster rival for the Mercedes-AMG A45 or Audi RS 3 Sportback, the R400 was confirmed for production by VW Group powertrain boss Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser last year in April 2015 but now motoring.com.au can exclusively reveal VW’s super hatch may never see the light of day.

Commenting on the R400, a senior Volkswagen source told motoring.com.au the Gold R400 is no longer included in Volkswagen’s European launch schedule and that the project had been “paused”, along with “several other projects”, in the fallout from the Dieselgate emissions scandal.

The VW insider was keen to stress that the Golf R400 project hadn’t been cancelled but put on ice while the Volkswagen Group comes to terms with fines over its fraudulent defeat devices that could add up to billions of dollars.

First revealed as a concept at the 2014 Beijing motor show, the more powerful version of the all-wheel drive Golf R has been caught numerous times by spy photographers and was thought to be in a late stage of development.

Originally, the R400 concept was to be powered by a 295kW/450Nm 2.0-litre turbo petrol that allowed the R400 to sprint to 100km/h in just 3.9 seconds.

Incredibly, the production version was rumoured to generate even more power with the EA888 engine thought to generate as much as 309kW.

To help channel all that power and torque to the road, the Golf R400 used a modified version of the Golf R’s Haldex 5-based 4MOTION all-wheel drive system with electronic XDS+ diffs on both axles.  The fastest Golf also came with adjustable dampers, 19-inch lightweight alloys, bigger brakes and 20mm lower suspension.