Having gone through the process of configuring a TCR and having had a frustrating experience with the dealer's lack of knowledge and lack of information on the configurator, thought the following might be of help to anyone considering this car or negotiating with their dealer.
- Pure Grey is a charged option at £580 yet is free in Germany and isn't a unique colour, it's the first time it has been available on the Golf GTI. I believe it has been available on the Transporter since MY2016/2017.
- If you are considering Pretoria Alloys, like the Reifnitz, they come in a 'pack' with DCC, Vmax derestriction and sport version of the rear damping. The Pretorias also come with additional wheel locks with expanded anti-theft protection - I have asked for clarification as to what that means outside of a press release and it seems that it's just a design improvement on the wheel lock.
-I can't find out what tyres the Reifnitz wheels come with but the Pretoria alloys are shod in Michelin Pilot Cup Sport 2 - semi-slick tyres. The Reifnitz I believe are supplied with Continental Contisport Contact 5 tyres in Germany and would assume that would be the same for the UK. If it's a car designed for track as VW purport, it should have MPSC2 tyres, they're much better tyres.
- Pretoria Alloys are available for £995 (supplied with the car) on the R and through VW Accessories, they're £1100. To add DCC is £850 so that comes to £1845.00 (supplied new with the car) yet on the TCR, that's £2,750 and you can only get the Pretoria wheels in black, no option for silver. I appreciate that damping, Vmax and all that makes up the difference in price but those are just software options. If you don't like diamond cut alloys, they are the only options and it's a bit of a con because if anyone was serious about taking the car on track, you'd ruin the lacquer if you went into the kitty litter and it'd be four new alloys as they're never the same after being lathed and repaired. Germany of course has more choice so it's a local market restriction with the UK.
- If you spec the standard wheels and add DCC, you won't get the rear damping adjustment or Vmax derestriction and unlikely that this will be available as a dealer retrofit although I suspect you'll find a tuner who can address this. Both are software controlled parameters versus the damping having a different hardware setup.
- Exterior mirrors in carbon fibre - no pricing yet but dealer thought they would be £450 which is the same as the R. Again configuration / sales systems haven't been fully loaded with the car.
