Monsieur Savage:
(1) I will drop the Heavenly 7.
(2) I will always maintain that the R is the better car for my purpose.
(3) There was no intention to rub anyone the wrong way. In fact, I felt I was very restrained. There is more sensitivity here than expected. Just shows the extreme love and protection people show for their particular grown-up perambulators.
(4) I agree that the R, the GTI & (let's not forget) the GTD are good cars.
(5) I felt it would be very educational and interesting for the OP to post his excellent comparative review on the R Forum and fly the flag for the GTI.
(1) Thank you.
(2) You can maintain whatever viewpoint you want as long as you don't try and force it upon others. It's clear that you are in love with the R and that's brilliant.
(3) Well you are doing a sterling job of rubbing people up the wrong way, it may have something to do with the way 90% of your posts appear to have the sole purpose of aggravating people and attempting to initiate a response. Kind of like the one you're getting from me here, for example.
(4) Good, that's something we can agree on then.
(5) If you say so. We both know what the R members would say and that would be pointless. It's difficult to tell when you're being genuine as I have to cut through all the sarcasm in every post.
When is the Ed40 due and what is it going to be?
I'd guess it'll have the same engine output as the lower/standard Cupra, maybe nicer seats and different wheels.
280ps? might be worth waiting for
Ooooh, the torque steer, those spinning front wheels. What fun!
I'm guessing from this post that it's been a while since you've driven a FWD car. You see, differentials have improved drastically over the past years. The GTI has no torque steer whatsoever, even when remapped to 300BHP and easily handles the power. Jeremy Clarkson himself stated how impressive the GTI's differential actually is on this platform of Golf. My friend's Focus RS is at Stage 4 and pushing close to 500BHP and has no problems putting that power down on the road, regardless of being FWD. Yes an AWD car can make more use of that power from a standing start but once you're rolling it counts for nothing.
I think your opinion of FWD cars is either outdated or confused.
Anyway, since my brother has the R and I have a GTI I have driven and been the passenger in both cars on numerous occasions. I too believe the GTI looks much better from the front, styling wise. However the R looks better from the back. The sound in the cabin of the R sounds much better than in the GTI, even though both use artificial speakers to make the 2 litre 4 cylinder engine sound respectable. The "pop" on upshifts with the DSG box is also much louder in the R. I like that, some may not.
The R feels a lot more weighted down in the back, thanks to the 4 wheel drive system but this also adds confidence in the corners with the feeling of being well planted to the road. The GTI feels a lot more playful in the bends, as expected. Saying that though the GTI's PP differential is simply outstanding, allowing you to plant your foot down in corners and be catapulted out at speed without any oversteer, brilliant.
Performance: R Wins (Of course it does, it has 70 more BHP and 30NM more Torque than the PP)
Looks: GTI Front, R Back.
Practicality: Close but the GTI wins due to a bigger boot.
Economy: GTI is marginally more frugal than the R so wins this one.
Overall: Can't really call it.
I feel the Edition 40 will be overshadowed by the R420 though, if the Edition 40 does still get released. It's going to take something very special for it to come out on top.
