R32 or Ed30?

[Hurdy]

Yours must be a freak hurdy! I personally dont think the ED30 is faster than an R32. Just look at the top gear track times if you want proof. In a straight line.. in the dry maybe the ED30 could edge it... but even then I dont think there would be anything but a nose hair in it. In reality on any road with bends .... the R32 will win hands down. Atleast that my opinion anyway

Not so my friend
A manual ED30 managed a 5.59 second 0-60 and in the VW driver magazine the Manual made a 5.6 and the DSG a 5.9 in the wet! The best standard R32 at Inters last year made a 5.75 second 0-60 and in the VW driver magazine they managed 5.8 secs with the manual R32.

In gear test times were:-
                            R32            ED30      ED30 DSG    GTI
30-50 in 3rd            3.2              2.9          2.4          3.0
30-50 in 4th            4.4              4.1           -            4.1
50-70 in 3rd            3.0              2.7          3.0          3.3
50-70 in 4th            4.1              3.7           -            4.1
50-70 in 5th            5.1              4.5           -            5.1
50-70 in 6th            7.0              6.2           -            6.2

There is no gear within the legal limit that the R32 beats the ED30 and Looking at the figures a std GTI doesn't do too badly either.

[Russ.C]

 and Looking at the figures a std GTI doesn't do too badly either.

  Not to bad?! The GTI beats or matches the R in every test except the 50 - 70 in 3rd! Very impressive in my book! Quite a poor show by the R really...

[topher]

Those in-gear times don't surprise me, you're only just about touching the powerband in the 3.2 at those speeds.. it really lacks some mid-range punch, which I've heard a remap improves drastically.. even if it does only mean about 10bhp in pub talk.

[Phil mcavity]

Gti dsg would knock 3 tenths off those Gti figures stated.More then a match for the R

[topher]

I'm not sure how that works.. i mean sure you can change gears faster with DSG.. but those times are recorded while in just one gear

[Manu_R32]

Manu_R32...could you comment on what you think the R32 is like over your GTI?

I'm also interested in trading my GTI for an R32, would like to know apart from the sound how different the handling and acceleration is?

Does the car really feel that heavy when turing into corners?

Well...il give my honest opinion but i dont want to get jumped at by these GTI Owners and would like to clearly starte my opinion is over a GTI and not an ED30 lol. Compared to my GTI the R32 feels much more different. It feels completely planted to the ground and have only had the car slide once round a round about but no real big issue. The acceleration on the R32 is delivered alot more differentley to the GTI. The gti will go easy till about 2500 - 3000 rpm's and then this huge rush of power will throw you back into your seat where as the R32 i seem to find power all the way through the rev range. (I know im supposed to be "running in" but im not.) People mention how the engine upfront makes the car heavy and hard to turn. I reckon this only really matters on places like a track. It depends what kind of driving you wish to use the car. A GTI tried to have a go at me last night here in Gib so i just simply dropped a gear and flew off. This is a well known road here in Gibraltar and with the GTI where i would need to brake, i didnt have to brake with the R32 allowing me to get a good distance away from him. I think after this turn the GTI sort of gave up as i just slowed down and he caught up towards the end of the road. I always used to think it was abit unrealistic and hardly noticeable when people would mention the amount of grip the R32 has but i think after this sort of experience it has shown. This is my opinion over 500km's of driving an R32. Possibly after a few more thousand things will change and yes...i would keep my R32 over a GTI...anyday! Sorry GTI Owners...

Another issue to consider would be things like road tax. Here in Gib we dont have road tax, prices of petrol were incresed rather than having road tax as alot of people come over from spain for cheaper petrol here in Gibraltar where as things like road tax and petrol are very high in the UK...this might be another reason why GTI drivers prefare the GTI over the R32

[R32UK]

Im not sure how they work those ingear times as I am pretty sure the gearing setup in the R32 is very different to the Gti. what I do know is that I dont have to be flat out (or in turbo range) to make very rapid progress.

As I approach 10k too the car is really starting to loosen up well

[Len]

Started a bit of a debate here!

To date I have only driven a Gti for a short time and then recently a Tdi hire car!
BTW I thrashed that up to an indicated 120mph!

Both cars felt good to drive and far better than any Mk4 I have driven.
So for the only reason I dont like the Gti nose its gotta be an R32!

[Manu_R32]

Just stop thinking about it and go for it! 

[Manu_R32]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hKIhziAP_jo

Quite a fair review....