I'm not sure if it is relevant but this month's Road and Track has an article on the Audi RS3, which I believe has the same 4 wheel drive as an R. It comes oem with a reverse stagger 255/30/14 fronts at 25.1 overall diameter and 235/35/19 rears at 25.5 over-all diameter.
I only guessing but I believe if you can do a reverse stagger on an Audi you can probably do it on an R. If you can do it on an R you can probably do it on a GTI. I'm not sure if it is significant that the smaller diameter tire is on the front but I think it would be mandatory for the wider tires to be in the front. Staggered would be a bad idea if you were going for looks but for a performance build it probably would work great if you stuck to the Audi's sizes and eliminate any tire rubbing.
The drivers for Road and Track did not like the DSG in manual mode. The call the DSG the car's "biggest hiccup". (ha! manuals rule)