Hey everyone,
Wanted to share my experience test driving the new facelifted R for the first time. A friend of mine recently tuned his R and immediately went APR Stage 2. I test drove it and the drive felt very numb. Immediately when driving the car I can tell how heavy it is compared to the gti. The R on the other hand has this floaty feel, almost too refined for my liking. I did a 0-60 launch and it's mindblowingly fast. That was my first time even launching an AWD car so you can imagine my delight at APR S2. I can definitely see why some will pay the extra 15k to experience the AWD. From a roll it felt heavy but the power was there and it didn't stop pulling, ever, it just kept going. But overall, it's an amazing platform but felt a bit like a small SUV to me. The R has a more grown up feel to it and the gti feels way more nimble and enjoyable to drive in my opinion. I think if I was older and in a better place financially where the extra hundreds of dollars didn't matter, I'd take the R. If I was building a project car, the R would be a dream.
My Mk7 GTI is APR S2 as well:
We did a 40 roll to about 115: I lost by about a car. Here is the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ojd5w6eB6M
We did a 40 roll to about 100: I won by about a half a car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q6QAtNWmag
I know if we had pushed to 120-130 there would be several car lengths.
Overall, I think the R is the much better car & platform. But taking into account my budget and personal enjoyment I would choose the GTI again.
Wanted to share my experience test driving the new facelifted R for the first time. A friend of mine recently tuned his R and immediately went APR Stage 2. I test drove it and the drive felt very numb. Immediately when driving the car I can tell how heavy it is compared to the gti. The R on the other hand has this floaty feel, almost too refined for my liking. I did a 0-60 launch and it's mindblowingly fast. That was my first time even launching an AWD car so you can imagine my delight at APR S2. I can definitely see why some will pay the extra 15k to experience the AWD. From a roll it felt heavy but the power was there and it didn't stop pulling, ever, it just kept going. But overall, it's an amazing platform but felt a bit like a small SUV to me. The R has a more grown up feel to it and the gti feels way more nimble and enjoyable to drive in my opinion. I think if I was older and in a better place financially where the extra hundreds of dollars didn't matter, I'd take the R. If I was building a project car, the R would be a dream.
My Mk7 GTI is APR S2 as well:
We did a 40 roll to about 115: I lost by about a car. Here is the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ojd5w6eB6M
We did a 40 roll to about 100: I won by about a half a car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q6QAtNWmag
I know if we had pushed to 120-130 there would be several car lengths.
Overall, I think the R is the much better car & platform. But taking into account my budget and personal enjoyment I would choose the GTI again.
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