Volkswagen is celebrating the world premiere of the mighty new Golf R with its flagship model generating 320PS and it’s on sale now.

The Golf R is traditionally the most powerful model of Volkswagen’s most successful product line. Always with all-wheel drive, always highly dynamic, always with particularly exclusive design and equipment, always a technological benchmark of its class – the Golf class.

And it’s no different this time round: the Golf R will be the first Volkswagen to launch with a new all-wheel drive system before the end of this year called 4MOTION with R-Performance Torque Vectoring. This intelligently networked system enables a new dimension of driving dynamics.

With the new sports car, Volkswagen is highlighting the great potential of the Golf, now already in its eighth generation. In future, this icon of the compact class, produced significantly more than 35 million times, will cover an output range of between 90PS and the 320PS generated by the new Golf R.

The Golf is available with a petrol engine (TSI), diesel engine (TDI) featuring cutting-edge twin dosing, natural gas engine (TGI), as a 48V mild hybrid (eTSI) and with plug-in hybrid drive (eHybrid). This wide range of variations and the clear-cut, contemporary design make the Golf one of the world’s very few high-production-volume models to stand apart from normal vehicle categories.

The new Golf R now reigns supreme as the product line’s most powerful model to date. With its drive technology, it tops everything that has been launched with the Golf label up to now.

The fifth edition of the sports car accelerates from 0-62mph in just 4.7 seconds with a top speed that is electronically limited to 155mph. However, the Golf R can also be ordered with an optional R-Performance package, which enables the top speed to be increased to 168mph.

However, it’s less the individual driving performance that shapes the character of the new Golf R, but rather the combination of a powerful 420Nm of torque, cutting-edge running gear and the most progressive all-wheel drive in this category that define a new status quo in terms of dynamics.

The new all-wheel drive system and high-tech running gear merge to create a host of innovations, offering maximum agility and driving pleasure. The 4MOTION system with R-Performance Torque Vectoring is the new control centre that distributes the engine’s output to the four driven wheels.

A new rear final drive distributes the drive power of the turbocharged petrol engine in the Golf R not just between the front and rear axles, but also variably between the two rear wheels. This makes it possible to significantly increase the agility particularly when cornering.

As a world first, the all-wheel drive is also networked via a Vehicle Dynamics Manager with other running gear systems such the electronic differential locks and adaptive chassis control DCC. Thanks to this close integration of the different systems, the new Golf R offers optimum traction characteristics and neutral handling with the utmost level of precision.

When combined with the R-Performance package, the Golf R even comes with a dedicated Nürburgring driving profile, known as “Special”. As part of this driving profile, all key drive parameters are geared towards the legendary race track – including the new all-wheel drive. And the results are measurable. The new Golf R – which is equipped with a 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox (DSG) as standard – is up to 19 seconds quicker per lap around Nürburgring Nordschleife than its predecessor.