WebRidesTV Goes For a Spin in VW's New R GTI at the Volkswagen Design Center in Santa Monica California. With the R GTI, you have a plethora of HP and Brembos waiting on each corner of the car to stop you. The interior was up to Yuval Appelboum who tells us a little bit about the unique racing harness system that was employed in these cars.
The Volkswagen R GTi premiered at the 2006 SEMA Show, but it still stands as the most bad ass example of the MKV GTi around. Lightened, widened, lowered, stiffened, and with 360 hp courtesy of APR Tuning, this sport econo car is the essence of hot hatch; doing 0-60 in 5.5 seconds. But the craziest part of this ride might be its 2+2 race seating, complete with a custom harness system.
The interior was very unique in this GTI. They had a rollercoaster like rollcage bar that hooked to the front racing harnesses. They had to make it fold up so that rear passengers could still get in and out of the vehicle in a normal fashion. The crazy idea is that they actually accomplished all this without reducing the functionality or safety of the racing harness. Yuval Appelboum was in charge of the interior and showed us the unique racing bucket seats that were used. They were a lot more comfortable than expected. To get all the fine details in order, Yuval opted for carbon fiber accents throughout the interior, from the dash to the tail. To keep the edges standing out, it has red highlights contrasting the dark interior.
The stock GTI comes with the same 2.0 liter turbocharged power plant but with significantly less power. Optional is the 6 speed DSG gearbox which is what the H&R GTi has. The DSG actually has a slightly faster 0-60 time when compared to the standard 6 speed manual. Top speed is electronically limited to 130 mph. 0-60 in stock form with the DSG box is 6.7 seconds. Quarter mile time for the 6 speed manual is 15.1 seconds @92 mph.
