Car Gazing
Volkswagen takes on Porsche with sporty Concept R
By Derek Price
Volkswagen's corporate honchos must get awfully jealous as they look at the price tags on other German cars. Expensive brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, and Porsche have left VW looking like the Fatherland's redheaded stepchild as the only maker of cheap economy cars.
Until now.
After building the luxurious Phaeton to fight Mercedes and the rugged Touareg to battle BMW, little ol' VeeDub is evidently taking aim at Porsche with its Concept R roadster. It's the latest part of VW's gamble to improve its reputation with fabulous engineering and style – and, of course, to get buyers to pay more.
Volkswagen introduced the Concept R at the recent Frankfurt Auto Show as an aggressive two-seater with genuine sports car performance, and its gorgeous styling made it a showstopper. While it has not been slated for production, Volkswagen claims a similar car could be built within the "foreseeable future," which could mean anything from next year to never.
The most striking part of this concept is its appearance, which takes cues from the Porsche Boxster and classic 356 Speedster while adding a modern, edgy twist. Body panels are stunningly clean and devoid of extraneous, tacked-on trim, and muscular lines give it a sense of power and sophistication from every angle – not terms historically used to describe a VW.
Speaking of history, this isn't Volkswagen's first attempt at making a sports car. That honor goes to the Karmann Ghia, a splendidly pretty car that would have been a legend by now if not for its anemic, woefully underpowered engine.
Hoping to avoid another Ghia fiasco, Volkswagen fitted the Concept R with a mid-mounted V6 engine that makes 265 horsepower, enough for a 0-60 mph time around 5.1 seconds. That puts it firmly in Boxster territory, the realm of very serious sports cars, indeed.
Acceleration is helped by a six-speed gearbox with a system VW calls "direct selection," which is a high-performance variation on automatic transmissions that lets the driver select the gear. Like modern Formula 1 racecars, gears can be selected instantly and precisely with steering-wheel-mounted shifters, or it can drive in fully automatic mode.
Concept R also breaks from the traditional sports car with an interior theme designers call "a time tunnel that paves the way to the future." Artistic jargon aside, it has several features that give it a Star-Trek-like atmosphere, including a decorative digital display in the steering wheel and a fully adjustable instrument pod. Polished aluminum and dark leather set the mood as both futuristic and traditional.
Volkswagen oddly does not say anything about what kind of suspension the Concept R uses and makes no reference to its handling qualities. One can only guess that VW engineers have not yet decided on what type of suspension a production version would employ.
If production of the Concept R gets a green light, expect a price starting around $35,000 – fairly pricey for a VW but still less than its expensive competition. In this light, perhaps it's best not to think of the Concept R as another potentially expensive Volkswagen, but a pleasingly cheap Porsche.
That's something the world definitely could use more of.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.
Contact him at dprice@cargazingonline.com)
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