Today, a performance hatch from Volkswagen – the Golf R, a very understated high performance small five-door hatch that is a real wolf in sheep’s clothing. One for the enthusiast motorist who doesn’t want to look like a boy racer. The Volkswagen Golf R all-wheel-drive at around $73,000 drive-away for the most part looks little different to the entry model Golf Life but look a little closer and you’ll notice the larger 19-inch alloy wheels, reprofiled bumpers, larger lower air intakes,  front and rear sports spoilers, LED matrix headlights, and from the rear, four large exhausts. Under the bonnet an all singing all dancing 2.0-litre turbo engine with 235 kW of power and a healthy 400Nm of torque. Drive through Volkswagen’s 4Motion all-wheel drive system via a seven-speed dual clutch automatic with shift paddles. Inside, less is more with a rather simple dash but with Volkswagen’s excellent instrumentation which can be customised in a number of ways, a centre 10-inch touchscreen and Nappa leather sport bucket seats with stitching. The switchgear is unnecessarily minimal with some touchscreen applications frustrating with touch buttons on the steering wheel fiddly to use. About the only area you can criticise this stunning performance hatch – drive details in my next segment. I’m David Berthon

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