SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We play with a real boy’s toy, the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R

Front and rear pics supplied, interior by author

Language no man can resist

Politically corrected and edited version published in Weekend Witness motoring on Saturday September 24, 2011

Women, especially wives, might not approve of the Volkswagen Scirocco R and its effect on men. It’s more than just the cute little sports car the standard version is. The ‘R’ squats. It is low. It is mean. Almost ugly, it exudes menace and a siren call of sensual promise no flesh-and-blood inamorata can match.

“Her next door” speaks Woman and can therefore be manipulated, won over, neutralised. But Scirocco R and others of her breed speak in tongues only Man can comprehend and no mortal male can resist. They are Lorelei, Delilah and Morgana Le Fay. They are creations every man must possess at least once before he dies.

Apart from cosmetic additions like special front and rear bumpers, a grille with huge air dams, sill extensions and a reworked rear with aggressive pipes and diffuser all courtesy of R-Design g.m.b.h, it has been given special 19” Talladega wheels, its own interior and significantly bigger brakes. Even the base engine has been changed. Rather than use the EA888 motor fitted to lesser two-litre Sciroccos, the older EA113 was reworked, strengthened and given a new head, turbocharger and intercooler. In so doing, an additional 33 kW of power and 70 Nm of torque were found. Then they made the car snuggle down closer to Mother Earth – 10 mm closer, and gave it some new handling kit.

Springs, dampers and anti-roll bars were modified to suit the lower seating positions and weight distribution of this car. Then they fitted XDS, an electronic cross-axle traction control system for improved traction and handling.  This is a functional extension of the electronic limited slip differential, in its turn part of the standard Electronic Stabilisation Programme (ESP). XDS differs from the electronic differential however, in that it brakes the inner wheel before it loses traction rather than afterwards.  The result is smoother, more sure-footed and safer progress with better traction through fast corners when on the limit of adhesion.

If that isn’t quite enough, VW offers a R10 470 option called Dynamic Chassis Control, or DCC. This tweaks damping characteristics, electro-mechanical steering assistance and throttle responses as selected by means of a three-way switch – ‘comfort’, ‘normal’ and ‘sport.’ Comfort gives you a softish ride with easy steering, while Sport makes the tiller more direct, throttle responses more urgent and firms the suspension for serious work.

The test car was a deep grey example fitted with the standard six-speed manual shifter and optional kit in the form of VW’s intermediate RCD 510 sound system, a panoramic glass sunroof and DCC. Together with metallic paint, these added R24 120 to the car’s basic price of R403 355. Times have changed and manual ‘boxes are no longer the fastest thing since microwave popcorn. The alternative DSG moves the car up to 100 km/h two-tenths of a second quicker and uses 100 ml less fuel over a hundred kilometres than the manual version does. But petrolheads born with Castrol R in their veins will never be impressed. You were given two hands and two feet for a reason so unless you have some compelling excuse, use them.

Getting down to practicalities, the boot is deep and square with a high loading sill. There is a 12-volt socket, a pair of bag hooks and a niche with a strap for securing small items. The spare is a steel spacesaver. Fifty-fifty split rear seat backs can be folded down from inside the boot, increasing load space from 312 to 1006 litres. Seat cushions are moulded for two, without pretending to be able to accommodate a third person. Having been built for “low and slippery” rather than “spacious,” rear seat headroom is somewhat restricted although a tall person could live with it.

Both front seats move up and down and lumbar support is adjustable as well. Controls are electrified on the driver’s chair but mechanical on the passenger’s side. Although rear compartment storage is limited, those in front are better looked after with a centre box, a fair cubby, two cupholders and a drop-down box in front of the driver’s right knee.

As expected, the steering wheel adjusts for height as well as reach; sound, music and computer buttons are repeated on the spokes and it’s a pleasure to hold – thick, flat-bottomed and stitched boldly. A thoughtful touch is double-sided handles that make it easier to close the long coupé doors when they are wide open. The optional sunroof tilts but doesn’t slide, permitting airflow without creating extra noise.

So what’s it like to drive? It’s not only about sprinting up to 100 km/h in six seconds. There’s the turbocharged belt in the kidneys and the little twitch as you whack the throttle open, the way it corners in grooves rather than on rails and the way it makes you feel just so darned competent. For this kind of rush, no human liaison amoureuse comes close.

The numbers
Price: R403 355 basic or R427 475 as tested
Engine: 1 984 cc, four cylinders, turbocharged
Power: 188 kW at 6 000 rpm
Torque: 350 Nm between 2 500 and 5 000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 6,0 seconds
Maximum speed: 250 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 9,7 l/100 km
Tank: 55 litres
Warranty: 3 years/120 000 km
Service plan: 5 years/90 000 km
Intervals: 15 000 km

To see the launch report and more technical detail, click here



What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.