SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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The magnificent: 2021 Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR

Seven’s final bow

Posted: July 9, 2021

 This limited-edition Meister-Golf has been available here for just over a year and all 300 allocated units have either been sold or press-ganged into VWSA’s marketing effort. You should know everything about it by now but, in case you don’t, let’s fill in some details you may have missed.

The name: TCR stands for Touring Car Racing, an international series for production cars with turbocharged engines, petrol or diesel, up to two litres capacity. Bodies must be four- or five door and drive is to two wheels only. Gearboxes are limited to production- or International Series-approved sequential units.

There are strict weight- and dimensional limits while power outputs are restricted to 257 kW and 420 Nm. There are other allowances and restrictions but you can look those up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCR_Touring_Car

Note: GTI TCR is a tribute car honouring VW’s 2016- and 2017 winner of the International TCR series, not a race-ready replica, so there are differences.

VW took a regular GTI and doctored it up with tweaked suspension; brakes and engine from the 2017 facelifted Golf R; a special exhaust system, extra cooling capacity in the form of two more radiators, black 19” Reifnitz alloy wheels and splashy black decals.

The engine: EA888 series, 1984 cc DOHC, 16-valve, turbocharged, producing 213 kW between 5400 and 6500 rpm and 380 Nm between 1850 and 5300 rpm. The zero to 100 km/h sprint takes 5.6 seconds and top speed is restricted to 250 km/h although bypassing the VMAX unit – simple name, “governer” – allows up to 264. One would surely only do this for racing, in which case there could be warranty issues, so check with VW first.

The brakes: 340 x 30 mm (vented) in front and 310 x 22 mm (vented) at the rear, replacing 314 x 30 vented and 300 x 12 solid. These were also used on the 2015 GTI Performance Pack version. Red-painted calipers at both ends (naturally).

The transmission: Six-speed DSG with Sport mode and paddles.

The colours: Wimpish White, Blend-in Grey and the colour it deserves, that of our test car, Tornado Red. (VW has socially acceptable names for the white and grey, so don’t take me too seriously.)

The options: None.

Appearance kit: Matte black exterior mirror caps, sill extensions, front splitter, TCR roof spoiler and a diffuser at the rear. On the inside, there are Alcantara inserts on doors and gear lever, an exclusive sports steering wheel, premium Alcantara and fabric sport seats in black and red with GTI TCR detailing, as well as floor mats with black and red stitching. Seats adjust manually and the ignition key is conventional.

Other standard features include Climatronic dual zone air-conditioning and a sunroof. Its inner “shade-cloth” shield opens and closes manually and the roof, when opened, admits very little wind noise, with the gentlest hair fluttering, at speeds it might be best not to mention.  

Standard technology includes Dynamic Chassis Control, the usual Golf safety- and entertainment kit, driving profile selection, Parallel Park Assist and LED headlights.

What’s it like to drive? Solid, confident and planted, it runs like a cheetah with baying hell hounds in hot pursuit. The transmission is excellent, as always and six is all the speeds you really need. I want one.

This will be a hard act for Golf 8 to follow. But it will surely do so. Successfully.

Test unit from VWSA press fleet

See: 2019 Golf GTI (for basic details)

And 2019 Golf R (just for fun)

The numbers
Price: R692 600
Engine and performance: See text
Real life fuel consumption: About 8.9 l/100 km
Warranty: Three years, 120 000 km
Service plan: Five years, 90 000 km at 15 000 km intervals.

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.

If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

Comments or questions?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you completely disagree with what I say? If you want advice or have a genuine concern, I will be happy to hear from you. All I ask is that you write something in the subject line so I know which vehicle you're talking about.