How does the new Scirocco R drive?
It’s dominated by the Audi S3’s four-pot engine. It’s the familiar turbo set-up and provides a burbly soundtrack to accompany a never-ending wave of torque. It’s much more raucous than a Golf GTI. We tested a car with the optional DSG twin-clutch gearbox. In a word: brilliant. It smoothly shifts through the six ratios, with less of the hunting than we’ve experienced in the VW Group’s own seven-speeder. You’ll end up snicking up and down the ‘box just for fun, the paddle shifts allowing fingertip operation. And those worries of torque steering, ’80s-style front axle waywardness prove unfounded. It keeps things in check subtly, yet still allows a degree of wheelspin so you know what’s going on. On balance, we’d prefer this to the added weight of lugging around a 4wd system. How does the new VW Scirocco ride? Like an over-firm pogo stick? Nope. One of the key reasons for awarding this car five stars (it’s that good) is its well modulated ride. The same pneumatically operated, three-way da
