The Volkswagen Tiguan R at a glance
Racer or saver?
It is somewhat of a slapstick: When you are burning the house track in manual mode with the drive train tensioned to “Race”, opening the side window a little to be able to better listen to the sound of the Akrapovic system. And then this message pops up in the virtual display with a gong: “ECO tip: close window (air resistance)”.
Then you realize that you are actually sitting in a car where driving pleasure was not the first thing in the specifications when it was originally developed. A Tiguan is simply a bread and butter car in the VW Group. And the new Tiguan R possibly just the same with a reasonably adequate engine power? Critics of Volkswagen’s common parts policy are likely to think so – and would be wrong (combined fuel consumption: 8.1 l / 100 km; combined CO2 emissions: 186 g / km²).
Considerable development effort
The Volkswagen R department put in an impressive amount of development effort not only to give the Tiguan more than acceptable longitudinal dynamics. An additional aluminum subframe significantly increases the rigidity of the body. This is impressively reflected in the spontaneous steering behavior and suspension comfort, but more on that later.
A newly developed differential is now used on the rear axle, which distributes the power between the right and left rear wheel and – depending on the driving situation – can send up to 100 percent of the power to a single wheel.
The remaining subtleties are mainly of an optical nature. They read like a classic ride through the Volkswagen R catalog: a chassis lowered by 10 millimeters, rims up to 21 inches in size, a large brake system, low aprons and a four-pipe exhaust system – the latter optionally and after a transfer of an additional 3,700 euros from Akrapovic.
Great seats, unergonomic steering wheel
Inside, sports chairs with integrated headrests (and leg rests that are a little too short), blue accents and larger rocker switches create a sportier flair, although we would have wished for a little more here. Why the idea of replacing the previous steering wheel buttons with a combination of sensors and pushbuttons in high-gloss black is a mystery to us: The operation is not very intuitive, prone to errors and looks modest after a single use thanks to unavoidable fingerprints.
Let it rip, papa!
Otherwise, the VW Tiguan R leaves little to be desired. If he is tame and comfortable in everyday life like his more civilian brothers, in contrast to them he can also have a lot of fun on Sunday mornings on the home route. The old friend EA888 is now in its fourth expansion stage with a whopping 235 kW / 320 PS and 420 Newton meters of torque.
In conjunction with the seven-speed DSG, this ensures acceptable acceleration values even in higher speed regions. A current Cayenne S (you have to think in terms of certain Tiguan categories) couldn’t drive us away on the autobahn.
The five-cylinder remains a dream in the Tiguan
From a purely emotional point of view, the 2.0 TSI is, as expected, still not the yellow of the egg, and the said exhaust system can do little to change that either. We found the sound setting “Pure” interesting, because then at least the unspeakable imitation of a five-cylinder in the interior is dispensed with. Unfortunately, it has to be selected every time you restart – just like the throttle response of the turbo engine including gearbox tuning, which only works without an annoying second in the “Race” setting.
By the way: To make matters worse, assistance systems also have to be switched off again after each start or the setting of the distance radar has to be set up again and again.
Great chassis, low-feedback steering
On the other hand, the chassis and steering do not require any special settings in order to function convincingly. The Tiguan turns in spontaneously and implements the steering command with outstanding ease. The steering works with a pleasant weighting, only the feedback – typical for Volkswagen – could like to be more pronounced.
The chassis, however, is our greatest ray of hope in the VW-R sky: Always with sufficient residual comfort, it offers so many reserves that sports car-like speeds are possible on the country road. And that in a VW Tiguan!
Unbeatable driving dynamics in the segment
Together with the rear axle differential mentioned at the outset, the result is rounded driving dynamics that in the mid-size SUV segment are at best surpassed by significantly higher-priced and, above all, more powerful competitors.
Accurately you brake the tight right briefly, go to gear two, place “the R” in the direction of the apex with millimeter precision and shoot into the curve at a speed that is actually much too high without significant understeer, from which it comes out again with a rather rear-heavy power distribution. Who would have thought that we would write such a test line about a Tiguan?
Conclusion
In addition to its all-round capabilities, the VW Tiguan R impresses with its sporty attributes, which convey a lot of driving pleasure. Our test consumption was meanwhile between nine and 11 liters per 100 kilometers (according to the on-board computer), which seems appropriate for the performance offered. The basic price of almost 60,000 euros seems less appropriate. The fact that the assistants patronize strongly and that the steering wheel is impractical for such a sports fanatic must be factored into their calculations for better or worse. (Text and image: Maximilian Planker)