The new Tiguan is a handsome looking crossover, and with it come renewed rumors of a hotter “R” version.
Although this may look like a run of the mill R Design Tiguan — which would mostly only affect trim — our spy photographers are convinced that there’s more than meets the eye to this Tiguan.
First of all, spy photographers reported that it sounded loud. Very loud. Second of all, it has quad exhausts, which would allow it to breathe better and make more power, which would explain why it was also very fast.
If this is indeed a hot R version of the Tiguan, we’d expect four driven wheels and the engine out of the Golf R. Currently, that’s good for about 300 hp, but don’t forget that there’s an update coming to the Golf. As a result, we’re anticipating more power out of the Golf R, which we’d expect to translate over to the Tiguan R.
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Pictures have already been circulating around the internet of a SEAT Ateca Cupra. The Ateca is Spain’s version of the Tiguan and SEAT labels its hottest products with the Cupra badge, meaning the Tiguan R is definitely next.
The Ateca Cupra was spotted at a launch event for the facelifted SEAT Leon. It too has quad pipes at the rear and a Golf R engine under the hood, but the Ateca Cupra differs in that it has big Brembo brakes. The one spanner in the works for the Tiguan R is the brakes: they’re still quite small in these pictures.
Maybe Volkswagen just hasn’t added bigger ones yet? At any rate, we can only hope that this is the first step in Volkswagen’s new plan to R all the things.
