Volkswagen explains why the Arteon R does not have a VR6 engine

Volkswagen presented the renewed Arteon this week. A purebred R variant of that four-door coupé – and now also the Shooting Brake – is released.

Volkswagen presented the Arteon in 2017 as a successor to the Passat CC. From that moment on, the manufacturer spoke about several variants of that car. For example, it already indicated to build a Shooting Brake, and there was long talked about a sporty R variant. Both models eventually appeared this week. So the sporty Arteon is finally born.

More power

In the front of the Arteon is the well-known 2.0-liter TFSI engine, which is used in many sporty models of the Volkswagen Group. For a long time, Arteon R talked about 333 hp. In the end, Volkswagen ‘only’ stops 320 hp. Why? According to the manufacturer, it is indeed possible to get much more power (480 hp is even possible) from the power source, but that came driveability of the Arteon R not for the better. “There are companies that do this in an impressive way. But you always have to wonder what more power does to a car. More power or torque can make an engine not so smooth is as our customers expect. So we think these are the right numbers. ”

Volkswagen also reports that it has tested the Arteon R with a VR6 engine. “There was a lot of discussion about which engine we were going to use,” says the manufacturer. “We ran a number of test cars with a VR6 engine and a 2.0 TSFI four-cylinder. After driving all those cars, the choice was actually made easy, because with this engine we clearly found the Arteon to be the best in balance. ”

Agility

The manufacturer states that it has spent a lot of development time in the chassis and torque vectoring to make the car as dynamic as possible. “With the Arteon R you have to be able to accelerate when cornering, so you need a light engine in the nose that is also very responsive. The VR6 engine provides more power and a higher top speed, but the TFSI four-cylinder makes the car much more agile and gives it the best cornering balance. That was our priority. ”

Finally, the manufacturer also admits that a VR6 engine is simply outdated. “On the one hand, we cannot work to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions and focus on electrification, while at the same time building large and polluting VR6 engines on the other. All in all, making a four-cylinder in the Arteon R simply the best choice. ”

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