VW

Volkswagen Golf A59: Berlin wilderness that could be iconic

It was 1992 when Volkswagen decided to return to the World Rally Championship (WRC), after having abandoned it in the late 1980s, and for that it asked its racing division, Volkswagen Motorsport, a car for the Group THE. As was customary, for that car to be approved to compete in the world championship in the specialty, the German giant had to manufacture 2,500 street copies, although as we could deduce, the car that appears in the images never became a reality.

The project was developed together with Schmidt Motorsport, which had already demonstrated its effectiveness and know-how with the Audi V8 of the German Touring Championship (DTM), and with the S2. Together they would manufacture the definitive version of the third-generation Golf III, much more powerful and aggressive than the GTI and VR6.

Of course, this 1992 prototype, called the Volkswagen Golf A59, looked wilder, thanks to its flared wheel arches, an aggressive ventilated hood and a prominent roof rear wing. The recipe is slightly reminiscent of the second generation Volkswagen Golf G60 Rallye.

In the cabin it equipped a digital instrument panel (very rudimentary by today's standards, of course), sports seats signed by the Recaro specialist and a safety bar, for example.

The soul of this concept, in place of the 1,984 cm3 engine of the Golf GTI 16V, was a 1,998 cm3 block, equipped with a Garrett T3 turbocharger, which took power up to 275 hp (400 hp in the competition version) and the maximum torque up to 370 Nm.

Thanks to these powerful figures, the Golf A59 was able to reach a top speed of 270 km/h. In addition, it should be noted that it had a four-wheel drive system, equipped with a hydraulically controlled central self-locking differential and a usual rear self-locking.

The German brand only manufactured two copies of this Volkswagen Golf A59 MK3, although it is said that two other prototypes without an engine were also produced. Anyway, the model never materialized, perhaps because of the financial situation that the Volkswagen Group was going through at the time, after the acquisition of Skoda the year before. Furthermore, the model was considered too expensive to manufacture and difficult to sell.

Autonews