Photo: Simon Hill, Canadian Auto Press |
The original Beetle GSR borrowed its distinctive colour scheme – a yellow body with black hood and engine cover – from the Salzburg Rallye Beetles of Austria, and took its name from the same colour scheme: GSR stands for Gelb Schwarzer Renner, which translates as Yellow Black Racer. How’s that for honesty?
While the original GSR had a naturally-aspirated, air-cooled 1.6-litre motor that made all of 50 horsepower, the 2014 Beetle GSR gets Volkswagen’s turbocharged 2.0TSI four-cylinder engine, cranking out a comparatively massive 210 horsepower
Photo: Simon Hill, Canadian Auto Press |
The original GSR also received wider wheels, a sport suspension, sport seats, a sports steering wheel, and a vented front lip. Likewise, the 2014 Beetle GSR gets a healthy selection of go-fast goodies including 19-inch Tornado wheels, a sport suspension, leather-upholstered GSR sport seats with yellow stitching, a trio of auxiliary gauges, R-Line front and rear fascias, bi-xenon headlights, LED character lighting, and a unique GSR rear spoiler.
In most other respects the GSR is the same as the regular Beetle, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The interior uses mostly rigid plastics (soft-touch materials
Photo: Simon Hill, Canadian Auto Press |
I found the front sport seats superlatively comfortable, and there’s adequate room in the back to carry two adults in reasonable comfort, at least on short trips. A total of 440 litres of cargo capacity helps to make the Beetle a practical conveyance, and the rear seats fold to provide 850 litres of total luggage space (although the seats don’t fold entirely flat, so sliding large items in the back can be tricky). In terms of in-cabin storage, there’s a couple of cupholders in the console,
Photo: Simon Hill, Canadian Auto Press |
For the most part, all the controls are laid out in a logical manner and fall easily to hand. The only exception is the stopwatch mounted in the middle of the auxiliary gauge package, which requires a bit of a reach to activate. In a nod to the original Beetle, the instrument panel is dominated by a large round speedometer, with a smaller tachometer and fuel gauges inset on either side. Standard equipment includes air conditioning, cruise control, colour-selectable ambient lighting, keyless access with pushbutton start, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, heated seats, Bluetooth phone connectivity, alloy pedals, power windows, and plenty more.
My
Photo: Simon Hill, Canadian Auto Press |
A couple of glitches I noticed inside the test car included a slight rattle in the standard-equipment sunroof, and an intermittent fault in the oil pressure gauge that caused it to occasionally (and briefly) fall off to zero for no apparent reason. I’m sure these minor issues would be easily sorted out under Volkswagen’s four-year, 80,000 km comprehensive warranty.
On the road, the Beetle GSR certainly does scoot, zipping from 0-100 km/h in about
Photo: Simon Hill, Canadian Auto Press |
Cornering in the GSR is competent in a smile-inducing sort of way, and the car is responsive without being skittish or punishing. Instead, it’s well behaved in the curves,
Photo: Simon Hill, Canadian Auto Press |
The Beetle GSR starts at $35,030 including the $1,395 destination fee, which is $3,360 more than the regular 2.0TSI Beetle (but only $1,960 more by the time you add a sunroof to the regular Beetle, which is included with the GSR). My test car added the DSG automatic for $1,400 and the Technology Package for $1,029, bringing its total price to $37,520 including destination. At that price, the Beetle GSR provides an entertaining alternative to Volkswagen’s own Golf GTI, while competing against hot hatches such as the Mini Cooper S and Ford Focus ST. Compared to those cars, the GSR stands out thanks to its attention-getting personality and relative exclusivity – like the original GSR, Volkswagen only intends to build 3,500 GSRs, so if you want to put one in your driveway you’ll need to act fast.
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