VW Golf GTI Cabriolet at Geneva. But what about the Golf R Cabriolet?

VW Golf R Cabriolet (left) & Golf GTI Cabriolet

The Worthersee Tour is a huge festival of pimped and preened VW cars held every year in Germany. And every year VW Group products turn up from the maker too, often pointing the way to what is to come. And last year at Worthersee we saw the VW Golf GTI Cabriolet and the VW Golf R Cabriolet. And both looked just about ready for production.

Reports today say that VW will debut the Golf GTi Cabriolet at the Geneva Motor Show next month as a swan song for the current GTI, ahead of an all new Golf in 2013. It will get not just the GTI’s 2.0 litre turbo with 208bhp – which has been on offer already in the Golf Cabriolet – but will also get all the rest of the GTI goodness, like DSG ‘box, big alloys and the proper GTI chassis.

But if the GTI Cabrio is to be the swan song for the Golf, what about the Golf R Cabriolet we saw at Worthersee alongside the GTI Cabriolet? The Golf R Cabrio got the same 4WD setup and chassis as the tin-top Golf R and its 266bhp turbo 4-pot, with the same suspension setup and lower ride height.

Surely, if VW are going to take the current Golf to the end of its run with a halo cabrio, the way to go would be with the Golf R Cabrio? That would have more impact – and be a much bigger halo – for the current Golf than a GTI cabrio?

But, with a new Golf in 2013, if the Golf R Cabrio doesn’t turn up soon it looks like it’s dead in the water.