Volkswagen T-Roc R goes on sale in the UK

The Volkswagen T-Roc R – VW’s Golf R on short stilts – goes on sale in the UK with 296bhp from its 2.0 litre turbo and pries from £38,450.

Volkswagen rolled out the T-Roc R in ‘near production’ guise back in February as they decided the world needed a compact SUV with the power of a Golf R. And it’s now on sale in the UK, with prices starting at £38,450.

Closely related to the Golf R, the T-Roc is competing in a small, but growing, sector of compact performance SUVs, making use of the Golf R’s powertrain and basic suspension to deliver a properly warm hot hatch on stilts.

It gets VW’s 296bhp four-pot 2.0 litre turbo with part-time Haldex all-wheel drive and seven-speed dual-clutch ‘box, all working seamlessly to deliver 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds, just a 0.3 second deficit on the Golf R, and sits higher than the Golf R but lower than its more prosaic siblings.

Standard equipment includes 19″ alloys and 17″ brakes, with suitable go faster cosmetic tweaks including butch bumpers, titivated grille, matt chrome trim bits, bits of carbon fibre trim inside, VW’s Active Info Display and a sporty steering wheel.

At £38,450 the headline pries isn’t too silly, but if you start ticking a few interesting option boxes it will soon mount up; it’ll cost you over £1k for some of the paint options, a leather and carbon fibre pack over £2k and an Akrapovic exhaust £3k.

The Volkswagen T-Roc R is now on sale at VW’s UK dealers.