THE BEST GTI YOU'LL NEVER OWN; VW's R GTI SEMA show car is superb to drive, but you can't.(News)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

The magnificent R GTI is easily the nimblest and most fun-to-drive Volkswagen ever built. Volkswagen's Design Center California and APR of Auburn, Alabama, lightened it up and added huge twists of horsepower and torque.

The weight loss came from a carbon fiber hood, front fenders, rear hatch and everything else except the roof, doors and rear quarter-panels. Lighter forged wheels and lighter suspension components combine with the carbon fiber to shave 150 pounds off the curb weight.

Add as much as 400 hp under the hood, thanks to an APR-installed Garrett turbo with twice the stock airflow, and you have a recipe for incredible performance. To get all that power to the ground, Derek Jenkins, of VW, added a Quaife limited-slip, widened the front track by 50 millimeters and installed meaty 265/30 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires on 19x9-inch rims.

Driving it is a delightful blend of pain and pleasure, mostly pleasure. The H&R RSS Club Sport coilovers were just as brutal as the set of prototype Club Sport Coilovers we experienced three years ago on an H&R Acura RSX Type-S ("Slammin' Speeder,'' May 19, 2003). They bounce and crash over the slightest suggestion of a road ripple, but the payoff is cornering so quick you have to reset your internal steering computer to drive.

Lowering the car and cramming those big wheels and tires into the wheel wells without adding desert-racer fenders left little room for suspension travel, so the coilovers don't have much room to do their job. That adds to the jarring ride quality. But the whole time we drove it, we never once felt or heard a tire scrape a fender. Try doing that with an average ...