Volkswagen Golf R driven

"Even though it's not a six?" ask those engaging in some heavy bemoaningment. "Yes" I reply, "waste no more time bemoaning the lack of creamy bellow and sense of wonder at having a big torquey six up front in a small car." I am not bemoaning. Or even moaning. I respected the line of VR6/R32s, but I never loved them. For me - and this is just an opinion, of course, even though it's perfectly correct - a big, heavy, thirsty, complex six-cylinder engine just doesn't suit a car of the Golf's size and shape, and ethos, if you like. I'll never forget the time I first fired up a VR6, because it sounded very impressive and almost bizarre, but I was always aware of the six cylinder engine's weight up front, too, whether real or imagined, and its ‘heavy' big-car demeanour pulsing through the nose. And, well, it didn't work. Too much of an oddity.