Volkswagen Beetle R Cabriolet prototype 2014 Review

Lurking in the background during this week’s meeting of the Volkswagen minds on an ice lake in northern Sweden was something unusual. Amongst the scattered Porsche Panamera Hybrids, Audi A3 e-trons, Golf Rs and a lone Polo R prototype lurked a Beetle Cabriolet.

The Beetle Cabriolet has never carried the burden of expectation from endlessly positive car magazines reviews, so it seemed oddly alone.

Yet there was a reason why it was there. Volkswagen had been fiddling around with it and this one was stuffed full of the Seat Leon Cupra’s 280bhp version of the family EA888 engine.

And then, to manage it, the Beetle Cabriolet had been re-engineered to accept a multi-link rear suspension and all-wheel drive.

To the outsider, this seemed odd because the Beetle is built off the Golf VI platform, rather than the Golf VII’s more modern MQB underpinnings, so all of those engineering efforts carry the whiff of necrophilia.

The Beetle Cabriolet all-wheel drive, as it was officially being called by people desperate not to be quoted calling it even that, is a clear precursor to Volkswagen including the Beetle family into its upcoming range of R models. The clear line to draw is that all the R models will be all-wheel drive, which is where the Beetle Cabrio’s issues come in.

The Beetle is a strict front-driver, as highlighted by Volkswagen’s Detroit concept car, the Beetle Dune, which looked ungainly as a sand chariot with only the nose pulling. There has been a major piece of re-engineering to get a rear drive setup inside the prototype.

The older Beetle architecture had to be adapted to accept a four-link rear suspension, a six-speed DSG dual-clutch transmission and a 350Nm version of the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine.

And, while it all works in a functional way, it feels like the Beetle didn’t much enjoy having its internals rearranged.

With an expected 0-100km/h time in the mid five-second bracket, the prototype Beetle R Cabriolet should be a surprise packet of speed and strength; one to frighten the generalisers at the traffic lights. That much it can probably achieve, but not a lot more.

This car retained the Beetle Cabrio’s significant scuttle shake, even with its soft-top roof firmly fixed in place, and its lack of compliance in the front suspension over bumps. And, from there, its skid-control systems chimed in far earlier than they did in the prototype Polo R.

Sure, it would have worked better on the ice tracks we had if we’d been able to switch off its intrusive skid-control, but it was locked on firmly with no switch in sight. That wouldn’t be the case in a production version, so it’s feasible that would be a better car than this grabby, stop-start, frustrating machine.

Without the ability to turn off the ESP on ice, the only thing that can be added to the benefits column is that the rear diff helps its weight distribution, because it does turn into corners better and changes direction better, though the steering still lacks any intuitive feel.

In all likelihood, this is a car that won’t make production and is just here to see if it could be done and to see whether the Beetle Cabriolet might gain more credibility with more power and speed.

2015 Volkswagen Beetle R Cabriolet Prototype pricing and specifications:
Price: TBA
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 210kW/350Nm
Transmission: Six-speed DSG
Fuel: TBA
CO2: TBA
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP (Based on production model)

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