Volkswagen Scirocco R Specifications Confirmed For Australia

Volkswagen Australia has revealed that its long-awaited sports coupe-slash-hatch, the reborn Scirocco, will arrive in Australia early next year.

Not only that, but its arrival will be in top-shelf R trim. This news follows months of behind-the-scenes rumours and unsourced comments suggesting a local launch was imminent.

The Australian-delivered Scirocco R will be powered by the same 188kW and 330Nm turbocharged four-cylinder engine as the Golf R - but without the Golf R's Haldex all-wheel-drive system.

The 2.0 litre turbo will be paired with a six-speed manual transmission as standard, with Volkswagen's six-speed DSG automatic transmission available on the options list.

Unlike its R stablemate in the Golf line-up, the Scirocco R will be equipped with Adaptive Chassis Control out of the box - a system that continually adjusts the damping based on dynamic information fed from sensors in the body and at each wheel.

In European trim, the Scirocco R weighs in at around 145kg less than the three-door Golf R, and can blast to 100km/h in a claimed 6.0 seconds - a tenth of a second slower than the Golf.

Despite its front-wheel-drive-only setup, the Scirocco R's arrival here is expected to coincide with the removal of the three-door bodystyle from the local Golf R line-up. Nothing, of course, is confirmed from Volkswagen on this score.

All of this comes as little more than a teaser, for now: Volkswagen has yet to reveal pricing or specific sale dates, although an "early 2012" launch has been confirmed.