The VW Golf A59 is the WRX rival that should've been.
The World Rally Championship was extremely popular in the Nineties, and Volkswagen wanted in. To compete with the Celica GT-Four, Escort RS Cosworth, Impreza 555, and Lancer Evolution, VW needed a homologation special of its own. That car would've been an all-wheel drive, fender-flared Golf, codenamed A59.
An unknown amount of A59 prototypes were built by Schmidt Motorsports—which successfully campaigned the Audi V8 in DTM—and at least one survives. VW is taking the A59 on a tour of America, and it let our friends at parts supplier FCP Euro drive it around Lime Rock Park. It's an extraordinary creation.
The engine was developed from the ground up, and it sends power to all four wheels via a custom six-speed manual gearbox and a four-wheel drive system that's similar in spirit to later Golf R Haldex systems. Between 25 and 100 percent of the power can be sent to the rear axle, making the A59's all-wheel drive far more advanced than the MkII Golf Rallye's system. The bodywork addenda is made from carbon-kevlar, while inside there's an integrated roll cage and custom Recaro seats.
A 2012 Pistonheads article says it's rumored that Ferdinand Piëch, the mad-genius engineer/grandson of Ferdinand Porsche who took over the VW Group in 1993, was the one to kill the A59. VW was in financial dire straits at the time, and Piëch is credited with turning the company around.
The Golf R still exists today, but it's not nearly as wild as the A59. As the presenters of the video say, we'll never know what VW could've been like today if the A59 project had gone ahead.
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