It seems that it’s more than just cars like the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato and Porsche 911 Dakar getting the off-road treatment. Though just a concept preview for the moment, Delta 4x4’s - you know, the crazy folk who make Cullinan off-road kits - vision of a Golf Country for 2020s does look pretty great. The demand for both the Porsche and the Lambo indicate there’s definitely appetite out there for a different take on supercars, so perhaps the same might be true for hot hatches…
The original Country, though now much loved, was a commercial disaster. According to Delta, just 0.12 per cent of all Mk2 Golfs ever made were Country-spec, or 7,735 units. That was a long time before the SUV craze, or the lifted supercar one, or indeed that weird time of cladded-up regular hatchbacks, so is understandable – the Country was the answer to a question nobody was really asking. Or, as Delta likes to put it, ‘comparable to Quentin Tarantino’s early films: a box office flop, but an absolute cult object among fans’.
The days of the Country are a long way behind us, however, and Delta 4x4 is pitching this new take on the old car as a very limited run – something like 25 units. It’s easy to imagine sufficient interest being there for a car that retains the usability of a Golf but adds to that a whole heap more rugged style and off-road prowess. The remake is built on a Golf R, which means both 320hp performance and all-wheel drive ability; specced the right way it would also get customers the torque vectoring rear diff for full rally raid mischief. To the base package, Delta has added a lift kit for up to 80mm more ground clearance, chunky arch extensions to house the Loder AT off-road tyres and 18-inch Hanma wheels, bonnet-mounted spotlights and roof rack crammed with expedition goodies. Black maybe isn’t the best colour for showing all that off, but then at least it isn’t another blue Golf R – the overhaul is definitely intriguing alright.
If the demand exists, Delta reckons that the 25-car run would take six to nine months from ‘development to completion’ and cost €35,000 on top of a Golf R, or £30k. Though a box fresh R is £50k, there are now £35k used ones out there, which would bring total cost in at… well, quite a bit still. But the new Country does look cool. And it’d still be less than that yellow one that's sold out…
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