VW will IROC you: No, it's not what you're thinking

By Paul Horrell / Photography by the Manufacturers / Article provided by: Motor Trend Magazine

Volkswagen is making good on its promise of building a new Scirocco, a budget four-seat coupe. It was unveiled at the Paris show in late September as the Iroc concept. Barring such details as seats, wheels, interior, and door handles, it's the real thing. The name gives a big clue, too--the middle four letters of Scirocco (nothing to do with the International Race of Champions or the Camaro IROC).





The design is sharper and more aggressive than usual for a VW, with a strong hexagonal grille surround (brushed aluminum on the concept, plastic for production), angled-pair headlamps, and strong rear haunches. But the car has to be positioned as a more practical machine than an Audi TT, so it has a long greenhouse to provide useable rear-seat headroom.

The car features a Golf/Passat platform--the wheelbase is four inches longer than a Golf's, but the width is as per the Passat and Eos. Powertrains are from the familial lineup, too, but with the emphasis on small, lightweight powerful fours, such as the GTI's 2.0 turbo, and, as fitted to the concept, VW's excellent new torquey and economical turbo- and-supercharged "Twincharger" 170-horsepower, 1.4 liter. The show car has DSG transmission.

VW's AWD and V-6 will fit, but aren't in the budget spirit of the car. The design was done in Wolfsburg, under the direction of Marc Lichte. Lead designer was Robert Lesneck. The show car is painted Viper Green, like the 1974 Scirocco. It'll be built alongside the Eos at VW's plant in Portugal."