2008 Volkswagon Scirocco
Thursday, January 4th, 2007
It’s not the shape or the size of the latest Volkswagen show car that makes the memory chip inside your head go from standby to high alert. It is the color that does the trick, an unusual shade of metallic color called, past and present, viper green. If you’re old enough, this hue triggers an instant flashback to the rocking 1970s. In 1974, when the first-generation Scirocco debuted, the world witnessed the end of the Nixon era and the ending of the hippie movement.
Designed by Giugiaro, built by Karmann, and sold in the States between 1975 and 1981, the first Scirocco was an instant showroom success. Although the replacement model (1982-88) and the portlier Corrado (1990-94) turned out to be less popular, Volkswagen decided to revive the affordable coupe with the Iroc concept. (ScIROCco, get it?) A month before its public debut at the Paris auto show, we drove the concept, which is closely related to the production version slated for 2008.
The Iroc is definitely not your father’s Scirocco. Based on the running gear and the platform of the Eos convertible, it is bold, butch, and mean-looking. They haven’t offered shapes like this in Wolfsburg for years. But now Wolfgang Bernhard is in charge, and he wants “no more middle-of-the-road cars!” That’s why the Iroc looks the way it does, and that’s why the new Scirocco will look very similar to the Iroc.
True, the car that will leave the assembly line in Palmela, Portugal, starting in early 2008 will have less radical wheels and a slightly slimmer silhouette. Also due to change are the flush-fitting, electrically actuated door handles and the contrasting lower body panels, which will be painted. But the big picture is spot-on, with zero changes envisaged to the love-it-or-hate-it hexagonal grille, the headlamps, the side sheetmetal, the daring greenhouse, and the interior and exterior dimensions.
Unlike any other VW, the Scirocco-to-be surprises with an almost sculptural three-dimensionality. The interplay between concave and convex surfaces is particularly striking where the hood, the front fenders, and the A-pillars meet and also where the C-pillars flow into the rear side panels. The dark roof blends so neatly with the large windshield that VW should consider making it standard or at least an option on the production car.
Inside, large quantities of carbon-fiber trim adorn the roof structure, the doors, and the pillars. Predictably, the interior, which was penned by Nils Poschwatta, is going to be toned down to meet stringent cost targets. The basic dashboard layout, however, is there to stay, so you can expect two large, round gauges; rotary secondary controls; air vents that mimic the contours of the grille; and a dished sport steering wheel with three metal spokes.
Although it’s still early, the VW Iroc tells us a lot about the future Scirocco’s definitive visibility, packaging, and maneuverability. The A-pillars are quite wide, but the big windshield and the low-cut side windows ensure that this is no castle on wheels. The view through the rear window is framed by viper-green seatbacks.
This is more of a roomy two-plus-two than a proper four-seater, and while rear headroom is hard to fault, access to the second row requires a certain degree of physical fitness. Those two buckets obviously have been upholstered for looks, not comfort. The major controls are pure Eos, only crisper and more immediate.
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