Please explain: why does a Golf need quad tail pipes?

[Knoxville]

It means "inline V" after some translation from German: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR6_engine

They are a narrow V engine, I think VW are the only people who still make them which seems odd to me. Lancia and Ford did V4 engines back in the 60's and 70's, and in these days of small engine bays I would have thought being able to fit a 4 pot engine in the space of a 3 pot engine would be a win, but there you go.

Ahh so that's why, fair play, I was never sure if it actually meant anything or not. Every day really is a school day in here

Ducati still do V4's I think, unless I'm totally wrong which I might well be. If I had to try and guess why there aren't more in cars I'd say that it's probably just easier to package a three cylinder turbo engine in smaller cars and get the engine in line with emissions regs, blown three pots do seem to be in vogue at the moment.

[DanceswithUnix]

... blown three pots do seem to be in vogue at the moment.

Sadly that is true. I like to call that "half an engine", but there never seems to be a way of plugging in another bank of three

[Butcher]

Not 100% sure on the golf, as I have it's similarly quad piped brethren (S3).

All 4 exhausts work, in that they are all connected to the backbox. The outer two (iirc) only work part of the time, and are closed off by flaps the rest of the time; they're mainly to alter the exhaust note when you boot it.
There's only a single pipe from the exhaust manifold back (as you'd expect on a straight 4), so the number of tips is largely cosmetic in that regard. On the S3 at least quad tips is part of their "style" for S model cars, they more or less all have quad tips, similarly RS models have two larger oval tips.

[gingerninja7]

Effectively, the reason for the Golf R having quad pipes is purely aesthetics, to mark it as the best Golf that you can get. The GTI has twin, symmetrical pipes to mark it above the standard Golfs... If the R only had two pipes then the hoi polloi might mistake it as 'only' a GTI

That said, I do actually really like the Golf R, including the quad pipes - takes all sorts I guess

[Biscuit]

It means "inline V" after some translation from German: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR6_engine

They are a narrow V engine, I think VW are the only people who still make them which seems odd to me. Lancia and Ford did V4 engines back in the 60's and 70's, and in these days of small engine bays I would have thought being able to fit a 4 pot engine in the space of a 3 pot engine would be a win, but there you go.

Fair play, I must've had it confused with a different powerplant, every day's a school day when it comes to me and Volkswagens to be honest

Just out of interest, because I've never actually thought to ask, does anyone know why a VR6 is called a VR6 and not just a V6. Is it a fancy piece of nomanclature, or does it have something to do with the actual layout of the engine ala the W12 for example?

VR6 Engine - Explained: https://youtu.be/Y0LKWt3Ttic

I quite like this guys videos, he explains things in very simple terms.