Here’s What a Volkswagen Golf Doing 211 MPH in the Half-Mile Looks Like
A turbo VR6 sends 1,300 hp to all four wheels.
While we Americans know a thing or two about straight-line speed, so do Europeans—more specifically, the Germans. They've long been tuning seemingly ordinary streetcars to almighty horsepower levels, more often than not in the shape of a Volkswagen Golf. This maroon MK2, for example, ran at the Race1000 event and showed that even though it looks plain, it's capable of hitting 211 miles per hour in the
half-mile.
We're no strangers to super quick Golfs, but this is more than that. It doesn't even need 3,000 feet to reach speeds faster than a stock Lamborghini Huracan can manage on miles of open highway.
This Volkswagen is a top-tier sleeper with wheels that scream "base model" and a fart-can looking exhaust. You'd probably notice the lower ride height and roll-cage spotting this hot-hatch on the street, but never would you suspect it was capable of sending 1,300 horsepower to all four wheels via a turbocharged VR6 engine. This is the same car we saw back in 2017 when it was running only 1,233 horsepower. It's a rolling testament to James Taylor's line in the 1971 cult-classic film Two-Lane Blacktop: "You can never go fast enough."
The Mk2 is also quick in shorter spurts. Its dedicated Facebook page, Turbosektor-Ost, features a post from July 6 showing a quarter-mile time slip reading 9.1 seconds with an exit speed of 174 mph. It also ran the eighth-mile in 6.2 seconds at 137 mph. Really, it's hotter than a two-dollar pistol.
It's one thing to take a late model supercar past the 200-mph barrier, but to do it in an old, boxy hatchback? It takes a considerable amount of bravery to keep the gas pedal pinned to the floor, bulldozing the air for half a mile. Bravo!
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