Mk2 VW Golf GTI Takes On Up GTI In Weirdly Relaxing Drag Race
Over the last few months, we’ve seen Car Wow drag race a massive variety of fast cars. There have been hot hatch battles, supercar showdowns, and even a face-off featuring two hilariously powerful limos.
The latest effort is a little less dramatic, however. In fact, it is - in a way - quite a relaxing race to watch. In one corner we have the VW Up GTI and in the other an eight-valve Mk2 Golf GTI. And the reason for the pairing simple: they have around the same power output.
The difference is the Up GTI uses a much smaller engine - a 1.0-litre inline-three turbo versus the Golf’s naturally-aspirated 1.8-litre inline-four. The Up is slightly heavier, but it has time on its side - it’s likely a few of the Golf’s horses will have cantered away over its considerably longer life.
Have a watch of the video above, then let us know in the comments whether or not it went the way you were expecting!
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Up Up Up and AWAAAY!
LOL!!!
There was a time when 17 seconds used to be fast…
Ok, I’m a Mk.2 fan, but fan or not this is some bullshit test.
Comparing a turbo car against an N/A one is not fair at all. Turbos, in general, have way more torque.
By the way that ~25 year progress they say is not that impressive, all they’ve done is just put a turbo on a small engine. The Up!s 1.0 engine has almost the same specs as the Golfs 1.0 from 1983. If you don’t believe me look it up, it’s more efficient, but not more powerful.
The guy in the Up also had a better reaction time in the drag race.
Lastly the Golf isn’t lighter than the Up, it even might be heavier. It depends on the year, but the 16v for example weighs around 1050kgs. All those electric stuff added some weight to it.
Ur triggerd so its dumb (:D) as this test proves why u should buy an mk2 gti and not an UP gti, but they are not allowed to spell that UP :P
Drag racing:
A S M R EDITION
I’d like to see how they both handle some corners too, that’s always more telling of a car than a straight line.
I’d also like to see a dyno print out of the 2, to see if the golf has lost anything over the past 25 years.
But regardless of the results, I know which I would prefer to own.
I love the earlier gen GTi’s, and comparing an n/a car between a turbo’d car is not fair at all! This just makes the early GTi’s cult classicness,well,a bit weird,to be honest RudolfProșeniuc
Yeah. My comment got a lot of downvotes for this, but I don’t care xD
To be clear, I’m not a fanboy. I know the Mk.2 was slow even back then and I’m not surprised at all that a 30 year old car got beaten by a new car.
how about they test the up with another car that isn´t a golf and with the same HP?
like UP GTI against a 150HP BMW or Jetta or KIA or else.
“decades of progress”is 0.6 of a sec faster than a car that is over 20 years older
…whit 800 cc less,1 cyl less and more weight :)
I would take Golf
anytime
Vw Lupo gti vs up gti please. That is one drag race I would want too see