In the end, though, it would be up to each of the three magazines to pick their own winner, based on shared performance data and their own subjective criteria
Performance testing consisted of a series of three hot laps along with modified acceleration and brake testing. Due to the lack of runoff and the gentle rise of the Streets' front straight, acceleration was limited to 0-60mph, while braking was measured from just 60mph down to standstill. In the spirit of our Ultimate Street Car Challenge, we also had a dyno showdown the following day, not at our normal facility,but at Zero-1000 USA Inc, in the City of Industry, California. To help put the factory and tuner efforts in perspective, we also asked VW to bring two stock GTIs for comparison: a six-speed manual and one equipped with the DSG transmission. For our subjective evaluation, we examined each vehicle and lapped them to compare performance, streetworthiness and overall execution.
Performance TestingA run-of-the-mill Southern California fall day at The Streets: warm and dry, bright, unrelenting sunshine. With newly renovated asphalt on the skidpad and the rest of the track smooth and fast, there would be no complaint about the conditions or the facilities. After a brief practice session to set up their cars, each team got a total of three laps to get the fastest time.
Teams supplied their own drivers, from Eibach's Jim Hickerson (who drove for the ABD team) to SCCA Speed World Challenge stud and Audi racer Randy Pobst driving for APR. Although both VW factory-tuned SEMA cars made it to the track, only the R GTI was set to run; not all the kinks had been worked out of the Thunder Bunny II
Since our challenge took place less than two weeks before SEMA, there was talk in the paddock about some teams preserving their cars and running only at seven- or eight-tenths. Baloney, once testing was under way, it was clear all the teams were going for broke-in some cases, literally. The WRD team destroyed their transmission during the practice laps, a catastrophe that took them out of contention.
If WRD's demise caused any of the other teams palpatations, they didn't show it: with light bolt-ons, heavy suspension tuning and sticky tires, the H&R GTI beat the manual-shift stock GTI by over seven seconds, while the ABD car went over two seconds quicker than that. APR was the only tuner team to break into the sub-1:30 club, posting an impressive 1:29.21.
The surprise of the day, though, was the factory VW. In Pobst's hands, the R GTI proved to be not your typical no-go/all-show SEMA car, turning in a blistering 1:27.39. This is on a par with some of the fastest street cars we've seen at this track-even faster than our 2006 Ultimate Street Car Challenge-winning 650-plus horsepower NSX (1:27:74). Granted, the R GTI posted this time on a slightly faster track configuration, but it was still faster than a mid-engine sports car with a 300hp advantage.
This finishing order repeated itself in the acceleration phase, though only after a bit of fiddling with the R GTI, whose engine would inexplicably cut out at 50mph. After pulling the wheel speed sensor, the car turned in a blazing 4.82-second sprint to 60mph, the only sub-five second pass and faster than the APR car by nearly four-tenths. After APR came ABD in 5.37 seconds and H&R at just over 5.5. An impressive showing for all, considering the stock car could only manage 6.4 seconds.