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00:10 Over the years, car enthusiasts have grown to appreciate the tuning and
00:15 performance enhancing capabilities of the Volkswagen Golf.
00:19 With a turbocharged platform and German performance handling,
00:22 the Golf Series has become an incredibly popular option for
00:25 enthusiasts and tuners around the world.
00:27 [MUSIC]
00:34 Hey everybody, this is Mike Febo, editor of European Car.
00:37 We're here at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California for
00:42 the 2015 European Car Continental Tire Tuner GP.
00:46 We're here on the first day of the competition, and
00:50 this is the drag racing portion.
00:53 It wouldn't be the first thing you think about with European cars,
00:55 especially we have a bunch of front wheel drive Volkswagens out here.
00:59 But it is a good way for tuners to go head to head and
01:02 show off the horsepower they can make.
01:03 [MUSIC]
01:07 So this year, we're doing all Volkswagen Golfs.
01:11 It's the original hot hatch, it's accessible to most enthusiasts, and
01:15 it's a lot of fun.
01:16 [MUSIC]
01:19 >> And these Golfs are definitely not slow.
01:22 Some of these guys are getting anywhere between 300 and
01:24 600 horsepower out of these hatches that weigh less than 3,000 pounds from the factory.
01:29 With that kind of power to weight ratio,
01:31 they're bound to set some pretty good times down the quarter mile,
01:34 if they can get traction.
01:35 [MUSIC]
01:40 To get an idea of what it takes to set a respectable time,
01:43 let's check in with some of our competitors.
01:44 >> Hi, my name's Marcel Horn.
01:47 I'm from HPA Motorsports up in Vancouver, Canada.
01:50 We're down here in the extremely sunny and
01:51 warm Fontana, California for the European Car Tuner Grand Prix.
01:56 You know what, coming down here from up north here in Canada,
01:58 it's a little bit warmer, so setting the cars up for this heat's been a bit of
02:01 a challenge, but we're enjoying it.
02:03 We got on the track a little bit earlier, 9 o'clock,
02:05 the sun wasn't quite as hot and high as it is right now.
02:08 And we brought these little trio V-Dubs, two four-wheel drives and
02:11 a front-wheel drive, and all of them have been doing really well.
02:13 You know, we hope to, in the four-wheel drive category,
02:15 have the first and second place finishing cars here.
02:18 So we'll see how that plays out.
02:19 We ran some passes this morning.
02:21 They looked really promising in the right direction.
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02:32 >> So at last year's event, all I did was sit around and kind of watch the action.
02:45 I couldn't do that again this year.
02:47 So Volkswagen lent me a 2015 Golf R, and
02:51 I'm actually using this thing to set down a control time.
02:55 Both feet down, give it some revs, light turns green, go.
03:00 In the other lane, we have Rafi from Eurosport.
03:05 Man, that thing's pretty quick, actually.
03:10 I kind of expected to catch up with him a little bit.
03:13 He got off the line a little faster, but he is pulling away from it.
03:18 >> My name is Rafi Kazanjian.
03:20 I'm owner of Eurosport Accessories, Inc.
03:22 >> Hi, my name is Vic.
03:23 I'm the automotive technician at Eurosport Accessories.
03:26 >> We're out here today with a European car tuner GP event to try out on our new
03:33 GTI and also the Golf R32.
03:36 [SOUND]
03:39 >> The GTI is brand new, trying to test it out.
03:42 It's supposed to have really good power and acceleration.
03:46 Hopefully, both at the drag and the road course.
03:48 I guess time will tell once we put some pressure on the car and
03:51 see what it can do.
03:52 I mean, we basically just wanted to bring a flavor of both cars.
03:56 One's all-wheel drive, six-cylinder, and the other one's just front-wheel drive.
03:59 So I may have the advantage at the drag strip today, but
04:03 he may have the advantage on the track.
04:05 So just wanted to bring something different and something new, something old.
04:08 [MUSIC]
04:37 >> That about wraps it up for day one.
04:39 Tomorrow is going to be big.
04:42 All right, welcome to day two of European Cars Continental Tire Tuner Grand Prix.
04:47 As you can see, beautiful sunny Southern California.
04:50 Isn't so sunny today,
04:51 which will actually make this afternoon a little more interesting.
04:55 Normally what we would do is we let these guys out, very small group, so
05:00 they kind of never see each other on track.
05:03 We're a little more worried about the weather today, so
05:05 we're going to start bunching them up a little bit.
05:07 And hopefully they aren't going to get in each other's way.
05:10 Everyone in the competition is running similar setups for the road course.
05:13 All coil overs, just from different manufacturers.
05:16 You'll notice no one is dumped on the ground.
05:19 These cars are built to perform, and
05:21 suspension performance means articulation and compliance.
05:24 If you don't have enough travel to soak up the bumps,
05:26 the tires end up off the ground, which, as you might have heard, is pretty bad for
05:30 grip.
05:31 HPA was generous enough to bring out its Challenge race car for some demo laps.
05:35 Its suspension is definitely set up stiffer than these road cars, but
05:39 in racing you trade off a little bit of travel for aerodynamic consistency.
05:43 Everyone in the competition is running a Continental Extreme Contact DW tire.
05:48 While the 19 and 20 inch wheels might look cool, for performance,
05:51 you want a little bit of give in the sidewall, plus the lower rotational
05:55 inertia of the smaller wheel, is going to be faster around the track.
05:59 Today, we have Boris Z here, racing legend.
06:03 You've driven just about everything, really.
06:05 Everything from Imsen Racing to Baja, right?
06:09 >> Pretty much anything with four wheels other than an IndyCar I've driven.
06:12 [MUSIC]
06:22 [SOUND]
06:32 >> So he's done some laps in our Golf R.
06:41 I'm not gonna give away lap times just yet.
06:43 Needless to say, he was tearing it up out there compared to some of the tuner cars.
06:46 [MUSIC]
06:53 So what do you think of the Golf R in general?
06:55 >> I mean, I was really shocked.
06:57 I mean, I didn't think a car stock right out of the box could handle as good as it
07:00 did.
07:01 Normally they push really bad, and this thing was really nimble, and
07:04 it had a lot of torque, so I like the four wheel drive.
07:07 >> Yeah, how do you think this compares to a GTI?
07:10 >> Yeah, in my career I've driven a lot of front wheel drive cars, and
07:14 they're definitely a different animal.
07:15 This drives a lot more like a rear wheel drive, but
07:18 with a little bit of front wheel drive in the corner where you can really use the
07:21 power to help the thing turn.
07:23 >> Well, thank you for coming out.
07:24 I can't tell you how much we appreciate it.
07:26 It was a lot of fun watching you run around out there.
07:29 >> Yeah, good, it was fun for me too, thanks.
07:30 >> Thank you. >> Yep.
07:31 [MUSIC]
07:33 >> The stock Golf R with either my time or Boris' time was good enough for
07:38 fifth out of seven cars in the all wheel drive category.
07:42 Maybe more surprising and a testament to how good the Mark VII GTI is,
07:47 Boris' time in the Golf R would have only gotten him third in the front wheel
07:52 drive class.
07:54 The fastest front wheel drive was actually fourth fastest overall,
07:57 turning in faster times than any of the older platform cars,
08:01 even the all wheel drive ones.
08:02 [MUSIC]
08:05 >> Hey, my name's Thomas, I'm from Emanuele Design, a shop in Anaheim,
08:08 California specializing in Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche.
08:11 Today we have our 2015 Volkswagen GTI.
08:13 This is our shop project car to show a lot of the parts we use and develop.
08:17 So we came out yesterday for the drag racing, which went very well.
08:20 GIAC provides our software and they gave us some specialized mapping that really
08:23 took advantage of the continental tires on the car today.
08:26 And do what they did on that and
08:27 it really helped us a lot yesterday in the drag race.
08:29 We went back to the shop last night to out on the alignment for the road course.
08:33 We knew it would be a little bit more technical, so
08:34 we did factor that into the alignment specs.
08:36 Then we started time runs for about an hour.
08:39 And right off the bat, our time run was the top for front wheel drive.
08:42 So we kinda actually just sat and let the car sit to see if anyone would beat it.
08:45 Fortunate for us, no one did today.
08:47 We actually took first place in the road course, so
08:49 all our hard work definitely paid off.
08:50 [MUSIC]
08:55 >> In the end, HPA cleaned up with first and second overall and in class.
09:01 Its Golf R was an animal producing 700 horsepower,
09:04 thanks to a turbo VR6 swapped in under the hood.
09:08 The other competitors using off the shelf bolt-ons were just as impressive and
09:12 without a doubt more realistic to what the masses will build.
09:16 Front wheel drive or all wheel drive,
09:18 the Mark 7 is the best Golf yet and it showed it here.
09:22 All right, that's a wrap on the 2015 Continental Tire European Car Magazine
09:27 Tuner Grand Prix.
09:29 We've had a lot of fun today.
09:30 We've seen some really fast times.
09:32 We've seen some really competitive cars.
09:34 The front wheel drive class, all those guys were right on each other's
09:38 rockers.
09:39 All wheel drive category, well, HPA, they brought some big guns.
09:43 They definitely came to play and they put in some times that I would say would be
09:48 competitive with some race cars.
09:49 [SOUND] We need to thank Continental Tire and Volkswagen for helping us out.
09:54 For a set, for showing up and teaching me how to drive.
09:57 We'll see you again next year.
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