The 2015 European Car Magazine’s annual Tuner Grand Prix is focused entirely on the Volkswagen Golf. Tuners' from as far away as Canada have showed up to show off what they can do with Germany’s hot-hatch. From GTIs to R32s and Golf Rs
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00:00 [MUSIC]
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.
02:22 [MUSIC]
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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