Hot Hatch Showdown: VW Golf Gti Drag Races Hyundai I30 N

The Australian folks over at CarAdvice wanted to find out and decided to take both cars to the drag strip at the Heathcote Park Raceway to discover which of the two had the upper hand. 

There different drag races were organized: one with the launch control turned on, one without it, and a third race with the electronic stability control deactivated.

As the video goes to show, the Golf GTI didn’t stand a chance and was obliterated by the i30 N in all three races. However, it’s worth mentioning the cars were not exactly like-for-like because the VW was a lesser GTI Original special edition with 230 hp instead of the Performance’s 245-hp output. In regards to whether it had a six-speed manual or the optional six-speed DSG, your guess is as good as ours. We’re going to assume it had the manual.

On the other hand, the i30 N was the higher-spec Performance with 275 hp on tap, so the Hyundai had an extra 45 hp over the VW.

Still, the Golf GTI lost all three races by a significant margin or at least that’s what the videos are showing. The numbers say otherwise as CarAdvice mentioned in a comment on YouTube the race was pretty close, with the i30 N running the quarter mile in 14.365 seconds at 158.69 kph (98.6 mph) whereas the Golf GTI did it in 14.787 seconds at 158.89 kph (98.7 mph).

If you’re wondering about pricing, the i30 N is the cheaper car to buy in Australia. Available exclusively in the hotter Performance flavor, it starts off at $39,990 (Australian dollars, obviously) while the GTI Original featured in the video is about $1,000 more expensive with the standard six-speed manual.

While the comparison may not be entirely fair, it still goes to show how far Hyundai has come as far as making truly exciting cars, with the i30 N, Veloster N, and the forthcoming i30 N Fastback to pave the way for other interesting projects from the newly formed N lineup.