It's time to dust off our Japanese listening skills, as the legendary race car driver Keiichi Tsuchiya, also known as Drift King, has driven the two fastest FF cars in the world. We are referring to the Honda Civic Type R and the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport.
Both are designed to go really fast on track. However, we are more used to seeing Tsuchiya putting opposite lock on in an R33 or S2000 than finding the perfect racing line. The guy is 60 years old now but returned from France where he participated in a European drifting event only a day before.
This is a time attack track battle between the two hot hatchbacks, so at least there's a simple conclusion to draw. But you also have to watch how Tsuchiya sets his line up using the handbrake.
The GTI loses badly in this competition. Even though Volkswagen recently set a new Nurburgring track record, that was with the 310 hp Clubsport S. Based on the fact that it's a 5-door, we believe this is the regular one with 290 hp and extra weight to carry around. But considering the Civic Type R still has rear seats, we think this is a much fairer competition.
While the Hondas has a playful rear end, this has a fully planted one. With a DSG gearbox and adaptive steering, there's not much fun Drift King can have here.
At one point during the hot lap, the driver says he is struggling to put down the power in the GTI. It turns out his gut feeling is right, as the Golf R, he tested previously had set a slightly faster time, even though it wasn't designed for track use.
Editor's note: This isn't Japanese national pride. These pros know that the Civic is imported from Britain.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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