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Golf GTI Clubsport Chasing a Cayman GT4 and a 911 GT3 on the Nurburgring

Golf GTI Clubsport Chasing a Cayman GT4 and a 911 GT3 on the Nurburgring 20 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
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Judge the skill of the driver, not how deep his bank account is. That's especially true for Porsche owners, as there is one guy in a yellow Cayman GT4 at the Nurburgring who has no clue.
He gets overtaken by everybody, including plucky hot hatch owners who break late for corners and push the car to the limit.

We saw something similar happen a few weeks ago, where a Peugeot 308 GTi could keep up and eventually overtake the GT4 towards the end of the Nurburgring lap. However, today's GTI is of the Volkswagen variety, and it is a much faster track car.

That's because we are dealing with the recently launched Golf GTI Clubsport, specially designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the German pocket rocket and to cope with track condition better.

The max output is 265 PS, which is actually less than the Peugeot. However, the dynamics are a lot better, and it's also got 290 Nm on overboost, so overtaking is easier.

Even though it's not as good as the Honda Civic Type R, you can really trust the GTI to punch above its weight. And this video makes you wonder what would have happened if the Dieselgate scandal happened in 2017 and they had time to put the Golf R400, which was already in late development, into production.

Anyway, the clueless Cayman GT4 driver is dealt with in just a couple of minutes, and after a while, the French driver of the Clubsport catches up to a 991 GT3. He never manages to get close to him, but this "race" wouldn't have been possible with a regular GTI.

The view from inside the cabin is pretty nice too. You've got the new steering wheel covered in Alcantara with red stitching and a good old-fashioned manual gearbox. The infotainment system now shows acceleration and lateral Gs, but it's not like the driver has any use for this information.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

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.
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