Quickest FWD Mk I Volkswagen Golf in the UK Is a 10-Second Car

We are, of course, talking about a custom Volkswagen, one that happens to be the UK's quickest front-wheel-drive Mk1 Golf. The hatch has recently visited the Santa Pod Raceway, earning this title after managing to pull an impressive quarter mile run.

To be more precise, the Golf completed the 1,320 feet run in 10.842 seconds at 121.86 mph (make that 196 km/h, if you happen to be a follower of the metric system).

As for the engine deserving the credit for the numbers mentioned above, this Golf, like most Mk1 builds, has stuck to its four-cylinder roots. Nevertheless, we're talking about an extreme powerplant here, namely a 1.8-liter mill with forged internals and a GT35 turbocharger, which allows the driver to control no less than 450 hp.

Sure, there are even quicker Mk1s out there, but do keep in mind that we're talking about the best Britain has to offer. And the first contraptions that come to mind when mentioning faster Golfs has to do with German tuner Boba Motoring and its scarry-fast, street-legal Mk 1s, which pack double or triple the power seen here.

We're dealing with a stripped-out racecar here and while the appearance of the little hatch hasn't been taken too far from the factory look, its performance is given away by the massive front wheel arches, which accommodate a set of hefty front tires. Yes, this is the kind of hefty-front-members look BMW ads used to mock before the Bavarians decided FWD was not that much of a motoring sin after all.