Toyota AE86 and VW Rabbit GTI Drag GR86 and Golf 8 GTI, Hilarious Battles Ensue

Without trying to persuade you that winning isn't the definition of racing, you must see this drag-and-roll race-focused episode of Throttle House because it is one of the finest in a long time. It's also one of the shortest at less than 13 minutes compared to the three-part series dedicated to Toe Foo and Schnitz. Alas, if you have the time, we recommend watching them as if they're installments of a buddy comedy movie!

Anyway, suppose you don't have the patience to see them travel 1,000 miles across the desert, escape a flash flood, and finally face off and braking down (of course). In that case, you can skip through the formalities and note how crazy cool of an idea it is to get the Sprinter Trueno (with a swapped engine) and the stock GTI alongside their younger siblings, the Toyota GR86 and Volkswagen Golf 8 GTI. That way, you can both see what around four decades of advancements bring to the table and also bet on which old car will break down first. Well, if you were placing the wager on the JDM team member, you wouldn't be wrong – but that only happened during the second drag race.

The first one went without a hitch – the GR86 and Golf 8 GTI naturally took out like a couple of modern rockets, but they were secondary characters in this epic (fail) movie. Instead, our attention was undividedly focused on the Rabbit and Initial D representatives, where James in the AE86 nailed the victory, and the Thomas Rabbit was just cruising along for the ride, even if it was also the lightest of the bunch. Well, the second drag race didn't occur until the end because the Toyota broke its differential – which was fitted to the wrong axle, and only decided to come clean on normal tarmac, not during the epic desert road trip.

So, James swapped his swapped 'Yota for another Toyota – their producers' bonkers crimson Toyota MR2 that features a Honda K24 engine swap! Now we're talking about racing, and both the Toyota GR86 and Volkswagen Golf GTI were mooted by the crazy assembly that's more junk than treasure but also a speed freak. In the end, though, the glory of beating the modern counterparts was short-lived, as the MR2 also broke down… Yep, I'm not kidding, Schnitz was still careless and the only one to survive with its honor (almost) untarnished!