Volkswagen Golf GTI Gets RWD Conversion With OEM Parts, Celebrates With Donuts

Despite what you might think, RWD is a bad solution for a compact hatchback. The wheelbase is just too short for you to become the drift king of your town. The 1 Series was the last such car, and cool as the M140i may have been, BMW decided to adopt a similar layout to the Golf R with its new M135i - that would be a transverse-mounted 2.0T engine with on-demand AWD.

But the funny thing is you can still make a rear-wheel-drive car using this type of configuration, which is quite unusual. Sure, if you chuck the engine out of a Golf and replace it with a longitudinal BMW V8 to make a weird drift car; it's been done already. However, Deutsche Auto Parts just adapted the drivetrain from a Golf R32.

They found a wreck that had no interior or engine and just stripped its rear transfer unit, complete with the surrounding suspension. After getting rid of the front-wheel power "loss" you have an RWD Golf GTI. Job's done, right? Not even close.

Not only do important parts like the driveshaft, transmission, and exhaust need to be massaged into place, but this particular GTI happens to be a project car with a heavily modified TSI producing 500 horsepower and, more importantly, about 530 foot-pounds (717 Nm) of torque (claimed). Naturally, the team putting this together doesn't believe parts like the Haldex clutches or the ring gear will hold.

But the major breakdown they encounter is with the transfer case, which stops the power from going to the driveshaft. Luckily, these guys have those kinds of spare parts lying around the shop, and we get to see some killer RWD Mk5 GTI donuts.