Volkswagen Polo GTI 1.8T Drags Porsche Cayenne Turbo 4.8, Care to Wager a Bet?

Over in Europe, there are slim chances of finding a dragstrip facility close to your home, unlike in North America where even small towns have eighth- or quarter-mile (1,320 ft or 402 meters) tracks. The facilities in and around the venue are of lesser importance – some only make do with mobile Christmas trees and without the assistance of electronic ET and trap speed scoreboards.

The most important – for them – is to have a well-prepared surface that allows the best possible traction. But over on the Old Continent, the drag races that always begin from a standing start are also affected by the wheel slip factor, not just the reaction time, power-to-weight ratio, and 4x2 or 4x4 traction. And there is no need to take our word for granted as we have an interesting example from somewhere on a Hungarian airport strip.

There, earlier this summer, a lot of feisty people and their (sometimes) menacing rides gathered for some cool rounds of traditional quarter-mile drag racing. And we have already seen some quirky pairings, such as a Ford Mustang GT racing a modified Seat Leon or a turbo Fiat Panda fighting a behemoth of a Ford F-350 Super Duty! Now, it is time for yet another ‘David vs. Goliath’ encounter.

On this occasion, the underdog is an Mk4 Volkswagen Polo GTI equipped with the ubiquitous 1.8-liter turbo 110 kW/150 ps/148 hp engine. The crimson subcompact Hot Hatch may or may not have been thoroughly modified to try and withstand the assault of a first-generation Porsche Cayenne Turbo – the original mid-size luxury crossover SUV packed the updated 4.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, according to the description. And do not hurry to presume that it is an easy guess for the winner.

Instead, do note that both drivers knew what they were doing, hence the great reaction times, minimum wheel slip, and general neck-in-neck pace that did not allow the separation of a clear winner without the aid of the event’s electronic devices. In the end, the Porsche took the laurels, but it was a close one: 14.69s versus 15.08s. And the little Polo even had a higher trap speed!

If that sounds unimpressive for a Porsche, then perhaps the second video embedded below (from cvdzijden) of a 1,300-hp 997-series Porsche 911 Turbo S by LCE Performance/ES Motors will be cooler. It has various V-max passes of up to 337 kph (209 mph), as well as a high-speed near miss that shows why it’s important to have ample space for vehicle recovery!