VW Golf 7 R and Impreza WRX STI Have a Quarter Mile Race

Think about that for a second. The Golf R isn't taken seriously as a performance hatch in 2018. You can have more fun in the Focus RS and more speed in the RS3. And the car in the video isn't even the latest model, as we can spot the pre-facelift headlights from a mile away.

That means it's packing 300 horsepower, probably in combination with a DSG gearbox, as we've established that the manual makes this car slower. But VW's engine plays with traction and boost much better. So what's the STI packing? A bigger engine, like always.

The 2.5-liter boxer engine is supposed to make 300 HP and 407 Nm of torque, and the latter figure is slightly better than the Golf. Sure, it's fast, but the quarter mile time is way off.

The VW driver passes the Santa Pod gate in 11.61 seconds at 117.12mph while the STI hatch manages 13.99 seconds at 99.69mph. How is that even possible, considering the Subaru left first? We can think of two things. The first is that driver skill due to at least one of the cars having a manual. There's also an automatic version over the STI hatch that was way slower. And yes, that's a pretty rare thing for Subaru to make.

Should you care about the outcome of this race? Probably not. This generation of the STI was one of the worst, particularly in hatch form. It lost some of its playful nature. I mean, it's not a cult car like the 22B and because it's not blue, it doesn't even look that good.