RWD Volkswagen GTI with a BMW V8: German Tuning Gone Wild?
We never thought we’d fall in love with a ’90s Volkswagen until now. It may not win a car show, but it will knock your socks off.
What happens when you have too much time and too much money on your hands? Well, we would have to say some pretty cool stuff. Sometimes during the process, things can get a little bit wacky. We are glad that we are around to see builds like this come together, however. What exactly is this build? It is a Volkswagen GTI, the reigning and longstanding kind of German hot hatches. Back in the 1990s, this was the car to have if you want to retain practicality, but still have a little bit of fun. Fast forward to 2019, nothing has changed. They are still the same awesome little sedans they were then.
During its prime, this Volkswagen had an output of around 116 HP from a little 2.0 liter 4-cylinder. At the time, that was considered a fast car for its price bracket. However, this particular GTI has come a long way since the ’90s. To no surprise, it is the Hoonigan YouTube channel who found this vehicle and we are curious to learn as much as we can about it. Let’s get into some details.
The owner of this particular vehicle, Mike Day, is a design engineer for ECS Tuning and Turner Motorsport. To say he has a background in German vehicles would be an understatement. According to Day, this car was built from the ground up in 3 months’ time. How that is actually humanly possible, we aren’t sure. However, they did build the car with the intent of running it in a drift series sponsored by ECS.
Drifting a FWD hatchback? Not exactly.
This GTI has a complete powertrain swap. The featured engine is an M62 4.4L V8 from a 1998 BMW 540i. How they managed to get that into a Golf and make it RWD, we aren’t exactly sure. However, I believe that the dyno-tested M62 made 275 WHP. That’s just a tad bit more than the stock 100 or so horsepower. The front subframe is a custom-tube frame setup, as are the steering knuckles. However, the car is mated to the original 6-speed transmission the 540i came with.
Combine that with a custom driveshaft and a Ford Explorer solid-axle rear end and you have a little bit of a drift car. The radiator is mounted in the rear hatch next to the fuel cell and features some NACA-style ducting for airflow. One hot pink roll cage later, the next thing you see is the car banging off the rev-limiter for minutes on end while sliding around the Burnyard. We never thought we would want this car until we saw it in action. It’s properly badass. Don’t miss out on some Volkswagen hatchback drifting action and watch at least the second half of the video.
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