BMW 128ti Vs VW Golf 8 GTI Drag Race Leaves Us Disappointed

In February this year, we shared a video showing how the BMW 128ti performs under full load. It was an impressive showcase of Munich’s FWD hot hatch, and now it’s time to see how the 128ti stacks up against the original hot hatch. Courtesy of the same YouTube channel, we can see the little Bimmer go head-to-head against the Volkswagen Golf GTI.

In the new video, the two cars line up for a direct drag race. At least on paper, this looks like a very close race but in the end, that’s not the case. We’ll get to that in a minute, but first, let’s take a look at the numbers.

The 128ti has a 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine under the hood, good for 262 horsepower (195 kilowatts) and 295 pound-feet (400 Newton-meters) of torque. This output is enough for a 0 to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) sprint time of 6.1. Power reaches the front wheels exclusively via an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

Against it, the Golf GTI puts to use a similar 2.0-liter turbocharged direct-injection engine. The four-cylinder TSI generates an output of 241 hp (180 kW) and 273 lb-ft (370 Nm) of torque. In this case, the red Golf GTI has a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

As you can see from the numbers above, there’s just a minimal difference between the outputs of the two cars. Considering the weight difference - the 128ti is 90 pounds (41 kilograms) heavier, these look like very evenly matched cars.

However, the hot hatch from Wolfsburg has a terrible start, basically giving the 128ti a comfortable and easy win. It seems that the Golf GTI was struggling to find traction for some reason - whether due to its ESP or because the DSG automatic gearbox screwed up something, we don’t know. Or a combination between the two? Either way, we are sure the Golf GTI can perform much better.