VW Golf GTI Clubsport S review: FWD Nurburgring record holder thrashed on track!

The Volkswagen Golf GTI is 40 years old this year, and it’s come an awful long way since it was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world in 1976. And this thundering new 306bhp, £35,000, two-seat-only Clubsport GTI S model is very much the pinnacle of its achievements thus far, dynamically as well as philosophically.

So much so that it has just broken the outright lap record for a front wheel-drive road car around the legendary Nurburgring with an outrageous time of 7min 49.21sec...

Steve Sutcliffe thrashes the new FWD Nurburgring lap record holder around 'The Green Hell"!

[leegamble]

I have a Clubsport S and it is a very special car, the Porsche racing engineers along with VW's rally engineers perfected this car. The Clubsport S is a baby Porsche and built like one with amazing character. I have had more expensive cars and also own fast classic cars but nothing compares to this car which is hard to explain or understand if you have not driven one. This is a real collectors car and I would suggest getting one as the driving experience will not disappoint and neither will the value increasing so it's a no brainer!1

[troobs]

“Rides the kerbs really well”

Great I’ll try that out in Norwich on Saturday

[aprillotus]

Auto express, please keep up reviews like this, by people who know about cars,

[Topper_Harley]

So as fast as a Lamborghini Murciélago, that is pretty impressive.

[derbigpr]

Please autoexpress, stop feeding the trolls by mentioning the freaking Civic Type R in every video related to nurburgring, as if that car is any sort of benchmark on that track. The lap time it did IS NOT VALID, and I honestly can't believe how many people ignore that and don't know it, or just act like they don't know it because they're Honda fanboys, and we all know how ignorant Honda fanboys can be. The same was true for the Seat Leon that did the record before, you can't buy either of them in the configuration that did the lap record. The only car that you can buy in the exact same spec was the Megane RS 275 Trophy Under 8 spec that did the 7:53 time, and now the GTI CSS. Any other laps are invalid because the car you buy won't be the same as the one that did the record, simple as that.

As for the Civic Type R:

1. It was a pre-production car, with a completely different suspension setup, made just for the Nurburgring, they actually spent weeks fine tuning it and they bought several time periods on the Nurburgring for themselves, so they could run the car on the track and find the fastest setup. You can hear that from people who were at the track at the time, spectators, drivers, etc. Read some forums, it's not that hard. Even visually on pictures online you can see that the record time car had significantly lower ride height and significantly more camber in the front and rear compared to the stock car.

2. Had no rear seat, no sound proofing, no sat nav / radio, no climate control.

3. It had a full on roll cage.

4. It definitely had a modified engine. Now if you don't believe that, there are plenty of Civic acceleration videos on Youtube. Grab yourself a stopwatch and go measure. You'll find that in all other independent videos of acceleration the times are pretty much the same. But on the Nurburging lap time video of the Civic, you'll see the car actually accelerated the same on UPHILL parts of the track as the actual Civics do on totally flat ground. Meaning that either the car was considerably lighter or at least had 50hp extra over the road version that you get when you buy it, maybe even more than 50. I'm an engineer so I've talked about that with many colleagues, and it's even possible that Honda used some sort of software that changed the the power output of the engine depending on the GPS position, so that it would compensate on the uphill segments, because it just accelerates too fast on uphills compared to flat parts of the tracks, it doesn't lose anywhere as near the amount of pace as all other car. Now unless you suggest Civic Type R defies the laws of physics, then something is afoot.

5. It had even stickier tires than the Golf, and those tires you CANNOT BUY, even Honda didn't reveal the exact model of the tire that was on the car that did the lap time, all they said it was a tire from major European manufacturer developed solely for that car, but the car you buy comes with we all know which tires, which weren't developed specifically for the Civic because they come on many cars, and they're not that extreme. So another difference between the record car and the road stock car. Golf has extreme tires, but they're still ROAD TIRES, they're not semi-slicks. You can also hear that by the tone of the squealing. The Civic Type R that did the record lap HAD semi-slick tires. Anyone who's driven a car on semi-slicks knows the specific squealing tone they make and the very specific slip angles that they have.

Point being, even Honda themselves never claimed that lap was an official record, because they know how much they "cheated" and how much different that car was to the one you get at the dealer.

It's just that Honda has such hardcore fanboys that they simply don't care for facts, they just decide to ignore them because it fits what they like to believe.

[UrikKane]

When I open auto express review and hear Steve's voice: Aww Yiss!

[JuanGarcia-zqtp]

These kind of cars drive me crazy. An edition (S) of an edition (Clubsport) of an edition (GTI) of a model (Golf) of a make (Volkswagen)!!!

[GraveUypo]

ok so they stripped the car down and ruined it just to get the record. this doesn't count in my book. this is no longer a hot hatch, it's just a track car. but i'm actually loving this fwd war that has been going on lately. i wanna see a 7:20 fwd car. come on

[tomahawkmedia]

Hang on a minute, he just said VW have to decided to sell these with a manual instead of the DSG box but it broke the fwd lap record time with a DSG box? So with a manual the shift times on gear changes will be slightly slower will it not?

[SuperDigitalMe]

What about pilot cup sports 2 tyres on a civic type R?

[yippie]

This guy is a great reviewer, however, I usually can never hear him. He such a quiet talker usually the car and/or music drowns his voice out. This is the first time I could hear him clearly. I think you have to ask him to speak up or to wear a helmut with a microphone in his mouth like in this video from now on. :)

[senesful]

its 1 second faster than the Honda Civic R
now these two cars are worth comparing ! finally something interesting in this modern world
its Japan vs germany again !

[audiwankenobi]

YES!....it's faster than that cartoon-looking Civic....this car represents speed for mature people.

[boy]

Impressive that it can beat the Type-R without the need of a table-sized wing like the Honda has

[fernandofragoso]

Most of people cant even use the power of a Golf R on a track and then came where bragging about this and that. Fuckin ridiculous.

[Driver]

The Golf platform is awesome. This FWD war is as fought over has the hypercar battles - wonder what Renault, SEAT and Honda will do next. That said, VW, Ford, Merc have all gone AWD with their hatches which could carry more power in special variants.

[just]

Seriously! How close does that guy sit to the steering wheel?!

[aamer]

would this and the clubsport 40 become collectable

[wezznsb]

Is this comparable with a seat leon cupra 290 or 300 ?

[ScottPC]

You need a new mic setup! Very muffled at points in breathing haha.