VW UK Car Club Shoot Out - 28th August 2002
The Volkswagon UK National Car Club visited Minimaster in what was supposed to
be the Summer to do a shoot out. Twelve hot VWs turned up to have power plots
done. Led by Les Golding, the local Snap-On rep, the whole group brought in their cars
and put them on the rolling road to get their car's performance plotted.
As usual, our engineers first inspect the vehicle and its engine; this
comprises checking the compression, oil and water levels, tyre pressures, and
making an assessment of the general state of the car to avoid any unnecessary mishaps.
Here, the organisers work out the order of play!
First up was Carol's supercharged Polo, which had all the hallmarks of
a wickedly fast 1300cc car. We managed to clock 113bhp and over 100lbft of
torque. It apparently regularly wheel-spins in third and fourth gears,
especially in the wet.
Danny Horsely's Purple VW Lupo showed impressive performance with its
super-chipped 2.9 VR6 engine. It has been gas flowed with a Piper Cam which
gave quite agressive performance after 5500rpm. It was stylishly customised
too, with an impressive ICE.
John Clavert's MkI GTI produced quite good performance for a geniune GTI
with no mods. It managed 83bhp at 5500 with maximum torque at about 4000rpm.
The car was running a bit weak though at lower revs, illustrated by the sharp
drop off in torque.
Tom Kersall's Golf GTI VR6 2.8l showed some grunt, but we could only
accurately measure it up to 5000rpm where it was reaching 113bhp as it was
trying to jump out of the rollers. We have since added more anchoring points,
but with its wide wheels and extreme performance, we chose at the time to
play safe.
Honours went however to Willie Armstrong's new Skoda RS Turbo (which is
essentially a VW) which topped the performance chart at 165bhp at 5500rpm.
Again, it could have been measured higher, but it was a new car and we
didn't want to risk any damage. John took it out on the road afterwards
and came back quite impressed - shame about the badge, really!
In all, another very successful day, with many thanking us for the
enjoyment and great service they'd received. We look forward to the club
coming back next year for another shoot out and see how the winter mods
have improved their cars!
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