I had a Navy buddy who had a Civic with a setup very similar to this, I don’t remember all the details, but it did have VTEC and a turbo on it. The problem was, the VTEC kicked in about the same time as the turbo got on full spool. It was kind of like riding a 2-stroke dirt bike, you had no power, no power, no power,…

He also has a Dunlop sticker on the rear wing end plates.

I was at a music festival once, one of the last WHFStivals to be exact (they used to be a huge rock station in DC and suddenly disappeared one day) and Good Charlotte announced they were filming a music video for a new song. My friend and I were up at the very front and we, along with everyone, went nuts, imagining…

I literally just stumbled on the NHTSA Safercar.gov site earlier this morning.

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who put coins in the stereo. And I know your pain, I still get reminded of it from time to time.

Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.

Nope, pure evil. I still don’t trust cows to this day and that’s why I eat as many of them as I can.

I alluded to this in my post, but “I survived” is a poor argument, but “I survived and learned how to do it correctly” can be a great argument.

I got left in a car which was subsequently “attacked” by cows as a child, and I turned out just fine.

It’s all of their national anger condensed into 60 minutes of skate-rage. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with ‘Murica. We need to stop all this pussyfooting around and “unsportsmanlike” BS and bring fighting back to our sports.

I think it’s that Canadians are just nicer people.

In an Oppo thread someone else pointed out how similar the FiST is to the Polo GTI. Since the FiST seems to be doing relatively well here in the US, I think VW could make a good case to bring the Polo here.

I’ve heard the European cycle is a bit generous, so real world it’s probably 5% or so less. I’ll do some digging later and see if I can find any other US cars and their European counterparts and how the mileages compare.

Nope, I converted from L/100km to US MPG. I double checked on this because they do seem high to me too.

I made this today. It’s not as fancy as your graphic up there, but I don’t have Photoshop, just Excel and an internet connection. It’s interesting to me that the new Polo GTI is almost identical dimensionally to the ‘85 Golf GTI.

Exactly my point - you throw that much power at an old GTI and I doubt you see a substantial increase in performance except in straight line acceleration. I do think the new GTI is all around a better car, and despite the weight penalty, would out hustle an old one with the same amount of power.

I haven’t but I consistently hear great things about them. I’d love to see a side-by-side comparison. What would be even more telling is if we could swap drivetrains, or something, and do it again. I think the general consensus is that, as enthusiasts, we loathe the 50% weight increase. But, a lot of that, I suspect,…

That’s a good point. We don’t get the Polo in the US, so maybe later I can do some research and compare the two and see how they stack up.

You have every right to be, I’m an idiot.

Agreed - I wasn’t trying to deflate the new GTI, I was just making a comparison for comparisons sake. As an enthusiast the 50% weight increase annoys me, but you point out that you get a lot more in terms of chassis improvements and safety, which is where a lot of that 1000lbs comes from. I think it’s absolutely worth…