U-Drags: Hyundai Elantra N vs. Volkswagen Golf GTI

Welcome to U-Drags. My name is Lauren McKay, your host from Edmunds, and today we're pitting a classic against the new kid on the block. This is the 2022 Volkswagen GTI, aka the OG of the hot hatch. This car has so much history, and this one, the newbie, is the 2022 Hyundai Elantra N. Now, don't get it twisted. This car has had some success on the U-Drags track, and I definitely recommend going to see that video. So what exactly is U-Drags? I'm so glad you asked. It's a race down the track. They're going to hard brake around, flip it, and come back. That means in one single race, we get quarter mile, hard braking, handling, and a rolling start all in one. After these two race the first time, they're going to come back. We're going to swap drivers and lanes and run it again. Why? Because we want to make it fair for each car. Going head to head, we have the 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI with 241 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. And the 2022 Hyundai Elantra with 276 horsepower and 289 pound-feet of torque. Can the newcomer Elantra N put a win against the well-established GTI? To find out, we have expert drivers, Kurt and Jonathan, from our very own Edmunds test team. If you want to see more U-Drags, you know what to do. Go ahead and like and subscribe to our channel below. And if you want a cash offer for your car, head over to to get an instant quote today. All right, I am driving the GTI. So the GTI in this instance is a bit of an underdog. I'm going up against the Elantra N, which is fast. It's a fast sedan. GTI is solid. It's solid all around, but I am down on horsepower. What I do know is I have great brakes and great tires. So if I have any chance of winning this race, it's going to be under braking. I got to go deeper. I got to corner harder and just get a good exit on the way back. As far as launch settings go, with most Volkswagens nowadays, if you want to turn off the stability control system, it's kind of buried in a menu. You have to go to the vehicle settings, select brakes, and then we run with ESC off. And then going to the drive modes, I want sport. Then I just hold the brake, floor the gas. And if I've done it correctly, launch control should show up in the gauge cluster. Hyundai Elantra N, here we are. I love this car. If you have watched the original set of U-Drags, which you should. If you have not, watch that. We put this up against a new Subaru WRX. And spoiler alert, this did pretty well. Anyway, now it's going up against the Volkswagen Golf GTI. This car has more power. I think this car has a more sophisticated drive train. Limited slip in this car is pretty good. Great grip, traction, everything under braking, playful handling, you name it, this car's got it. It also has launch control, which I will be using, so I will now walk you through how to do it. You can put it in N mode, swipe again, you have performance options, change the RPM on the launch control. I'm going to set it at about 3200. I also have a little NGS button down here, which adds kind of like a little overboost. I'm not sure which time I'm going to use it. If I'm going to use it on the way down through the quarter mile, or if I'm going to use it on the way back. If I get out to a head start, I won't touch it until I'm on my way back, just to rub it in. All right, drivers, if you're ready, give me that thumbs up. Here we go, in five, four, three, two, one, yeah. You got to get them on the brakes, get them on the brakes, get them on the brakes. Yeah. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. You got this, you got this. It's going to be close. Yeah. Oh no. Oh my God. That was like a needle's work. I love your facial expression, man. That's awesome. So tell me, tell me, tell me what you're feeling, Kurt. I don't know what I'm feeling. I'm feeling that you won by like a bumper. You threw that thing into the corner, probably on the absolute limit. I thought I did too, but this thing seemed to be in the wrong gear when I got out of the corner is that I think it might've been one gear too high. It took a little bit to get out of the way, but oh man, I'm so bummed because this was a really good match. Yeah. It kind of played out the way that I saw it playing out. I knew if I was just close enough to you at the end of the quarter that I might be able to pull it out mainly because I think this thing stops better and corners better, uh, shockingly because it's just the GTI versus the N version of that. Yeah. I just, I thought I'd be able to pull you back in, but I guess, God, that was close. Well, what do you say? We, uh, switch lanes and give this another go. I say we do that after you, you are too kind. Hey man, it's all good. We're still friends after this. I hope the same thing happens actually. Volkswagen Golf GTI. It's so good at everything it does. And it's, it's irritatingly good, but here we are, this is a toss up. So I'm going to use launch control. It should get away with almost no wheel spin. And that's, you know, and argue with that. If you get a great time, yeah, that's what matters. I am in the Elantra N now, which should be the quicker car. I really need to get out of the hole quick, not over brake. The stopping is pretty good. It's not as good as the GTI. I don't think I'm going to save my N Grin Shift boost for the last of the race, because if it's really close, I think that's going to help me pull out the win. All right, drivers, here we go in five, four, three, two, one. Go! Oh, launch control did not work. What happened? Oh, I think he used the N Grin Shift because he's coming back. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Don't over break it. Oh, God. Got him. Got him. Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Still got it. Launch control just did not work. This thing's still really good. I could tell that you were using the over boost because I got a pretty good jump and I looked over. I was like, where'd that extra power come from? Oh, the magic button. So my launch control didn't work. I did it, and it decided not to show up today. So the launch was disastrous, and I think I just had more power. I actually wasn't using the over boost on the way down. I think that was just my power advantage. I tried to use it on the way back, but I think it was too little too late. Trying to catch up to that thing. But yeah, this definitely doesn't stop quite as quickly as that GTI. And then the cornering, I don't know, the GTI just feels hooked up and solid. Surprisingly, again, this is the end. This is supposed to be the high performance version of the Elantra, which it is, but I feel like that GTI just is a little bit better put together. Yeah, the Elantra N has better feel, but this thing somehow, like it doesn't need the feel. It just does everything a tiny bit better. And I hate to keep saying that, but it really does. Like it doesn't feel as aggressive. It doesn't sound as aggressive, but it's just it performs a little bit better. So what did we learn? Well, in race one, the Elantra gets an early lead and crosses the quarter mile faster than the GTI. But the GTI was able to flex its braking prowess as it powered up to the turn, catching up to the Elantra. The GTI then out-cornered the Elantra and eked out the win as it crossed the finish line with its fastest time of 38.5 seconds, a tenth of a second faster than the Elantra's best time. In race two, the Elantra had a little trouble with launch control, allowing for the GTI to get ahead, but they were both neck and neck going into the turn. Check out the lateral G's the Elantra pulled 1.03. Still, it wasn't enough as the GTI came out of the turn ahead and kept the lead all the way through the finish, getting the second win of the circuit. All right, Kurt, talk to me. How was the ride for you? Very interesting race. I mean, these cars are so closely matched. As good as that car feels, this car performs a tiny bit better just all over the place. And I bet if we did this 10 times in a row, it would just flip back and forth every time. I'd agree with that. And I mean, the fact that Volkswagen has been building this car for decades, and I mean, this is the first Elantra N that we've seen. It's a great first effort. And like Kurt was saying, it's very exciting to drive, but when you put them together, this one is refined where this one, you know, I mean, the launch control didn't work in the second race. I did everything the same and it just decided not to work. And that's life. Sometimes you don't get second chances. You had your chance. You blew it. Winner, GTI. GTI the winner. Look at one. You drags race at a time. Stay tuned. Thanks for watching. And now you get to decide which one you want. See you next time.