FASTEST EV HOT HATCH vs TUNED VW GOLF R - WHOS FASTER?

Today the world's fastest electric hot hatch steps up to race one of the UK's fastest petrol-powered Mark 8 Golf R's. Today it's fossil fuel versus electric hot hatch edition. It's the IONIQ 5N versus the Golf R and this one is going to seriously upset a lot of people. Oh boy, let's get over and meet today's cars and their owners. So first up today, representing team EV, welcoming back Dave to the channel. Piloting the world's first and current fastest out-of-the-box EV hot hatch with a strong 650 bhp power output and 740 Nm of torque from its twin e-motor all-wheel drive setup. This 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5N has come to play no games. And stepping up to defend our beloved internal combustion engines from the EV overlords, welcoming back Paul from Racing Line in their savage 2021 520 bhp 660 Nm 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder turbo-powered Mark 8 VW Golf R. Let's get some sound checks and car specs. All right, cool. We all know it's an electric car but I feel right now we'd be doing it a disjustice because it does actually make noises but just not from the outside. Let's hear what it sounds like. Sir, I've heard this car makes funny noises from the inside. Can we hear the revs please? Easy now, easy. Not too much on the limiter there. We don't want to blow it up, we don't want to blow it up. Thank you for that. And as usual, we'll be extracting all of today's race data from our V-Box Performance Box Touch GPS timing tools. And first up today, it's the quarter-mile roll races. No pressure, but the petrolhead community are behind you on this one, bro. We're trusting you. Don't let them do it to us, bro. Don't let the machine win. Petrol versus electric, come on. I think we can all agree everyone wants the Golf to win, including me. It's like taking a pocket calculator to a knife fight, is this. Here we go then. Petrol versus EV. It's going to be an interesting one. I really can't call it. On paper, these two are really, really, really similar. I want to win. I'm going to try and win. He might pit me though. Don't hate me. I just don't know. I don't trust my own eyes anymore. This is how I look. I'm going to say it anyway. It looks like, as I expected, the instant reaction, or sorry, the instant torque of that electric car. What is it? Ioniq? Ioniq got the hit until mid-track. Then I'm going to say that Golf ran round him, but I'm always wrong. Finish line, finish line. Who won that and by how much? Cameraman's nodding like I'm wrong. I think I cheated there. I'm getting too excited, but it was close. That was a two car length win to the Ioniq. This is terrible. It's terrible that my eyes are that bad, but it's also terrible that the AI bots have got one on us. They've got us. All right, cool. Something must be wrong here. Something must be wrong. I'm sure everything's going to get sorted out. Petrolhead community, don't worry. We got this one. Signing back up. Go again. Mate, that was not two car lengths. Was it close though? Mate. Listen, our finish line guy was blind. He was there. He was there. I'm blind. Listen, this is what we do. Don't say it too loud. Petrolhead community, don't worry. He's got it on the next one. Be quiet. He's coming up behind us. Act cool. Act cool. Act like it didn't affect us, yeah? I cheated, didn't I? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Big cheat. Big cheat. All right, lads. No more cheating. Let's go again. You got this. All right, guys. Don't panic right now. Petrolhead community, listen. Some way, shape or form, we're going to take a win here today. I don't care if it's the wildest, most unfair bonus race you've ever seen. Petrolheads, we will take a win today. Now, I'm usually wrong, so I'm hoping that this time what I'm about to say is wrong. We're all going to get a pleasant surprise. However, to me that time, it did look like the EV won, like all the way down the track. However, I'm always wrong, so what I'm trying to do is reverse psychology this into a win. So, all right, finish line, finish line. Who won that and by how much? That was a strong three car lengths to the Ioniq. However, that is the roll race, and that is kind of how I expect things to go. That's the instant, instant acceleration of the electric motors. 100% torque, straight away. All right, bro, listen. What I need you to do right now, because he's got these flappy paddles in there and it makes funny noises and it acts like it hits red line, he's got to change it. I know you're not actually driving because people will say at home, the car's driving itself. But what I need you to do for this bonus roll race is make sure you use those flappy paddles, and he's going to use his flappy paddles. Hopefully, you're going to show these EV boys what it's about. Let's go. All right, cool. So, your car makes all sorts of noises and does this and does that, but it also has these flappy paddles here, which is a very strange thing for an electric car to have. You can essentially drive this in manual. Is this the world's first car that actually has that electric car? So, essentially, you could mess up by hitting red line and the car will slow down, so you can physically take control of this car. All right, so what I want you to do on this bonus roll race is drive this in flappy paddles. Yeah? All right, cool. He's going to be doing the same. I was going to say, good luck. No, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Do you know what? I actually believe what I'm seeing is true. I don't want to say this with my chest, but I'm always wrong. Honestly, I swear, people think it's just satire. I'm lying. It looks like what is happening or what I'm saying is happening. Anyway, I'm saying that Golf R won. Let's find out. Finish line, finish line. Who won that and by how much? That looks like two car lengths to the Golf R. See? A little bit of that going on. All right? A little bit of that. Man driving. EV's nowhere to be seen. Who cares? Anyway, sign him up for a drag race. So funny, you can see it. As he changes gear quick, this is slower. Yeah, you can literally see it. We were neck and neck to second, third. Did you hit the shifts like perfectly? Yeah. So essentially, is the car slower? Yeah, massively. Yeah. Because it's breaking the motor. So as soon as you pull it, but you could literally see as soon as I change, it's like that. So unfortunately, it looks like the AI bots take the roles, but there's no way we're going to let them have the drags. Let's line them up for the drag races. If you see him winning, make sure you let him win. But if you're winning, I'm going to need you to just come off the throttle a little bit. No chance at all. Listen, I won't tell anyone. Just come off the throttle a little bit. All right. This is where you get it. Yeah. All right. He's all big headed right now. He reckons he's got you. Yeah. This is where you get him. Yeah. I see. Yeah. You got this. Ready. Ready. Ready. Set. Go. It's going so well. It's going so well, man. Something ain't right with them gear changes, man. Something's not right with the gear changes. He was off. He was off. Literally left that EV for dead. I think for that race, we only count it to the first 60 foot, whoever gets there first wins. And then after that, don't worry. Who cares about all the quarter mile stuff? We don't care about that. We don't care about that. Do we even want to know who won? I think it was a goal. Do we need to find out? We don't need to find out. Come on. Just in case. Finish line, finish line. Who won that and by how much? That's right up on the shift. Switched to manual. I wasn't expecting it to. Ah, just excuses. All these EVs coming over here, taking our wins, taking our wins in there. Line them back up and go again. That was me. That was me. You had it. I went, launched in sport, went straight to manual and then I cocked up every change. Me, 100%. Got to take something home today, bro. I'm leaving it in sport this time. We're counting on you. It's good though. Are we making excuses still? No launch control this time. So let's try it with NGB activated instead because the launch control's not up here. Ready. Ready. Ready. Set. Go. Whoa. That was close. Wow. I don't want to say no. I don't want to say nothing. I don't want to say nothing. Finish line, finish line. Who won that and by how much? Why does it look so different to what actually is happening? From here, I had the strut. I could have sworn on it. I thought we took it home. I think we took it home. I don't think we need to see any more. I think you took it home. Okay. So I had the verdict on slow-mo on repeat and it looks like it was a tie. We'll take it. We'll have it. We'll have it. A tie, boys. We'll take a tie. That's pretty much a win. I won. You won. A tie is a win right now. All right. What that means is we need to line up and find out who's really the fastest because right now it's looking like it's you, mate. My excuse, no launch control that time. Don't matter. Listen, all those excuses. We don't care about excuses. Let's line up and go again. Right. Launch control Looks like a one car length win to the Ioniq. Bro, we need to bring this back. Bonus race. I'm cool. I'm cool. Who cares, man? Who cares? It's only a race. It's only a race. What are you going to do? You're not going to finish it. All right. So what I'm thinking now is we let the Golf R get the hit because that's fair. That's fair, isn't it? That's fair. That will show who's the faster car, isn't it? The Golf R gets the hit and he wins. He's the faster car. That's just how it goes, isn't it? That's just how it goes. So we're going to make things fair now. Enough of this cheating EV business. Let's line up for a real race. Bonus race. Coming your way. It's a sad day for petrol cars, this. Come on. We all wanted the Golf to win. Me included. I'm sorry, car community. Taxi. So what we're going to do is we're going to let you get the hit, yeah? You've got to chase him, yeah? So essentially, I'm going to ask, are you ready? I'm going to ask, are you ready? And then I'll drop my hand, yeah? This is the only race that counts. So if you win, you've won the whole thing. Let's go. Sounds like there's a bit of bias towards petrol cars here, but I'm on board with it. No launch control again. All right. Finish line, finish line. Are you ready? That look good to you? That's pretty in line, isn't it? Yeah? Pretty much in line. We like to keep things... This is scientific. We need to get things right. This is why we're doing what Let's find out. Finish line, finish line. Who won that and by how much? Let's go. Let's go. That was the only race that counted today. I hope you enjoyed it. Hit that subscribe button. Peace out. Suck on that EVs and we'll catch you on the next one. Yes, bro. Only race that counted. Yeah. Cleaned up today, bro. Yeah, that's right. Smashed it. Easy. How dare they think they can bring EVs down to this track and win? They're never going to. How dare they? Cheek. Nervous. Bro, listen, you smashed it. You know? I don't know what to say, mate. Unfortunately, today wasn't your day, but you know what? You tried. I mean, it's nice to have diversity. That's why we brought you in today. But as you clearly see that you're not quite as quick as you think you are, you know, and maybe soon 10, 20 years, the development of these AI things or whatever they are, bring them back and you might have a chance. But this today, it wasn't. It just didn't go your way. But thank you for. We all wanted that one to win anyway. There you go. Okay. So through all of the madness, let's find out who's really the fastest on paper, at least using our V-Box PBTs and extracting the software. And these two ran extremely close times across the board. However, I take great pleasure in informing the viewers and petrolhead community that the VW Golf R actually set the fastest 100 to 200 kph time here today, going 100 to 200 in 8.12 seconds, beating the 5N's best recorded time of 8.50 seconds. And then taking a look over at the fastest quarter mile times here today. Yes. Although it pains me to say the IONIQ 5N covers the quarter mile in the fastest time, managing a time of 11.23 seconds at a speed of 122 miles per hour, only just beating the Golf R's best time of 11.32 seconds at a speed of 123 miles an hour. And then taking a look over at the fastest zero to 60 times achieved. Once again, the EVs take the win, laying down a rapid time of just 3.06 seconds, but only just beating the Golf's best time of 3.10 seconds. Super close results. And although I just want to count the bonus races here today, unfortunately, that's not how it goes. Today, Team EV, Dave and the IONIQ 5N take home both the roll races and the drags. Congratulations. So today, we lined up a fast electric hatch against a fast internal combustion hatch. And today for us petrolheads, it didn't really play out the way we had hoped. The out of the box performance from the 5N is admirable. And honestly, it kind of looks pretty cool. In fact, I actually had a go in the car after the races and it's quick. And then driving it in simulated manual mode, it really adds a feeling to the drive of an EV that almost gets close to having a little bit of emotion, but still miles off the real internal combustion engine feeling. But shout out to Dave, who's actually a petrolhead at heart. The Golf just gets out muscled today, but the metrics are very close. And in fact, it was a bad day in the office for the Golf, as he's previously ran a 10.8 second quarter mile. But today, it just wasn't meant to be. Regardless, a massive shout out to Dave, Paul and RacingLine for making this one happen for the culture. So let me know at home, what team were you supporting? Team EV or Team ICE? And if you could only have one of the two to beat down a British B road, which one would it be? And why? And if you have enjoyed today's video, show your support by hitting that thumbs up. And if you like this type of content, please consider subscribing because you know we'll be back same time, same place with another legendary OG battle. Peace out. Transcribed by https://otter.ai