Sunday 23rd April 2023

We're building a VW Golf R beater for £10k

Fancy winning a hyper hatch-slaying track car? Tune in to our new video series with eBay to find out how | Promoted

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We’ve been banging on about how expensive hot hatches have become for some time now. The latest Honda Civic Type R costs over £45,000 new, while the current Mercedes-AMG A45 S starts at £63,000. Even the outgoing Fiesta ST seems a bit on the expensive side at £27,000. Isn’t affordable performance the whole point of a hot hatch?

Well, now it’s time to put our money where our mouth is. We’re working with eBay to build a track car, only using parts and accessories from sellers on eBay which currently boasts over 50m+ parts and accessories from leading manufacturers and automotive brands. The challenge we’ve set ourselves is that the final build must be faster than its modern-day equivalent around a circuit, and to prove the point that hot hatches needn’t cost the earth, we're forbidden from spending a penny more than £10,000 – car included.

That car is a 2006 Volkswagen Golf GTI five-door with 96,000 miles on the clock and a very un-track car beige leather interior. We picked it up for just £5,200, which is an absolute steal, leaving us with £4,800 to spend on modifications. On paper, that looks like a healthy budget, and we’d be feeling rather smug if our chosen rival was the Mk8 Golf GTI. But we’re upping the stakes by skipping over the GTI and gunning for the 333hp Golf R 20 Years edition instead – that’s right, the most powerful derivative ever made. To say we’ve got our work cut out is an understatement of gargantuan proportions.

The best bit? You’ll be able to win the car after we’ve thrown everything but the kitchen sink at it and, hopefully, annihilated a record-breaker in the process. Over the next few months, we’ll be adding stickier tyres and bigger brakes, not to mention chucking a load of mods under the bonnet to bring our GTI up to 2023 performance levels. And because eBay has everything from used OEM parts to high-end aftermarket goodies, finding all the bits we need to turn our GTI into a track monster should be a cakewalk. Making the right choices will be the tricky bit!  

Whether we cover ourselves in glory or suffer total borkage at the first corner, you’re not going to want to miss this. Let’s begin.

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This video is presented in partnership with eBay. Shop for motoring parts and accessories here. To be in with a chance of winning our project car, click here, answer the question and cross your fingers. You’ve got until 11:59 on 5^th November to get your answer in. Good luck!

[WCZ]

I would have thought you’re going to struggle to beat a golf R for £4k ?

Maybe an engine swap and fit it yourself aswell
As stripping it out etc

[Macaque]

I have the exact same car, owned from new, with quite a few mods. Some seemingly boring stuff like a braided clutch hose (eliminates swirl pot and bleeder valve restrictor) / adjustable balljoints for more camber / racier geo / stiffer arbs are rather worthwhile. As I understand (but haven’t tried) the alloy passat / s3 front hubs liven up the steering.

[Darkslider]

This will need a K04 turbo and supporting hardware to get near a standard R, plus a custom map from somewhere like R tech which won't be an eBay purchase. Going to be tight for the budget unless the labour isn't too be included

[FlukePlay]

Can we just fast forward to the giveaway, I'd like to win this thing.

[mersontheperson]

This should be fun, good luck and I am looking forward to seeing the progress

[Mysstree]

Do PH journo’s actually know one end of a spanner from another?
Is this going to be like a Wheeler Dealers build, labour not included?

[Kipsrs]

Good luck with that!

[fantheman80]

Good luck, but please don’t start speaking like ‘we are going stage 1 or stage 2’ like every other VAG owner....

[Dombilano]

Surely an auto would have been a better starting point, if you're going for 300hp+

[Craikeybaby]

That explains all the eBay banners and fuss over a black Golf GTI at Prescott Sunday Service.

I hope this goes better than the last time PH claimed they were giving away a car…

[Hub]

An Edition 30 would have been a better starting point, would have cost more to start with but fewer mods needed?

(Though I get that this is a promotion! )

[DonkeyApple]

Wondering just how difficult this is?

That model GTi was, according to a quick Google, a turbo with around 200bhp and weighed 1350kg. The current R has 330bhp but weighs 1550kg.

Already, on the right circuit where the GTi has appropriate rubber, pads and maybe suspension, it's not going to be left too far behind a modern road spec R to the point that putting a proper driver in the car might achieve the goal even? Increase the boost and remap to best suit that circuit and it seems a plausible target?

[Court_S]

Should be fun, but I think you’ll struggle to beat the R given it’s a DSG and has a clever diff etc.

The car looked ok from what I saw at Prescott.

[fantheman80]

Craikeybaby said:

I hope this goes better than the last time PH claimed they were giving away a car…

What happened?

[breezer42]

Great idea and an interesting tie up. Can’t wait to see the results!

[Bobupndown]

Court_S said:

Should be fun, but I think you’ll struggle to beat the R given it’s a DSG and has a clever diff etc.

And 4x4 to put that power down, this with massive power hike will be a wheel spinning hooligan.
Interesting project though.

[Baileyk]

Flashbacks to Max Power giving away the pink cossie (that wasn’t a cossie to begin with if memory serves).

[andy43]

Seeing as people working for eBay may read this, when are you finally going to sort out the scams?
Motor homes, boats, classic cars, all scams, still there and people are still falling for it.
Eg
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/11685839/nhs-worker...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNwV-gIAYdw

https://letsgomotorhoming.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpag...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-scammed-...

These are just the first few google threw up.
I’m a member of a Facebook group who spot these scams and report them. It’s several hundred ads a week and still nothing gets done.

Right, sorry, as you were. eBay tuning, hmmm, how about one of those electric turbos or some RHD golf parts from Lithuania?

Edited by andy43 on Saturday 22 April 08:37

[DonkeyApple]

andy43 said:

EBay? Ooh, a £14.99 electric turbo and some used RHD bits from Lithuania? Could be interesting…

Don't forget the multiple, weird conversations with mentalists when buying used for certain marques.

[andy43]

…and here’s the latest :
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=17569818000...
User 428mlg selling 93 cheap motor homes, classics, diggers and others.
Sort it out ebay!