’79 Golf is Bugatti slayer -
October 2009
The Bugatti Veyron may be the fastest production car in the world, but a Cambridgeshire man claims to have a Volkswagen Golf that can shame the £1m supercar in a traffic light drag race.
Andy Waite bought the 1979 Golf for just £50 but following £60,000 worth of modifications, which include a custom-built turbo-charged engine delivering an astonishing 700 bhp, his modest hatchback can now hit 60 mph in 2.36 seconds! The Veyron – a car with so much power it is renowned for leaving even the most experienced drivers lost for words – takes a tenth of a second longer.
The 180mph Golf can also cover a quarter-mile dash in less time that the Bugatti.
Andy’s Golf is completely street legal, runs on unleaded fuel and he claims it drives like a normal car at low speeds, but when he points it down the drag track (Andy is leading the Eurosport Compact Chassis drag class at Santa Pod raceway) it’s clear he’s created something of a monster.
But he admits that the car’s biggest problem is that once he reaches speeds over 160mph, he can only drive in a straight line because the steering goes wobbly!