You’ve certainly seen your fair share of drag races when the winner was evident from the start. You could tell which vehicle would win based on its technological characteristics, yet you still watched them compete. This is the situation here, where the old adage “there is no substitute for displacement” is true, but we were intrigued to find out what happened. The six-cylinder BMW M240i xDrive competed against two four-cylinders, the Volkswagen Golf R and the Honda Civic Type R.
The VW had a greater chance of keeping up with the BMW because to its 4Motion all-wheel drive system, whilst the Honda was disadvantaged from the start due to its FWD arrangement. The fact that it had a manual transmission only made matters worse, since the CTR couldn’t launch as quickly as the two auto-equipped competitors in a drag race organized by Carwow.
The M Performance variant of the new 2 Series Coupe has the edge in terms of horsepower and torque thanks to a larger 3.0-liter inline-six engine. It was, however, the heaviest of the three by a wide margin. Despite its larger size, the M240i was substantially faster off the line, and it proceeded to expand the distance until it reached the Golf R, while the CTR had to settle for third place.
The first drag race was conducted with the Honda’s traction control switched off, which proved to be an uninspiring move as the wheels continued to spin. The CTR’s launch was improved when the electronic trickery was turned on, but not enough to stay up with the two AWD vehicles. The coupe completed the quarter-mile in 12.4 seconds, while the hot hatches took 12.7 and 14.2 seconds, respectively.
The Japanese small hatch performed better in the rolling race from 50 mph (80 km/h) since traction was no longer a concern. It did, in fact, defeat the Golf R, but it was another easy victory for the M240i. The rolling race was rerun, but this time all of the sporty options were enabled. The Honda lost, although there wasn’t much of a difference between it and the VW. Once again, the BMW was the first to cross the finish line.
The unwritten rule that the lightest vehicle wins a braking test applied here, as the Civic Type R required the lowest distance to come to a complete stop from 100 mph (161 km/h). The M240i and Golf R were almost tied for second place.
carwow.com / YouTube
