The 2015 VW GTI Might Be Making Significantly More Power Than Advertised

Yesterday, I received an update on the new GTI I ordered back in October – "Will be built week 10." So I won't be having hot-hatch fun until sometime in March. This morning, I caught some news that make the wait a little easier. It turns out VW may be seriously sandbagging the output claims on the MK7 GTI.

Volkswagen rates the 2015 GTI at 210 horsepower (220 with the performance pack) and 258 torque from the 2.0 turbo motor. Those are pretty solid numbers for a hot-hatch. However, according to a dyno run that was posted on a FocusST forum, of all places, the actual output of a bone-stock GTI could be high as 263hp and a whopping 314 ft/lbs of torque at the crank. These figures assume a 15 percent drive train loss.

Of course this is just one dyno run, and to accurately verify these claims multiple runs on different cars would have to be factored. This is not the first time a German company has underrated the output. BMW is fairly notorious for this, as there has been several claims about their turbocharged four and six cylinder motors having more thrust than expected. Even the M5 is "conservatively" rated at 560 horses.

No one really knows why Volkswagen and BMW make such mild claims about their output, but I would rather have more power than I thought I paid for than it be the other way around.

(H/T to Autoblog)

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