[MUSIC PLAYING] LAUREN MCCAY: Welcome to U-Drags. I'm your host, Lauren McCay from Edmonds, and today we have two pocket rockets. To my left, I have the 2022 Hyundai Veloster N, and to my right, it's going up against the 2022 Volkswagen Golf R. But first, what is U-Drags? It's a drag race to there. They're going to do a hard flip around and come on back.
That means in one single test, we get all the things. Quarter mile, hard braking, handling, and a rolling start. All in one. Once these cars do their first race, we're going to bring them back, swap drivers and lanes, and run it again. Why? Because we want to give these cars a fair chance.
Our contenders today are the Volkswagen Golf R with 315 horsepower and 295 pounds feet of torque. And the 2022 Hyundai Veloster N, with 275 horsepower and 260 pounds feet of torque. One is front-wheel drive, and one is all-wheel drive. This is going to get good.
Our drivers today are from Edmunds very own test team. Kurt and Jonathan. If you want to see more of U-Drags, go ahead and like and subscribe below. And if you want to sell your car, you're going to head over to edmunds.com/sellmycar and get an instant quote today.
KURT NIEBURH: Oh, there's a fly in here. Oh, hell, no. Get out of here. I don't need the extra weight. Anyway, I'm in a Golf R. all-wheel drive, Uber Golf. I'm racing a Veloster, which is great, but it's only front-wheel drive, so I think this is probably just going to take it. It's going to take it off the line, it's going to take it all the way down, it's going to take it all the way back.
Both of these vehicles have launch control. I'll walk you through what I'm going to do to put the Golf R on launch control. There is a mode button on the dash. You can put it in Sport. And then you have to go into this other finicky menu. Go to the exterior vehicle settings, go to brakes. That. And that's where your ESE system is. So you have to turn that off. And then you're going to watch this car beat that one.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: All right, I am driving the Hyundai Veloster N. It's currently the only Veloster that Hyundai still makes. I have about 275 horsepower going to the front wheels, which sounds great until you hear that the Golf R makes about 30 more horsepower and has all-wheel drive. But I am a little lighter, so I'm hoping that helps to even out the race a little bit.
Launch sequence. I put the car into N mode. You have to then go into the screen and select performance options. You can set the RPM. We generally like to have it turned all the way up. Now the last piece of the puzzle here is what Hyundai calls the NGS. It stands for N, grin shift. It's actually an overboost function that gives you more boost for about 20 seconds. I think I'm going to save it till the end. So if I'm behind a little bit, that's going to give me a little extra boost to come out and take the win.
LAUREN MCCAY: All right, drivers. Here we go. In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Oh!
KURT NIEBURH: Oh, yeah.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Oh, man.
KURT NIEBURH: Sounds like a vacuum cleaner, but, oh, man, I just smoked the Veloster.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Oh, my, God. Look at that power! Golf R! Hope he screws it up on the braking.
KURT NIEBURH: Turn the corner.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Come on, Hyundai, come on, you got this.
KURT NIEBURH: Use all the road.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Oh, my God.
KURT NIEBURH: This thing's a little machine.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: I don't think the NGS is going to save me, but let's try it. Go, NGS! Go! Oh, oh, oh, oh Oh! I'm going. I'm not grinning though. It is not even close.
KURT NIEBURH: Try not to gloat. Don't gloat. How was that for you?
JONATHAN ELFALAN: I mean, it was good. Like, there was a little delay off the launch control. Like, I led off and it was just like.
[MOTOR HUMMING]
Like, it wasn't like excited to get going. But I really don't think it would have made a difference. Like, you were flying. Like, there was no hope. Like, I was going to push my NGS button soon. I was going to save it for the end, which I did, but there was nothing I could do.
KURT NIEBURH: No, it, I mean, it just leaves. Like a little bit of oversteer on the way out of the hairpin and this thing was on its way.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: You had me at oversteer. Like, what I would give for some oversteer in this thing.
KURT NIEBURH: Well, let's switch sides and then you can feel very good about yourself.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Pretty hot in that hot hatch. Can't wait. Can't wait to win. OK, so you saw what happened in the first race. This car just has the power. It has the grip. This is really my race to lose. I'm ready, let's go!
KURT NIEBURH: Yeah, I have, I think we kind of saw what happened in the first race. Golf R is front-wheel drive, the Golf R does have more power. The Golf R will probably win, barring some driving excellence on my part, which I don't think I have it in me.
LAUREN MCCAY: All right, race number two, here we go in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!
KURT NIEBURH: Oh, got it.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Yeeha! Come on. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, man, that's a beautiful sight.
KURT NIEBURH: This car is fun though, man, I like this. This is really spunky.
[SQUEALING TIRES]
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Oh, yeah, baby.
KURT NIEBURH: Go, go, go, oh, the front-wheel drive is just killing me.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Sorry, Veloster.
KURT NIEBURH: Killing me.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: See you later, buddy. See you later.
KURT NIEBURH: He's gonna gloat. He's gonna act like it's all him and he's gonna gloat.
LAUREN MCCAY: Wow! That's it! That's a wrap.
KURT NIEBURH: Well, aren't you fast?
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Ah, I could get used to that.
KURT NIEBURH: Yeah, that is, that's very capable, very potent and very easy.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: I think what also sort of adds to this advantage is that you know you have the power advantage, you know you have the grip advantage, and so you're really not in a rush to get that corner finished. Like, you can kind of take your time with it. Like, I don't know, I don't know how you felt, but I felt very relaxed.
I'm like, I'm just going to do this corner. And I think the more relaxed you are, just the better you actually drive. You got a good launch. I felt like you got a decent launch. But this thing just, it has more of everything pretty much.
KURT NIEBURH: Yeah, I mean, like, I really, I knew I was going to have to fight for traction with this thing through the corner, so I tried to square it off as much as possible. And I just couldn't get on the power soon enough. And I looked over, and you were already well out of the corner. I was like, well, that's the end of that. That's what four driven wheels get to as opposed to two.
JONATHAN ELFALAN: Yeah, even though that car has decent summer tires, like, you're still like having to manage the traction out of the turn. Like, you can't just wood it like you can in this thing. And actually, this thing is sort of unlike other all-wheel drive systems in that it gives you sort of that dynamism that you want out of the corner, so that you're not just plowing as you get on the power. It actually rotates a bit, so you can be a little aggressive with this all-wheel drive system, which is pretty fun.
LAUREN MCCAY: In race one, the Veloster's delay in its launch control caused the Golf R to get out ahead and cross the quarter mile in 12.8 seconds, over a second faster than the Veloster. But look at the lateral Gs the Veloster pulled in the turn. 1.06! Still, it wasn't enough to overtake the Golf R, which finished the race with its best time at 36.1 seconds.
In race two, the Veloster had it figured out and launched the best it could, giving it a hair of a jump. But the Golf R quickly took the lead, as it matched its previous quarter mile time at 12.8 seconds. Both cars raced through the turn and onto the straight, but the Veloster didn't have a chance, as the Golf R crossed the finish exactly 3 seconds faster than the Veloster again.
Jonathan, I'll go to you first. You got in that Veloster first, then you got to get in the Golf R. How did that feel?
JONATHAN ELFALAN: It felt wonderful getting into the Golf and out of the Veloster. But with that said, I still really like that Veloster. I think it's a smoking deal for the price. Like, they're kind of isn't anything else in that price range that puts out as much performance as it does.
That being said, you can't argue with the Golf R. It's got all-wheel drive traction, it's got a really well-balanced all-wheel drive system. It actually feels like loose and playful, whereas a lot of all-wheel drive systems cannot do that. So my pick is obviously going to be the Golf R, if I can afford it. It's kind of expensive.
KURT NIEBURH: This one's more playful and more fun. The engine sounds better. It feels more, it just has more energy, more fizz to it. But competency-wise, the Volkswagen's just got it. It's that simple. If you want to go faster, the Volkswagen is it.
LAUREN MCCAY: Fast, speed, that is the ultimate winner today. And that is it for U-Drags. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. See ya.
