There really aren’t too many hot hatches on sale these days, so when we had the opportunity to gather the Honda Civic Type R, Toyota GR Corolla, and Volkswagen Golf GTI together in one video, we couldn’t say no. But which of the three is the fastest? To find out, we brought them to Sepang for a drag race to see who will win in a straight line!
To bring out the best performance, all three cars are fuelled with PETRONAS Primax 97 with Pro-Race. The specially-formulated fuel not only removes 99.9% of carbon deposits found in the engine, it also provides a more responsive, efficient, and powerful drive thanks to its Advanced Dual Friction Modifier. There’s a reason why the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team trusts this fuel for their cars (and won eight world championships).
The first challenger lining up at the starting line is the FL5 Honda Civic Type R. Honda’s highest-performing Civic Hatchback with a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine with VTEC makes it the fastest front-wheel drive (FWD) car in the world with 319 hp and 420 Nm of torque.
As always, the Type R variant of the Civic is blessed with a six-speed manual transmission and can do a 0-100 km/h time of 5.5 seconds before reaching its 272 km/h top speed.
READ: Gallery – 2024 Honda Civic Type R FL5 – The FWD hero, now all grown up
Second up on the list is the Toyota GR Corolla, which sports a smaller 1.6-litre turbocharged inline-three cylinder engine with a max output of 300 hp and 400 Nm of torque. While it also has a six-speed manual like the Honda Civic Type R, it has an all-wheel drive (AWD) drivetrain instead of a FWD drivetrain.
Still, the Toyota GR Corolla achieves a faster 0-100 km/h time of 5.3 seconds before it tops out at 230 km/h.
READ: 2025 Toyota GR Corolla facelift launched in Malaysia – 6MT only for now, from RM367k
Finally, the Volkswagen Golf GTI is the only German hot hatch against its Japanese competition. In addition to having a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot with 245 hp and 370 Nm of torque, the FWD drivetrain is connected to a seven-speed (wet) dual-clutch transmission (DSG). This makes it the only car in the trio of challengers with an automatic transmission.
Despite that, the Volkswagen Golf GTI churns out 245 hp and 370 Nm of torque to send the German hot hatch from 0-100 km/h in just 6.3 seconds, plus a top speed of 250 km/h. Not bad numbers for an automatic!
So, based on the performance numbers on paper, who won? Well, you’re going to want to watch the video and find out!
WATCH: Drag Race – Civic Type R vs GR Corolla vs Golf GTI
