Modified VW Polo with 400 BHP can do 0-100 km/h in 4 seconds

With 403 BHP & 533 Nm on tap, it proved to be faster than cars like the BMW M2 & Mercedes E350 in 0-100 km/h sprint at the Valley Run Drag event.

BHPian soulreaper_20 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I consider myself lucky to have recently experienced this mad beast created by Nikunj Vagh from Surat Gujarat. While I was able to document the build on video, unfortunately, I couldn’t take many photos of it. Apart from a few photos, most are screenshots from the video itself.

As mentioned before, this car is developed by Nik_Trans Motorsport based in Surat, Gujarat. A run-of-the-mill stock petrol Polo body was chosen for the build before completely stripping it down for weight reduction. All of the car’s interior was removed along with the rear bench seat as well as the passenger seat. This has resulted in a car weight of about 1050kg with a smaller 35-litre fuel tank. Now is where the fun begins with the engine!

To increase the performance, Nikunj Vagh (Nik_trans) started by sourcing a 2.0-litre EA888 CCZ engine which is found in the Mk6 Golf R. The engine is installed in the engine bay using OEM spec mounts which means that there is no cutting or structural alteration to the body of the original car. The 2.0-litre engine received a compatible ECU while adding an APR GTX turbo system (I don’t know the exact boost it’s running), APR cold air intake along with a Pipercross filter that was added for induction.

All combined, these mods have resulted in total power output (dyno tested) of 403hp and 533Nm of torque, which obviously the front-wheel-drive system cannot handle. To combat loss of traction, Nik_trans sourced a Haldex type 4WD system for the Polo which would automatically split the power between all four wheels. A similar system is also found of transverse engine VW cars international which they brand as 4MOTION. To install the same he had to build a custom subframe which was derived from the original subframe found on the MK6 Golf R. With a thorough understanding of the modified subframe Nik_trans developed a custom frame in-house that suits the Polo chassis which he says will be used for all future Polo 4WD projects.

To ensure that the 2.0 Polo stops, he has also upgraded the braking system where there are now 345mm front rotors and 320mm rotors at the rear compared to the disc front/drum rear braking configuration of the stock Polo to provide optimal braking.

As a result of all these performance upgrades, the 2.0 Polo is now capable of achieving an incredibly fast 0-100kmph time in just 4 seconds! I actually witnessed this car’s full potential for the first time at this year’s Valley Run Drag event where it posted an impressive time of 12.6 seconds for a quarter-mile. It was faster than cars like BMW M2, Mercedes E 350 and was just 0.2 seconds behind a Ferrari 488 GTB!

Personal Experience

Now as much as I would have loved to get behind the wheel of this car and drive it myself, that wasn’t possible since it’s a one-of-a-kind which, as you can imagine, the owner would be reluctant to risk giving anyone. So instead, Nikunj was generous enough to bolt in a passenger seat and take me for a quick drive.

As we got rolling, the first thing that impressed me was the suspension. Nikunj has kept the suspension setup such that it’s incredibly comfortable to use on our roads (while it’s not a road-legal car by any means, it always helps when transporting the car between workshops and trucks). The KW suspension (as far as I remember, not entirely sure) is, of course, adjustable which was set up to softer settings for transport. When entering competitions they will retune to run a much stiffer setup.

Apart from its smooth road manners, what really impressed me was how linear the power delivery was. If it was road-legal, this setup could easily be used as a daily as the power delivery isn’t lumpy or concentrated between a specific rev range. It’s evenly distributed and very manageable. And when he finally put the foot down the surge was intense and explosive!

The 2.0-litre Polo just picks up the revs and starts accelerating like crazy. Thanks to the 4WD system there is absolutely no slippage at any speed and even after the 400+ HP and 530NM torque, the system puts down the power so effectively. As a result, you really do feel a solid kick when the car starts to pull. And the surge didn’t seem to stop or become any weaker even as we approached high speeds! If given complete freedom, I’m sure this machine can very quickly hit 250kmph and beyond.

According to Nikunj, this car took about 12-14 months to develop where the majority of the time was spent waiting for parts to arrive, I can imagine that a serious amount of tuning must have gone into setting and calibration. That said, since Nikunj is a transmission specialist who works on everything from Ferrari to specialising in VAG DSGs (including fixing Mechatronics) he was already quite aware of the intricacies of fine-tuning such a setup.

These guys are now preparing the car for the racetrack which would mean adding a lot of forged internals and probably adding even more powerful brakes and cooling. I’d love to be in touch with them and keep you guys updated on future developments.

Here's what BHPian agambhandari had to say about the matter:

It's a very cool project but it is hard to believe that there is no structural modification to the chassis. The PQ25 chassis doesn't have space for the rear drivetrain and the required subframe. The rear chassis needs to be modified to make space for it. That is one of the differences in the Audi S1 chassis.

The tracks are also wider in front and back, means most likely Golf/PQ35 axles are being used. Very ingenious solution but this car is pretty much a Golf underneath now.

Here's what BHPian 2000rpm had to say about the matter:

Wouldn't importing a Golf could have worked out for cheaper?

Can you share the broad estimate of the build cost?

Here's what BHPian dhanushs had to say about the matter:

Thanks for sharing a truly amazing build. I would appreciate it if you could go into more details about the technicalities involved, the problems faced, etc.

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