The Volkswagen Lupo was a automobile that had by no means been formally bought in the US. In Europe, nonetheless, it was one among a number of metropolis automobiles accessible in the course of the first decade of the century. It was an enthralling small machine bought with three- and four-cylinder engines. Even in its most potent type – the Lupo GTI – it had a modest 1.6-liter mill with 125 horsepower. although. The black Lupo from the video on the high of this web page has nearly thrice that output.
Clearly, this isn’t a inventory Lupo GTI. This explicit instance has had its engine swapped and now there’s a 2.0-liter turbocharged unit beneath the hood. That motor can be not fully unmodified however all we all know is that its output is round 360 horsepower. All that energy is channeled by way of a handbook gearbox solely to the entrance wheels making this cute hatch fairly difficult to drive.
The video takes us to an unrestricted part of the German freeway. The Autobahn is that magic place on earth the place, in sure sections, there aren’t any pace limits and you’ll legally push your automobile to its limits. On this case, the boundaries of this modified Lupo GTI are unexpectedly excessive – within the second half of the clip, you possibly can see it reaching about 158 miles per hour, which is fairly spectacular for such a pint-sized machine.
In fact, the highly effective turbo engine underhood can simply propel the small sizzling hatch to excessive velocities. In inventory type, the Lupo suggestions the scales at round 2,150 kilos (975 kilograms) and even the bigger four-cylinder unit in all probability doesn’t deliver that quantity to greater than 2,300 – 2,400 lbs (1,043 – 1,088 kg). There are limitations relating to wheel dimension, although, and you’ll see the automobile getting somewhat nervous when the speedometer will get nearer to the 250 kilometers per hour mark (155 miles per hour).
The Lupo GTI was succeeded in VW’s lineup by the equally cute Up! GTI, which was discontinued in January this 12 months. That pocket rocket had a good smaller 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine with 115 horsepower however the 0-62 miles per hour acceleration took lower than 9.0 seconds. Your complete Up! vary will probably be killed later this 12 months, although.
