Pikes Peak: a custom Golf GTI pips a factory Acura by 0.07s for the front-drive record
D.Novikov
Jim Morris took a purpose-built Golf GTI to 10:33.104 on Pikes Peak, beating the eight-year-old front-wheel-drive record and holding off a factory Acura Integra Type S by just 0.07 seconds.
Volkswagen Golf GTI has shown that front-wheel drive shouldn’t be written off, even in extreme motorsport. British driver Jim Morris, in a specially prepared Golf GTI, set a new front-wheel-drive record at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb — 10:33.104. He beat the previous benchmark of 10:48.094 by nearly 15 seconds, but the win wasn’t easy: the factory Acura Integra Type S run by Honda Racing, with Dai Yoshihara at the wheel, finished just 0.07 seconds behind.
Pikes Peak is no ordinary circuit race. The course runs about 20 km, packs 156 corners and climbs 1440 m in elevation. The finish sits at 4302 m, where air density drops, cooling suffers and the engine works in far harsher conditions. For a front-wheel-drive car that is an extra headache: the front wheels have to put down the power and steer at the same time.
Morris prepared for three weeks, learning the course in a rental car and memorising every corner, bump and sequence. His first full-speed run of the whole mountain came only on race day. That makes the result all the more remarkable — at Pikes Peak, a mistake on an unfamiliar stretch costs not tenths of a second but the car itself.
After the record, Morris said: “Just over four years ago we set out to design and build the best front-wheel-drive car for Pikes Peak and to beat the existing front-wheel-drive record. Today we have done it, bringing the record home to Britain. I want to thank everyone who helped and supported this huge team effort.”
For the production Golf GTI, this result has no direct bearing, of course: the record car is a custom project built for one specific job. But the real value of the story lies elsewhere. Front-wheel drive, so often dismissed as a compromise of mass-market hatchbacks, can become a serious weapon with the right preparation — even on a mountain course.
On the used market, a recent Golf GTI usually costs noticeably more than a regular Golf and competes not with mainstream hatchbacks but with the BMW 1 Series, Audi A3, Mercedes-Benz A-Class and used hot hatches like the Hyundai i30 N or Cupra. When choosing one, it is not only power and the gearbox that matter, but the service history and the condition of the turbo, DSG, brakes and suspension.
Morris’s record does not turn every Golf GTI into a race car, but it neatly explains why the model still has such devoted fans: the right setup sometimes matters more than the number of driven wheels.
