For all the advances in automotive design that we’ve achieved, we’ve done little to improve the coefficient of joy. Reviewers of high performance cars always adopt a serious face of concentration, like a toddler filling its diaper. That’s why it’s so refreshing to see someone giggle happily behind the wheel of a car.
But I’m burying the lead. Here, /Tuned’s Matt Farah takes you on a tour of a canyon in HPA’s FT740, a Golf R with 740 hp that was designed to go fast and embarrass GTRs.
The FT740 was built by Highwater Perofrmance Auto, out of British Columbia, which is in Canada, at the request of a customer. The result is, according to Farah, a car that can be daily driven, but which also feasts on the carcasses of freshly killed super cars.
HPA swapped in a 3.6L V6 with two hybrid turbos and the gearbox out of a TTRS. Oh, and they gave it 740 hp and 700 lb/ft of torque. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating.
“If you told me this was built in Wolfsburg by Volkswagen’s skunk works, and not by an aftermarket tuner in Canada, I would totally believe you,” says Farah.
Despite being totally enamored of the car, Farah does point out two flaws: the first is the brakes, which struggle to cope with the power, and the second is the lack of paddles, so manual shifting of the dual-clutch trans is done through a lever that’s reversed. “Downside number three,” adds Farah, “there is no number three. Those are the only two. This thing rocks.”
No performance figures, apart from the headline-catching power figures, are discussed so it’s hard to know if the car achieves its lofty ambitions. The way that Farah talks about it, though, it’s pretty clear that the car is a success.
The post Watch Matt Farah Giggle Like a Child in a 740 HP Golf R appeared first on VWVortex.
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