Drag Race: New VW Polo GTI vs Ford Fiesta ST

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It’s another Friday and we are thrilled to present Round 2 of our VW Polo GTI vs Ford Fiesta ST track shootout – but this time it’s a good old fashioned straight line drag race.

A fortnight ago, Ciro was curiously delighted to see the Fiesta ST take on the new Volkswagen Polo GTI, with its new 141 kW, 1.8-Litre turbo engine which on paper meant the plucky Ford was outgunned. With Ashley Oldfield behind the wheel, we knew it would be close.

You can watch our hot lap track race video here

But, sadly, very few owners will ever get to push their hot hatches around a circuit, so in some ways, the straight-line performance of these cars is more important.

Again, the new Polo looks much stronger here. It is has more power and roughly the same torque as the 1.6 turbo -powered Fiesta ST, but it is slightly heavier. However, as we’ve seen in our previous drag races, most notably the VW Golf 7 R vs Subaru WRX STI, the DSG gearbox is a huge advantage in drag racing, with almost no time lost changing gears up the strip. And fortunately for Ciro, almost no skill required either.

Which is why we put our very own ace racing driver, Ashley Oldfield, in the Fiesta ST, to give it the very best chance of giving the Polo a good run for its money.

And money, we reckon, is the most important and tangible difference between the two. The Polo is unquestionably the more premium product, but in terms of performance, is the R50 000 price premium worth it?

We were about to find out.

Interested in a new Polo GTI? Check it out here

Interested in a new Fiesta ST? Check it out here

For an ultra-detailed side by side comparison, visit our Compare page

 Drag Race: New VW Polo GTI vs Ford Fiesta ST