France's fastest Golf 8!

RADICAL is the right word to use when talking about the preparation we carried out on the EA888 Gen4 engine that powers the 2.0 TSIs from the VAG group.

We didn't do it any favours by pushing it to the limit. We had to develop this engine to its full potential so that we could offer our customers reliable, high-performance preparations.

After almost 1,000 km on our power bench and dozens of hours of development, we can confirm that this engine easily outperforms its predecessors, which were fitted to the Golf 7R, among others.

The entire injection system has been completely overhauled, and fuel flow has been increased, thanks in particular to a new high-pressure pump that can be fitted to the engine.a new high-pressure pump delivers almost 350 bar, compared with 200 bar for the previous generation. Whether it's unleaded or E85, we've never been held back.

The most notable mechanical change in terms of performance is in the turbo. Gone is the lS38 turbo, which had a number of reliability problems, and welcome is the brand new Continental turbo! We discovered a turbo with a much larger intake compressor, which enables it to maintain a higher pressure while remaining reliable. on the other hand, the exhaust turbine has been reduced in size to minimise the 'LAG' effect, i.e. the turbo's charging time.

After our engineers had developed Stage 1 without any performance parts, we had already achieved 402bhp and 544Nm, so the colour was announced...

Once we'd got to grips with the new (and incredible) features of this new engine, we tackled stage 2 to make it perform even better!

fitted with an optional Akrapovic cat-back, the exhaust system produced a rather sterile sound. Normal, you might say, for a system fitted with a DPFS... By fitting an approved downpipe, we've improved both performance and decibels. The sound on acceleration is incredible, but what about the in-house pop&bang. every time it decelerates, it's a real assault rifle! As if that wasn't enough, we've extended the mapping to 2 seconds (race mode only).

We then worked on the intake.

The original airbox has been replaced by Racing Line's best-selling 2.0 TSI, the R600 Evo. As with previous generations, we also had to replace the turbo's inlet with a reinforced one from mm.

In order to maintain constant power during repeated acceleration, the original air exchanger with plastic scoops has been replaced by a large-volume aluminium exchanger. The air flow is now greater, enabling a satisfactory intake temperature to be maintained.

Once all these performance parts had been installed, we had to develop a map to match them.

We repeated the dyno runs tirelessly until we got an unexpected result of 503hp and 642.5Nm!

Mind you, we're talking about a radical stage 2 reprogramming here; we pushed the engine to the limit of what it could give us.

During the development of this mapping, we deliberately limited the torque at low revs by shifting it to protect the engine, but above all the transmission, which was showing signs of weakness.

Speaking of the transmission, the management of the DQ381 gearbox has been modified to accept the extra 222.5Nm of torque.

Here are the times achieved in our Golf 8R stage 2 Radicale:

• 0 to 100km/h: 3.41sec
• 80 to 120Km/h: 2.01sec
• 100 to 200km/h: 7.68sec
• 0 to 200km/h: 11.08sec
• 400 DA: 11.12sec at 201.02km/h