New BMW M135i Drag Races AMG A35 and Golf R With Surprising Results

Surprisingly, BMW developed a nearly identical car, the new M135i xDrive, and both of them are a close match to the aging but competent Golf R. There's only one way to settle this rivalry, and that's with a drag race.

We've already seen two drag races featuring the A35 and Golf R, and each time the results were different. Far from being the decider, this latest race from Carwow turns it into a four-way battle by adding the M135i and an Audi S3.

Despite being developed by different companies, all four of these cars weight a bit over 1.4 tons and are powered by 2.0-liter turbo engine placed longitudinally and able to shuffle some power to the rear wheels. While the Golf R can be credited with coming up with this setup, the hot battle here is between the M135i and AMG A35, since they are far newer and thus more worthy of your money.

Both the premium cars offer 306 horsepower, six more than the Audi and VW. That's probably not as important as the 50 Nm of the BMW or the fact that it uses an 8-speed auto instead of a DCT. Also, both the Audi and the VW were a lot faster before WLT

Right; the drag race. With the engines on boost, all four cars do their 100 km/h sprints around 5 seconds. It's an incredibly close race, but with more torque, the M135i eventually puts its nose ahead, followed by the A35 and Golf R. While the Audi came last, its sedan body is heavy and thus a hindrance.

The rolling race is done twice, each time with a slightly different outcome. Considering all these are quite boring to drive in comfort, so we'd consider the one in Sport mode to be more accurate. As for the brake test, it's almost dead-even, to be expected when the cars are so similar.