Cheer On This 1 Million Kilometre VW Golf As It Chases Its Top Speed

When we’ve featured autobahn top speed runs before, they’ve involved powerful cars going awfully fast. This video, though, is a little different.

It stars a 1995 MkIII VW Golf with the 1.9-litre ‘1Y’ naturally-aspirated diesel engine, known for being simply and pretty much unburstable. As such, this one has been taken to an incredible 1.1 million kilometres (683,000 miles). A lack of turbocharger means modest power and torque outputs of 64bhp and 92lb ft, making for a 0-62mph time of 17.6 seconds. Wringing out its top speed of 97mph, then, takes some time.

This makes the Golf’s quest for Vmax glory all the more satisfying. It’s oddly relaxing rather than agonising to see the speeds rise gradually, with the car taking around two minutes to go from about 50kmh as it joins the autobahn to 160.

The driver has to back off a few times due to speed limits coming in via the overhead gantries and after getting stuck behind slower vehicles, but finally, after about six minutes of trying, the Golf makes it. The old girl tops out at an indicated 170kmh, which is a thoroughly respectable 106mph.

The car’s modern equivalent is the base diesel version of the Golf 8, which comes with a much punchier 2.0-litre TDI engine putting out 112bhp and 221lb ft of torque. It’ll reach its 126mph top speed much faster than its predecessor hits 106, but the sense of achievement won’t be anything like as high.

Video via Motor 1