Volkswagen Golf VR6 vs Opel Kadett 200t S - Retro Review & Comparison

Welcome to the mid raceway located precisely in the middle of nowhere , but it's also on Google Maps if you need to .

This was to be a special day as the owners of two legendary nineties cars had agreed to bring their pride and joys to the track for us to drive .

I was on an emergency fishing trip and so we sent Hanes Vertes up from Cape Town .

I don't think there's anyone else in the country who knows more about modern classics than not like these modern G T I s where they fake parts .

The reason the V R six exists is because the golf three G T I was a bit dull .

It only had 85 kilowatts and sprinted from 0 to 100 in over 11 seconds .

And so V W dropped a V six in there and a new name plate was born .

We did shoot this on a racetrack but don't expect hot laps here .

Hana has a lot of mechanical sympathy , especially when passionate owners are watching .

So underneath the V R six is quite different to the golf G T I .

It's stiffer for one and the power steering has been recalibrated .

So overall , it's a more dynamic feeling car than the fluffy soft around the edges of G T I .

We don't have a G T I here so I can't really clear and I'll have to take people's word for it .

But yeah , this , this is a fun car to drive and it's mostly down to the engine and it's really good to say that because , you know , a lot of people have hyped up this engine expectation for me and I must say it delivers the goods .

It's got 100 and 28 kilowatts and it's got nice punch and it's , it's a real sound as well as it actually makes a very nice sound .

It is really a refined , fast , smooth G T car .

And I think Volkswagen meant it to be like that from the beginning .

And that's not a bad thing .

But one thing I must say is , and I'm very happy to say it is that this engine has not failed to deliver .

It makes a glorious sound .

And I'm so happy that it lives up to that expectation .

These cars have achieved cult status in South Africa .

But do they live up to the hype ?

I think so .

But is it a true hot head ?

I'm not sure .

I think it's a fast G T and , and there's nothing wrong with that , but it's not the fire cracker of a heart hatch that I think people eventually got .

If you want a really ballistic fire starter of a hot hatch of the early nineties .

I think where you need to go is not Volkswagen , but Volkswagen's old fox , his main rival .

Welcome to the Opal Cadet 200 T S .

Yes , this is the ultra rare Opal Cadet 200 T S .

It's possible that you've never heard of this car .

I certainly hadn't , but it wouldn't be in this video if it didn't have a fascinating exclusively South African history .

This car has a reputation for being wild for being this crazy cocktail of understeer talk steer and if you really overcook things and get scared , snap over steers .

So that's why so few of them exist .

And it's taken us the best part of a year to find a cadet 200 tiers in this condition .

This one is pristine .

This one is in excellent condition .

Now , imagine for a moment you Delta Motor Corporation executives in the early nineties and you've just spent the best part of a decade rebuilding your brand name on the racing circuits of South Africa with amongst other things .

And in the end , the Opal Cadet Super boss , which is like the icon of hatchbacks in South Africa and then Opel in Germany decides that ok , we are going all eco and we are going luxurious and refined for the next uh generation cadet .

What do you do in typical South African fashion ?

The result was a car that is unique to South Africa and it is quite something .

So how did they pull this off ?

Delta Motor Corp imported some two liter , 16 , 12 turbocharged engines from Germany .

Usually in Europe , they were fitted to the Cabra four wheel drive .

But in South Africa Delta decided we need four wheel drive , we'll stick it into a front wheel drive hatchback .

So what you have here is 100 and 60 kilowatts of barely controlled fury going to the front wheels , only a six speed manual box from Kara .

And uh I'm told somewhat modified version of the limited slip differential from and we that was used in the Super Boss to keep to keep it all together .

Hanes personally handled the restoration of our very own opal super boss .

So he knows this generation of Opals very well indeed .

But even so he was pleasantly surprised by the 200 T S .

He's even about to use the word pleasant .

There's a couple of surprises here for me .

The interior is actually a very pleasant place to be and there's some very nice touches .

I mean , well , firstly , six speed box is always a plus and a powerful car like this and it says 16 valve turbo on the dashboard .

I don't think I've ever seen that in a car .

So the numbers , as I said , 100 and 60 kilowatts , this car could do naught to 100 in around seven seconds and it have a top speed of 240 kilometers per hour .

I imagine that in 1992 in a car with no stability control , no airbags .

So , is this 200 T S a crazy evil machine ?

A vicious cocktail of understeer talk steer and snap oversteer to catch out the overenthusiastic driver .

I must say .

I don't think so .

I think the reputation is largely unwarranted in my experience on , on this drive .

Anyway , what you get is a car that definitely rewards a smooth driver .

It's not a car that likes you stabbing away at the throttle pedal , jerking at the steering wheel .

It needs sensitivity , it needs a driver that understands where the power sits , which gear to be when to apply throttle .

And then you have a very fast car , you can feel the , the front in bite .

It's got bigger wheels on it than the V R six as well .

So it feels like it's got more grip and the industry is progressive .

And so what is Hani's conclusion ?

I think this is a really fun car to drive really fast car as well .

In some ways , these are two very similar cars built for very similar reasons , but in reality , driving them back to back revealed that they are completely different .

The Opel is actually bordering on mad 100 and 60 kilowatts even in today's terms is a lot hot and the larger engine in the Gulf didn't really make it a hot hatch , but it made it an anomaly and that has helped make it a legend .

However , the end result is the same finding one stock in good condition is extremely difficult and that's always a good sign .

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Thanks for watching .