Automakers can't seem to decide whether the American public will love or hate hot hatches and sporty station wagons. On one hand, Ford discontinued the potent Focus RS due to lackluster sales—on the other, Audi decided to ship the new RS6 Avant to these shores and the decision was met with a raucous round of applause. But in Europe and all over the globe, sport wagons and hatches are all the rage, and they even turn up at drag events with heavily modified drivetrains that make them stellar performers. Few can hope to get as radical as this sleepy Opel Kadett GSi, however, which just hit a half-mile event and logged a screaming 199.87 miles per hour thanks, perhaps, to a unique ice-cooling method employed on the intercooler immediately before the attempt.
Sit Down And Strap In
From the exterior, very little gives away the fact that this nondescript commuter car might be ready to get anywhere near 200 miles per hour. The final generation of the Kadett did receive a potent-for-the-time 2.0-liter inline-four that could produce 154 horsepower, but this car is obviously on a whole different level.
Under The Hood
Crammed into the tiny engine bay, the little car's engine still displaces 2.0 liters but produces an absurd 1,257 horsepower and 811 lb-ft of torque, which is routed through a modified all-wheel-drive powertrain that includes a Getrag six-speed manual gearbox. That horsepower figure was produced while running the Precision Turbo 7675 Gen 2 unit up to 55.1 pounds of boost, though for the recent half-mile event in Berlin, only 48.5 psi were required.
A Novel Technique
As fun as climbing aboard for the hardcore acceleration might be, the best part of the video comes right at the beginning, as the method behind the ice-cooling is revealed. What looks like a custom-made piece of plastic has been strapped to the intercooler's intake opening, holding a bunch of crushed ice (maybe even dry ice, though it doesn't smoke very much). Perhaps the cooled metal was what allowed the car to get so close to 200 miles per hour without maxing out its turbo pressure.
Sources: youtube.com and hellionpowersystems.com.