Big horsepower, all-wheel-drive, and even dual-engine setups are not new to motorsports. However, combining all three of these in a single build is enough to make any enthusiast stop and stare with intrigue. At a recent Ultrace event, world renowned automotive photographer and content creator Larry Chen came across this amazing tube chassis dual-engine VW Lupo. Like the rest of us, Larry had to speak with the builder to find out more details on this monster.
Built by DOP Motorsport in Romania, this race car started life as a custom tube chassis. DOP Motorsport specializes in VW performance, so they attached a Lupo body to the chassis. The only part of the factory VW Lupo body that remains is basically the roof, A-pillars, and doors. Because the wheelbase of the car is approximately 60cm (23.6 inches for us Americans) longer than the factory length, everything behind the doors had to be custom-made.
The thing that puts this build into the realm of unbelievable is the dual VW VR6 engines mounted in the front and rear of the car. The beauty of this build is that everything is identical between the front and rear engines, transmissions, and suspension. Each engine is 3.6 liters and features HardBlok-filled factory engine blocks with water-cooled cylinder heads. A compound turbocharger setup consisting of a Garrett GTX5533 and a G42 force feeds the atmosphere into the six-cylinder engines.
Image courtesy of Pudgey’s Pictures.
According to DOP Motorsport, the engine combination is capable of 1,800 horsepower — per engine. You read that right, this little VW monstrosity can potentially have 3,600 horsepower driving all four wheels. Currently, the car is turned down to approximately 1,500 horsepower per engine.
Everywhere you look on this car there are interesting build features. Each engine is mated to its own DQ500 seven-speed automatic transmission. Additionally, there are separate intercoolers, cylinder head coolant systems, and Haltech ECUs for each of the turbo-VR6 engines. According to the video, this is a new combination for the car and there’s still some electrical work to be completed before it’s race-ready.
However, in the car’s previous configuration, which used smaller 2.0-liter engines producing a combined 1,200 horsepower, it ran a best quarter-mile time of 8.7 seconds at 273 kmh (169.6mph). Now with more than 3,000 horsepower to work with, it will be very interesting to…
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