Keen readers will likely know that these simple drag race videos are taking the online automotive world by storm. Regardless of whether it's the Hoonigan’s this vs that series, or another variation, petrolheads are clearly loving it. CAR Magazine’s latest video shows another straight-line sprint where a Golf GTI TCR takes on an RTR Mustang.

We’d be remiss not to mention that on paper, this race doesn’t look like much of a challenge. The American offering has almost double the power – at 625 bhp (466 kilowatts) – of its competitor, but its grunt is fed through an automatic gearbox. Meanwhile, the Volkswagen puts out only 286 bhp (213 kW), but its clever dual-clutch gearbox might claw back a little bit of the power disadvantage.

If you were expecting the pony car to leap off the line to a commanding victory, you’re in for quite a surprise. We can’t be certain if each shot was from the same run, but the Volkswagen sprung out of the gate level with the Mustang. In the sprint to 62 mph (100 km/h) the spritely VW was very close, clocking a time of 6.36 seconds over its rival's 5.68. 

Even more surprising was how close the GTI came in the quarter-mile, trailing a car twice as powerful by just one second – the former putting down a time of 14.46 seconds to the latter coming in at 13.46 seconds. Weirdly tardy results for such potent vehicles, but we can’t be certain about many conditions that could have played a part.

We’re not sure if the close result was due to driver error, but unfortunately the video only featured one run. As such, the cause for such a narrow margin of victory will likely remain a mystery.