The folks over at Carwow seem to be huge fans of the Volkswagen Golf R. We’ve seen the potent hatchback drag race against superior performance vehicles, and the results haven’t always been as expected. It’s now time for the Golf R to meet one of the street kings and that is the latest generation BMW M3 Competition.

The fast saloon from the video here is actually owned by the show’s host, Mat Watson, and it’s an RWD example with a price of £87,000. It has a 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol engine good for 510 bhp (380 kilowatts) and 450 pound-feet (610 Newton-metres) of torque. It’s obviously heavier but much more powerful than its opponent.

Gallery: 2021 BMW M3 Competition: Review

Against the M3 is a Volkswagen Golf R from the latest generation of the hot hatch. 320 bhp (239 kW) and 310 lb-ft (420 Nm) coming from a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine are channelled to all four wheels through a dual-clutch transmission and a 4Motion AWD system. It’s obviously a lot cheaper than the Bimmer with a starting price of approximately £40,000 in the United Kingdom.

After a quick exhaust sound comparison in the video, it’s time for the actual drag race. Both cars have a great start off the line and at the beginning, the gap between the two is minimal. As the race progresses, however, it’s getting harder and harder for the speedy hatch to keep up, and it’s eventually losing the race by a wide margin. We usually don’t spoil the results of drag races in our articles, though the difference is just too big this time around.

The outcome of the race doesn’t change at the rolling-start discipline where the M3’s quicker-reacting transmission is giving it a huge advantage. The final challenge is a brake test and guess what? The Bimmer takes another comfortable win.