Video: Volkswagen Spits Crank Out On Eight-Second Pass!

The World Cup Finals brings out the best racers from all over the world, and has the biggest variety of racing combinations you’ll ever see at one race. Every class is extremely tight in qualifying so competitors have their cars set on kill every pass. The downside to running so hard is weak points can be found in a hurry, and that’s exactly what happened to Mike Pauciullo. His hard-charging Volkswagen GTI ran its first eight-second pass, but experienced some of the worse engine carnage we’ve ever seen in the process.

Pauciullo’s Volkswagen is an impressive hot rod and is built with some top-shelf parts. The motor on the eight-second pass used a rotating assembly that featured a FSI Crank, aluminum rods, and Arias pistons. To help generate nearly 900 horsepower Pauciullo added an RLZ CNC cylinder head to the motor, and a 67 mm Garrett turbo that feeds the 1.9 liter motor 35-40 pounds of boost. With this combination, Pauciullo was able to hold the record for several years, but he always looked to go faster.

At the World Cup Finals Pauciullo ripped off a series of low nine-second passes in testing, as he tried to get his car ready to do battle in the tough True Street class. On his final pass his car became the first Mark 4 Volkswagen GTI in the eight-second zone, running an 8.87 at 167 mph. The problem is the motor had had enough and tore itself apart in a major way. When the team dropped the belly pan the level of damage was impressive — the crank had removed itself from the motor, taking a major part of the engine block with it. John Force himself would have been proud of this level of effort to make a big run!

Check out this footage from 1320 Video that shows the record pass, and the aftermath of when Pauciullo’s motor let go.