The German Autobahn elicits images of high-powered luxury cars gobbling up miles of asphalt at triple-digit speeds. However, the lack of a limit on some sections of the famous highway allows any car to reach its top speed. A new AutoTopNL video shows a tuned VW Caddy from the turn of the century doing just that.
The Caddy looks like an early 2000s model, judging by the basic interior. You won’t find flashy screens or software gimmicks here. It’s a bare-bones workhorse, but this example has a little more pop under the hood. It’s evident from the startup that this VW isn’t your typical Caddy, with the driver turning the key and then fidgeting with something under the steering column to fire up the engine. The auxiliary gauges on the dash are another indicator that this is something special.
The compact van features a 1.9-liter turbocharged diesel engine that powers the front wheels. It produces 230 horsepower (171 kilowatts) and 383 pound-feet (520 Newton-meters) of torque. According to the stats, the tuned Volkswagen can reach 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) in just 6.6 seconds.
That doesn’t sound impressive by today’s standards, but it’s a significant improvement compared to the stock model. The original delivered just 90 hp (67 kW) and 154 lb-ft (210 Nm) of torque. It took the van 14 seconds to hit 62 mph and was limited to just 102 mph (165 kph).
The video shows the VW exceeding this number, reaching over 124 mph (200 kph), which is where the speedometer ends. It looks like the speedo stops at what would be just over 136 mph (220 kph), but the video lists its top speed at 133 mph (215 kph). Speedometers lose some accuracy at higher speeds, and we’d expect that’s the case with this Caddy. It’s around 20 years old.
However, despite its age, it can still blast down the Autobahn in the left lane. It seems it needed some help from tuning, but it’s still capable. That’s not something every Caddy can do.
