Well,

actually this is not a race.. 2001 1.8T Gti a/t is my wife's car..
My wife drove me to the shop where I have the oil change done.( they charged 5 bucks for the lift, that's why I bring the car in) Anyway, when we on our way home, she's in front of me...and she drives not very fast....but not slow either... The car launches FAST..even without hard-driving.....I try to "catch up" with her ...I rev to around 4500 rpm before shift...but I can't even reduce the distance.... I really don't know it's my launch or what...

However, the 1.8T manual is really a fast one....My wife's cousin got one...really amazing for a 150 hp car...at least from my point of view...My brother-in-law thinks these cars are slow compare with his WRX....:

the only mods on both cars are K&N drop-in air filters...

 

The new 1.8t in the GTI/Jetta engine code AWP is pretty quick, but the car has a bit of turbo lag.

 

the peak power in our cars is around 5500 rpm if my memory serves me correctly. the vw gets boost at lower RPMs so you're gonna have to rev it!

 

I raced a GTI a while back. The new ones with the 1.8T are actually 180hp. I beat him off the line (His car looked new, so maybe he was getting used to the clutch). But he flew past me when I shifted to second. I tried again at the next light and had the exact same result. those cars are pretty quick. I think that they lag less than WRXs too.

 

the car has good torque at low rpm....so it launches fast if the driver is good enough..