Following up on a trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats in August that saw a Volkswagen Jetta become the world’s fastest hybrid vehicle by running 185.394 mph, a purpose-modified 2013 Jetta Hybrid returned to the fabled Utah venue and set another high-velocity benchmark. This time, the car was specifically prepared to comply with the Southern California Timing Association’s (SCTA) H/PS category rules. And when the day was done, the Jetta Hybrid had upped the official class mark to an average of 186.313 mph. Its fastest pass of the required two-way run through a measured mile clocked in at 187.147 mph. That stat also pushed it past the 300km/h barrier, another first for a hybrid H/PS-spec vehicle.
As on its previous visit, this rapid Jetta Hybrid had its gas/electric powertrain revised by Volkswagen R&D in Wolfsburg, Germany, with installation and final in-car calibration handled by engineers from VW’s Test Center California in Oxnard. Although providing limited tech details, Volkswagen did indicate that modifications to the hybrid setup raised output from the standard 170 horsepower to around 300. A-Salt Racing and Advanced Product Engineering, based in nearby Camarillo, California, performed the other necessary safety and technical upgrades to get the car ready for this latest Bonneville assault and Motor Trend Magazine’s Carlos Lago again was behind the wheel for the fun part of the mission.
"We are really proud that our new Jetta Hybrid has taken the land speed record for its class," said Marc Trahan, Executive Vice President, Group Quality. "This was a fascinating project for our engineering team in Wolfsburg, who had to integrate the complex hybrid elements and generate a lot of additional power in a very short period of time in order to take the record."
