When the Volkswagen engineering team started working on the Mk8 Golf, they had asked for permission to use the 2.5-liter TFSI engine of the Audi RS 3 for the flagship spec. Volkswagen AG declined the request, but a tuner shop named Innovative Motorsports came up with its own version of sorts.
The car shown here belongs to Kavin and is an older, seventh-gen example. According to Kavin, he was quite satisfied with the stock drivetrain at first, but then got bored and tried a bit of tuning. One thing led to another, and before he knew it he decided to sell the OEM drivetrain and replace it completely with that of a wrecked Audi RS 3. The car was a write-off anyway, so buying its cylinder block, engine internals, transmission and sub-frame was not too expensive.
Furthermore, thanks to both vehicles being based on the same modular platform known as the MQB, the swap proved quite manageable without too much custom fabrication and fitting. The most challenging part was connecting the wires and rewriting the software. Once done, the Golf started without issue and didn’t even blink a single warning light on the dashboard.
Kavin says a swap like this could set you back anywhere between $15,000 and $80,000 USD depending on what engine you pick and how much power you want to squeeze out of it. He did not provide a closer price estimation.