I was on my way home with my brother in the car yesterday (he's my size, 200lbs+) after having filled my tank with gas. We were at a light preparing to take a left and a brand spank'n new VW Passat 3.6 pulls up next to us with a 20-something guy in the drivers seat. My brother, who was visiting me for the holidays, was real excited to experience a street race since he has a measly Civic DX at home. Anyway, the light turns green and I give the wheels a very slight chirp to see if the guy would bite. Now at this point I was only half throttle because again I was just baiting him, but all the sudden the VW started pulling on me quickly, the worst part being I was caught so off guard because it was so incredibly quiet I didn't know he gunned it until he was already gaining and at this point a little under two car lengths ahead of me. So I went WOT, the tranny down-shifted to 1st, VTEC kicked in at 5gs and I was pulling on him, into 2nd I was pulling on him even more, but not nearly as much as I thought I would be. Once I got to 3rd, literally right as it shifted in, I was a fender ahead but had to let off as the driveway to my complex came up. Latley I find I can only go 2 tops 3 gears before I have to back off either because I run out of road or the MPH get a little too high for me on the highway. None the less it was fun and my brother enjoyed a little something for a street encounter.

I wasn't too sure what the Passat had for performance until today when I went online and saw that the 3.6's have 280 horsepower. It wasn't the 4motion or what ever they call their AWD system, but at that point since we were rolling it didn't matter much. Anyway, it was a fun race and I have to say I was impressed with that car. Like I said, it was so whisper quiet it was hard to tell when he got on it, but obivoulsy I could tell he was WOT once I saw the car pulling hard. Well, nice car, nice color too, deep deep royal blue, but the 'ol SSM CL pulled through in the end.

 

No wonder I didn't smack it around like I thought I would've:

Most family sedans can't pull off a decent burnout, but they come easy to the 2006 Volkswagen Passat 3.6. Its big V6 is so powerful, a good stab at the gas lights up the sedan's front tires like it's a Top Fuel dragster.

We doubt Volkswagen considered this benefit when it installed the most powerful engine in the midsize class under the hood of its redesigned 2006 Passat 3.6. It was merely trying to give the sedan a chance against cars like the 2007 Toyota Camry and 2007 Honda Accord, two revamped competitors with powerful V6s of their own. Neither Japanese sedan can match the Passat's upscale interior; then again, neither one starts at over $30,000 either.

New VR6
So the Passat 3.6 is expensive, but it backs up its premium price with a premium engine. It's a new 3.6-liter version of Volkswagen's VR6 design, a setup that arranges the cylinders in a very narrow "V" to keep its dimensions compact. Features like variable valve timing, dual-overhead cams and direct injection make this VR6 one of the most advanced V6s on the market.

With 280 horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque, the 3.6-liter engine delivers numbers that not even the new Camry can match. And although the Toyota also uses a six-speed transmission, the Passat's Tiptronic setup offers steering-wheel-mounted paddles, which allow manual control of the shifts. You can also choose between standard and sport programs in automatic mode, although the "Sport" mode should be avoided in the city because part-throttle gearchanges become too jerky.

Good first impression
Other than an almost diesel-like chatter on startup, the 3.6 makes a better first impression than the last Passat 2.0T we tested. The larger engine adds 232 pounds to the Passat's curb weight, but with all the extra power the car actually feels lighter on the road.

Nudge the gas and it pulls away quickly with nothing more than a quiet hum and perfectly smooth shifts. At half throttle there's a notable power advantage over the 2.0T, but it takes a heavy right foot for the 3.6 to really justify its existence.

Keep your foot in it and the VW will hit 60 mph from a stop in 6.8 seconds and cross the quarter-mile in 14.3 seconds at 98 mph. Faster than the 2.0T by a full second in either category, but still a few ticks slower to 60 mph than the Camry. With better traction up front the Passat would be even faster, since easing up on the gas to control wheelspin usually results in a momentum-killing upshift.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=114974

 

If the passat runs a 14.3 in the quarter mile what do you think you run?

 

this is a good read since i've been meaning to read up on this V6 Passat. it was one of the cars that impressed me at the SD International auto show the most. mostly because of the engine and mostly because of the interior.

so, you could say the numbers on it are true. he kinda gained on you at first, you started to catch up and only he held you off on your short run there.

 

I think I'm probably running mid-14's. It was definitely a close race, and like I said, I was barely pulling on him, actually not much at all until the VTEC kicked in each time. Plus it was from a roll, who knows what would've happened if it was from a dig.

 

Yeah, you could say that. I did notice he made a turn onto a side street after I turned into my driveway, so maybe he got off it at the end, not real sure, but it seemed like he was on it the whole way and we got off it at the same time. Definitely not a slouch of a car. The most interesting part to me isn't so much how quick it was, but more how quiet it was while accellerating, that's why he got such a good jump on me. He was alone and I had my brother in the car with me, so there's a lot of factors that could make it +/- over my CL-S if we did full 1/4 run.