The all-new Ford Transit Custom launched in Europe last October, where it has continuously remained at or near the top of the sales charts for some time now. The van will soon also give birth to the all-new Volkswagen Transporter, which will be built by Ford alongside the Transit Custom in Turkey, in fact. While that model has yet to be fully revealed, that didn’t stop the folks at CarWow from pitting the new Ford Transit Custom against the previous-gen VW Transporter and a Peugeot Expert in a pretty interesting comparison recently.
While essentially no one buys a van like any of these three for drag racing purposes, CarWow still decided to pit the trio against each other to see which is the quickest, regardless. On paper, the VW Transporter seems to have a slight edge thanks to its 2.0L diesel four-cylinder engine, which makes 204 horsepower and 450 Nm of torque (332 pound-feet), more than the Ford Transit Connect and its diesel, which churns out 170 horsepower and 360 Nm (266 pound-feet), as well as the Peugeot and its same size and type of powerplant making 180 horsepower and 400 Nm (295 pound-feet).
The Ford Transit Custom is also the heaviest van of the bunch at 2,200 kilograms (4,850 pounds), compared to the Transporter at 2,005 kilograms (4,420 pounds) and the Expert’s svelte 1,657 kilograms (3,653 pounds). However, the Transit Custom coasts to an early lead before getting edged out by the VW in the first drag race. When the results are tabulated after a few more races, the VW wins with a 16.8-second quarter-mile, versus the Transit Custom at 17.3 seconds and the Expert at 17.7 clicks.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the new Transporter fares when it arrives, perhaps more so in the sales room. After all, the Transit Custom was the best-selling van in the UK in 2023, and has an 11-year production cycle – meaning that these two will be doing battle for quite a while to come.
We’ll have more on the Transit Custom soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Transit news and ongoing Ford news coverage.
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