December 29, 2010

Before the storm

Driving home

Some of us (Josh) fared a little better with the snow and didn't lose any body parts, or get stuck. But then I wasn't about to leave at 8am Sunday morning to beat the storm like he did, at least not on 3.5 hours of sleep, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. Others had more gumption, not to mention more dependents (Cats tend not to do well without food and water), so getting locked out of NYC by 20"+ of snow wasn't much of an option for him and Yuko.

On a side note, I think I just realized I prefer Mk5s to Mk6s? Not sure, but it certainly looks more purposeful. Maybe it's just the fact it's a Golf rather than a GTI...

Pic: Yuko

_WRS

Blizzard - 1

VR6 chin spoiler - 0

December 24, 2010

Home for the Holidays

Home for the holidays

Being back in freezing Baltimore for Christmas meant the obligatory visit to The Wiz car wash to rinse off the Winter grime. Here's to hoping you and yours have a safe and happy holiday season.

_WRS

Home for the holidays

Home for the holidays

December 21, 2010

Behind the scenes with Frank the Biz

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

Now that the issue is out, I can finally post up some pictures that I've been sitting on since this past Summer.
A little look inside the last-ever photo shoot of one of the U.S.'s most famous VWs. Josh, who hadn't shot anything for Performance VW for some time, got the nod to give Frank 'the Biz' Bisogno's legendary Mk3 it's final shoot before she was parted out and put out to pasture. Josh has shot Frank's car on three other occasions; twice for PVW and once for Eurotuner.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

Frank has been around the scene for quite a while, and although not all that active on the long-distance show circuit these days, his 1995 GTI VR6 has always been a benchmark.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

The attention to detail, the constant innovation and being one-step ahead of the game has been the hallmark of Frank's car. It's never been the exact same way twice, anytime I've seen it, even if it had only been a few months.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

It's been on magazine covers, had multiple full-features, and Josh has shot them all. Us old-school heads have to stick together, you know? From supercharged VR6 12v (with the infamous Z-Engineering blower), shaved bay, back to NA, turbo'd, and now with a 3.2 R32 motor, naturally aspirated. Wheels went from 16" OZ Volcanos to a bunch of bigger / wider 17s, before going back to these super hot, super chrome Fittipaldis.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

Suspension has always been coilovers, but the car has never the been lowest of the low. It's always been a looker sure, but then it's always had visual balance rather than 'just' being retardedly low.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

Frank is a VW technician by trade, so has done the vast majority of the work himself. Changing interests and changing priorities meant he was finally ready to move on to the next challenge...his bike being one of the newer priorities, not to mention his fiancé. (that's her in some of the pictures)

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

So while Josh spent time setting up the shots, directing and getting the final iteration of Frank's Mk3 captured for all eternity, I was trying to get my own take on the afternoon. And sweating, profusely, because it was blazingly hot up on top of this parking garage in downtown New Haven.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

This car is really unlike most of what I tend to concentrate on. It's more of a hard-parker than a hard-driver. In order to keep up with the times it's on air-ride, naturally, so it's not a performance car in the more traditional sense. It is however, really something closer to mobile sculpture than most of what I see out there.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

Some of which is innovative, some of which is just 'follow the pack.' And nothing, in my opinion, is worse than following a fashion simply for the sake of it.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

Frank's car has been constantly updated, upgraded and re-worked over the years into something more than a 1995 GTI VR6. It's one of, if not the only car I've ever seen owned by one person for this length of time in the 'scene;' they usually are built once, then sold, parted or wrecked between an average of 2 months and 2 years.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

Think of them...all those feature cars, all those thousands of dollars, all of that time. Gone, destroyed or passed on to uncaring owners who let them slip into dust and grime. Got my feature, and on to the next one...

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

And now so goes Frank's Mk3. Nothing lasts forever, it's stupid to think that it will, but it was always nice to check out what was new on The Biz's car. But no more. It was nice to be there to capture Josh, capturing the car and the owner, one last time.

Frank 'the Biz' PVW shoot

_WRS

December 15, 2010

Waiting and wishing

Peugeot 908 in the setting sun

I don't know about you, but I'm officially sick of the cold weather...and it's not even Winter yet. Right about now the only thing keeping me going, aside from copious amounts of spiked egg nog, is the thought of a warm spring. We'll be making the trek back down to Sebring Florida for the 1st American Le Mans race of the year, where this photo was taken back in March. It was a warm Friday evening as the cars were going out for night practice, and Peugeot was sending one of their all-conquering 908s to the track.

Here's to an early Spring!

_WRS

December 10, 2010

Unleashed: The Audi R18

Audi R18 Le Mans Prototype

Amazing. While the new R18 may not win any beauty contests in the most traditional sense, as soon as it puts a notch in the win column any doubts will be set aside. The aero concepts, if I'm looking at the car correctly, are perhaps most interesting.

Audi R18 Le Mans Prototype

The car is unbelievably low, with the air channeled over the top of the very low side pods, with pronounced channels directing the air back to the rear wing. It almost looks as though the entire car has been transformed into a sort of ground-effect tunnel of sorts, with the now-mandatory fin playing a large part in the process.

Audi R18 Le Mans Prototype

It's easy to see how the airflow will enter the front, above the splitter, channel around the greenhouse of the coupe, which it will most likely then be complimented by airflow entering from the side of the car as well, before being directed to exit between the rear wing and bodywork.

Audi R18 Le Mans Prototype

The sharp edges of the channels are clearly visible here, and it's not hard to see how this will work. Basically imagine that the extremely flat top of the side pods are the ground, and the rear wing and very end of the body work are like the ground effect tunnel on the back of this 962:

Porsche 962 GTP @ Watkins Glen 9.13.09

It doesn't look as slippery as I was expecting, but there's not a whole lot of wing on the back of the car either. Regardless I can't wait to see it on the track. It's a bummer it won't be there for Sebring, but at least I'll finally get to see the R15 now the R15++) in person.

_WRS

December 7, 2010

Interview: 2010 U.S. Rallycross 2wd Champion Josh Wimpey

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

One of the most exciting things to happen to the USA motorsport landscape this year was the introduction of the U.S. Rallycross Championship.
As with any new series the entire thing was a big question mark: What would the fans think? Would it catch on? Would anyone even show up to race? While many were excited, no one really knew what it would take to be competitive, especially in two wheel drive. One of U.S. rally racing's up-and-coming talents, Josh Wimpey, emerged as the first ever champion of the two wheel drive class, with his 1987 GTI 16v carrying him to victory. We talked with Josh a little bit about his history, his team Quantum Rally Sport, and what his plans are for the future...

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

Wolfsburg Rennsport: First up thanks for taking to time to speak with us Josh.

Josh Wimpey: No problem at all.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

WRS: What's you're general background when it comes to cars and motorsport. Is this a life-long passion, or something that has developed over time?

JW: Well, I would say that it all started because of a couple of factors. First, my dad forced my brothers and I to work on the family cars when we were kids so we learned about cars and working on them from an early age. Of course we wanted to go ride bikes and skateboard so we hated it. Sure enough, by the time we were teenagers we had surpassed our father in wrenching on cars, and even occasionally would drag him out to the garage to hold a flashlight or pass tools. In addition to teaching us about mechanic'ing, he also took us out for deliberate snow hooning every winter in his baby-blue Pinto and later a 1st generation RX7. Second, riding and driving pretty much anything we could find from bikes, to lawnmowers, to grandma's car became a highly competitive endeavor between my brothers and I. Around age six my twin brother Jeremy and I convinced my grandmother, who was blind in one eye, that it would be safer if the two of us piloted her Ford Granada for her around the mostly dirt roads of Northern Georgia. And so we did, taking turns working the steering wheel and communicating to the other who would work the brake and gas pedals because we were too small to do both at once.

A fondness for Knight Rider, The A-Team, AirWolf, and The Dukes of Hazard only fueled the fire for going fast on dirt. A progression from RC cars and riding lawnmowers to real cars was inevitable. As teenagers, we began off-roading anything we could get our hands on; namely a Ford van, a Buick Century station wagon, and a couple of Postal Jeeps. It was always competitive as we would see who could get further up a hill, or slide further in the gravel, or go faster but, it certainly was not formal motorsports.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

WRS: So how did you become involved in rallying?

JW: Needless to say my brothers and I knew what Rally was. However, we only knew rally as it existed overseas, from the few times a year that we caught a glimpse of some WRC footage from the Safari Rally, or some other European events. When we were 19 Jeremy and I purchased a 1985 VW GTI together, and proceeded to drive it as hard as possible on gravel and snow covered roads whenever we could. A couple years later someone mentioned to me that there was a Rally group that held events in Orange Virginia, and I should go check it out. This was the first time that I had ever heard of anything rally or rally related in the US, and the first time I had thought of Rally as something other than a really cool wall calendar. So I went to my first Washington DC region SCCA rallycross at a gravel parking lot in Waynesboro VA, only 30 minutes from where I lived at the time. With our shared 1985 GTI getting even more rusty, I found a replacement car, a 1987 GTI 16v with a bolt-in Autopower rollbar for $400, it didn't run, and set out to run the SCCA rallycross events. From my interactions with the SCCA group I learned that REAL Stage Rally existed in the US, and decided I wanted to do it. Jeremy and I mentioned this to our friend Eric Langbein and he got so excited that he bought himself a Toyota Celica All-trac to run for himself. Eric and Jeremy began running the Celica in rally right away while I went to Colorado for graduate school, and I found an SCCA rallycross scene out there in the interim. During the summer I returned to Virginia, and Jeremy, Eric and myself built my GTI into a real rally car so we could go rallying once I was out of school. After graduating, and finally getting some work, we entered our very first event Cherokee Trails 2005 in Tennessee. The rest is history.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: And why rally rather than say, circuit racing at a track?

JW: Rally is more raw and visceral than road racing, and I find that really rewarding. Track racing can be stuffy. and there are a lot of people who spend way too much time fretting about hypothetical rules and competitive advantages, while many racers are paranoid and secretive at the track. Part of that is because road racing requires a certain amount of strategy and gamesmanship that is absent in Rally, where you compete against the clock. Rally competitors develop a different kind of relationship with one another, much like competitors in other individualized sports such as skateboarding and downhill skiing do, where camaraderie is dominant. Passive aggression and playing dirty won't get you any friends in Rally and it won't get you any wins either.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: So why did you choose to campaign a Volkswagen when there are so many other options out there?

JW: I could give a huge list of reasons why we keep campaigning VWs, and why you should too, but they wouldn't reflect the reasons why I started out in one. I would love to say that I picked a Volkswagen for any reason other than 'I had one that I bought for $400,' but I would be lying. The truth is, I stumbled into picking a great car and a great platform on accident and I fell in love with the Volkswagen GTIs right away. They are great cars, light weight, easy & fun to drive, easy to make competitive, and easy to work on. In 1998 when I still didn't know anything about US Rally, I drove my GTI up to this new shop in Aberdeen MD and met Dave Graf and Ed Sheets of NGP racing to see what kind of go-fast bits they sold for my car. Despite leaving empty handed, I had Ed drive my car to see if he could diagnose a hiccup and spent the next few years thumbing through catalogs of aftermarket VW parts while dreams swirled in my head.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: Cool, so what pushed you over the edge from dreamer to racer so to speak, and how long did it take for that to happen?

JW: As I mentioned before, I was always a dreamer and as soon as I found out that Rally existed in the USA, I decided that it was something I was going to do. It took about 4 years for that to happen because I went back to school.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: In your opinion and from your experience in rally, are VW's under-represented in the motorsport scene compared to other marques? There are a lot of them out there on the streets, lots of 'tuners,' but not as many seem to be involved in motorsport...

JW: VWs are still quite popular in rally here in the US. There are at least a dozen mk2 VW Golfs and Jettas, a few Mk3 and Mk4 cars, at least one mk5 car, a couple new beetles, an old beetle, and a surprising number of mk1 rabbits still going strong in rally, with the occasional Scirocco or Corrado thrown in the mix. So, VW enjoys a lot of popularity as a 2wd car in US rally with one or two 4wd franken-cars put together by some crazies.

The tuning scene is cyclical and follows all kinds of trends. It is when these trends happen to overlap with motorsports that you see a lot of enthusiasm and increased motorsports participation. For example, about 10 years ago, autocross was huge and you saw a lot of tuners catering to autocross setups. Right now, the trend is car-as-art cartoonishly-low-so-you-can-barely-drive-it. In that world, broken sub frames, oil pans, and suspension components are seen as a badge of honor. There is very little overlap with any kind of motorsports, and, participation wanes.

Luckily or not, rally has never been a mainstream motorsport in the US. Even the massive wave of enthusiasm from the Subaru faithful over the past decade produced relatively few rally newcomers.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: What have been some of your favorite moments in stage rally?

JW: There are a couple of things that really make a rally special for me. The first is great roads. Truly great roads are hard to find and harder still to get permission to race on. The roads at Idaho Rally, Rally West Virginia, Rally Tennessee, and Cherokee Trails are simply a pleasure to race on, so anytime I get to do those events is a favorite moment. The second thing that makes a rally special is having great competition and camaraderie. Anytime we get to trade stage times back and forth with a great competitor is amazing. Last year, we got to duke it out with Doug Shepard at Rally Tennessee and with Eric Burmeister and Chris Duplessis at New England Forest Rally, and we couldn't have been happier to fight for just seconds after over 100 miles of racing.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: Do you and your twin brother have telepathy? (haha)

JW: Not that I know of...

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: In all seriousness though, how is it having your twin brother as a co-driver?

JW: Well, it is definitely a huge advantage. Jeremy is certainly the best co-driver I could ask for and one of the top three co-drivers in the US, period. Jeremy is a very good driver and that really helps him as a co-driver because he can provide excellent coaching in addition to managing the driver and delivering pace notes as a driver needs them. Additionally we work well together as a crew, like the same foods, like to camp instead of hotels, and I get to hang out with my best friend the whole time. Pretty cool!

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: I guess you were sort of unknowingly practicing being drivers and co-drivers when you were bombing around in your grand mom's car back in Georgia...building up that trust that a driving team must have to be successful?

JW: Absolutely. Grandma got us started!

Josh Wimpey

QRS: So how did your competing in the inaugural U.S. Rallycross Championship come about?

JW: We heard about this new series and thought it might be fun. If nothing else, it was only a few hours drive away which is extremely nearby in rally terms. The truth is no one involved in the first event had any idea of what to expect. I watched a handful of European Rallycross races online before the event and said, that looks like fun...lets go try it.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: When you scored your win in round 1, did you already have the overall championship in your sights, or was it strictly a take-it-as-it-comes sort of endeavor?

JW: Like I said, no one knew what to expect at the first event. I am pretty sure that worked out to our advantage somehow, even though I had never driven a car on a racetrack before in my life. The win at round one was amazing and I think encouraged other competitors to come out and race in the other events. When people saw that you could win an a 150hp VW, they realized they didn't need to be worried about being outclassed by 500hp Porsches and such...Yet! Likewise, it sealed the deal for me. The event was fun and well attended and really gave us a chance to interact with fans which is great so we decided then and there to campaign the whole series.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: Not that we're asking you to give anything away, but do you have any tricks that help you compete with the more powerful cars, like Dillon Van Way's turbo Focus or Matt Johnson's V8 Ford wagon? It has to be intimidating going up against cars with twice the power.

JW: We knew that after the first event things would get more difficult, and they did. A lot of new drivers showed up with competitive cars and we knew that our effort was outclassed in terms of horsepower and grip, so I had to try very hard to play to our advantages. Namely, the car is lighter than any of the cars that have shown up so far, so we can carry speed further toward each corner before braking. Running a front wheel drive car is a huge disadvantage in the drag-style starts, but a small advantage on the dirt while horsepower is huge advantage anytime you can get the car pointed straight enough to use it.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

At the second event, it became clear that Matt's V8 was unbeatable off the line, so chasing him down and passing would be the only way to compete unless he made a mistake. The final weekend of racing we came with a bit more ammunition as NGP Racing and Diebold Autosport had done an amazing job squeezing some more power out of the car and shaving off some excess weight. The payoff was that we could go out and run faster laps than any other car including Matt's and Dillon's. But, I never did get a good run on passing him so we finished right on his bumper in both A-mains despite qualifying on the pole in each.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: It had to be an awesome feeling when you realized you were the first ever 2wd champion in the U.S. Rallycross Championship.

JW: Definitely. Going into the final race, there were three guys that could take home the championship depending on how things went down in the final heat. We had a lead in the points so, the most important thing was to finish in the top three and not crash. When I saw that we had a chance to win the final race and the championship in the final few corners, I pushed hard but it wasn't meant to be. I'm happy with the championship win but would have loved to win another event as well.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: So what are your plans for 2011?

JW: Well, it is sponsorship season right now so we have some feelers out in a bunch of different directions trying to make things happen. There are some really good stage rally events like Rally West Virginia on the schedule next year and we would love to finally complete the entire MaxAttack! 2wd National Championship series so those things are on our list. For Rallycross, next year will have events on both coasts and the center of the country and I hope to get a program together to defend our championship so we will just have to see what happens. It should be exciting no matter what.

U.S. Rallycross Championship Round 4 - NJMP

QRS: Best of luck next year, thanks again, be sure to keep us in the loop with any developments.

JW: Thanks, I will.

For more information on Josh Wimpey and Quantum Rally Sport, check them out:

QuantumRallySport.com
Facebook
Youtube

_WRS

December 6, 2010

Video Post: Secrets of speed - pure 80s Audi awesome

Although the video quality leaves a little something to be desired, any footage of the 1980s Audi Sport racing efforts in the USA is just too good to be ignored. It's unfortunate that the Trans Am Audi 200 and IMSA 90 GTO only raced a year apiece, because they are undoubtedly two of the best sounding cars ever to grace American race tracks. I suppose however that when family sedans from Germany are beating the best from the USA, the powers that be will turn the screws to make sure it doesn't happen for long... The Trans Am 200 team, run by IMSA legends Group 44, was partially in response to the ridiculous 'unintended acceleration' PR problem that Audi was dealing with at the time.


Trans Am

Following the ban of Quattro (and indeed all foreign made engines and cars) in Trans Am, Audi moved up to IMSA's GTO category with a tube-framed Audi 90 silhouette racer. Competition here was fierce, with factory teams from Nissan, Toyota and the 'big three.' Nissan used the same engine as they did in the GTP class, as did Toyota, which meant horsepower levels were well into the 900hp+ range for sprint races... With more power than before thanks to a 4-valve head (about 720hp, compared to just over 500hp in the Trans Am 200), the 90 GTO was still underpowered compared to the competition, but it was again dominant in just about every race that it entered thanks to the Quattro system.


IMSA 90 GTO

Makes me wish they'd use a 5-cylinder turbo in their GT racing these days...not to knock the power of the TDI, but it sure sounds sterile and boring compared to the fire-breathing 5's.

_WRS