G60 powah

As alluded to earlier, the Rallye Golf had some problems. One was the engine. The G60 engine never made enough power, and even when it was making power, it probably wasn't making it for long. There are a few problems with the G-lader from a technical standpoint, but I am neither an engineer nor an expert on the finer points of what is "wrong" with the design per say. The key issues tended to be the following...

1. Manufacturing tolerances - The G-lader is a very efficient blower design, and unique in the world of super chargers. The problem with it had nothing to do with efficiency, but of manufacturing tolerances. It's tight in there, and there are a lot of surfaces that need to be perfect. One seal out of place, one tiny piece of the delicate magnesium displacer not in alignment, and you'll be on the side of a stage before you know it. Forget about the charger timing belt breaking, jumping a tooth, or a bearing developing even the slightest bit of play...

As you can see below, there is a lot going on within the housing, with the 60mm scrolls rotating pulling air in through the hole on the lower left, and being expelled through the outlet in the center.

and then...

2. Heat - All those sealing surfaces make for a lot of friction. Friction creates heat, heat causes problems. Multiply that by the fact that the VW works team was significantly overdriving their chargers for competition use, and it becomes another weak link.

A broken charger is not pretty...here's a closer look at the internals. The balance shaft is easily visible here.

3. Limited boost - Compared to other superchargers, the G60 works out to be a pretty solid unit with regards to power output. It doesn't suffer the "lag" and lack of bottom end torque that a centrifical blower tends to have. What it didn't have was the ability to be a turbo. At a time when everyone was running a turbo, VW decided to run a charger. There was just no way it would be effective against the turbo'd cars from Lancia and the far-east. Like bringing a knife to a gunfight as they say.

So there's a little more on the G60. The next installment will deal with Syncro, and we will finally be done with the embarrassing Golf Rallye (in competition terms) and move on to at least 50% of the reason I started this blog in the first place...the Golf A59....

_WRS

The real cost of racing from SSL

The real cost of jumping behind the wheel in a real race car is something I'm not personally familiar with. I know it's a lot, and I know that friends of mine who have worked in that world for a while want nothing to do with it because of it, but how much is it really? oneighturbo.com posted up this on twitter...an outstanding article from Speed Sport Life: Avoidable Contact #25: Exploring the pyramid of speed — the real costs and stories behind entry-level sedan racing.

Sort of makes auto crossing seem like driving to the store for some milk and cookies.

I've got to head out of town this weekend for a story, so I may not be able to continue on my often delayed Rallye Golf finale post, but it'll get there sometime.

_WRS

Speaking of Audi: R15 wins Sebring, as if you didn't know

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Audi's new Pièce de résistance, the R15 TDI, won it's racing debut at this year's 12 hours of Sebring. Considered by pretty much everyone with a heartbeat and a brain between their ears considers this race to be the most important of the year for the run up to the LeMans 24 hours, this win is extremely important. If Audi wants to win at LeMans this year, they've got their work cut out, as the Peugeot 908 HDi seemed to have the ability to outpace the R15 when needed.



Still, a win is a win, and chances are with the Audi engineers fully aware of what the 908 can still do (it was quicker than the old R10 was, but in 2008 LeMans still went to the Germans) they will up the ante a bit over the coming months. The 2009 Sebring race was a bit of a disappointment other than the battle between the R15 and 908. The Acuras were hopelessly left behind in the LMP1 class, and the overall field was as thin as a middle-level AIG executive's hairline. 28 cars. Ouch.

A lap onboard with the R15. Sure these diesels are fast and "clean" but am I the only one who finds them a bit boring?


Luckily, we have the big dance to look forward to which can perhaps salvage this season for us. Hopefully the 2009 LeMans will sport a slightly better field, with a higher number of cars in Europe able to make the trek over there, compared to the air-freight nightmare than Sebring must be for a European team.

The thin field didn't mean a lack of close racing. As we can see in this clip, the drivers were not afraid to put it all on the line, so the racing was at least exciting, if not constant. May LeMans 2009 be at least as interesting.

Until next time, _WRS

Truth in 24: Audi and LeMans

Download this NOW! iTunes is currently offering the amazing Truth in 24 documentary for free, that's zero dollars and zero cents. Yes, a free download...You can't get a better deal, and you cannot wait another second. Download this and watch it, work be damned! It's so good, even people who don't care about sportscar racing enjoy it. Maybe this can be the long-lost link between your and your sweetheart for her (or him) to finally understand why you stay up for nearly a full day to watch "some car race" every June...

_WRS

H20 2005 Golf Rallye meet

These are from the 2005 H2O show in Ocean City, MD. For whatever reason, there were a surplus of Golf Rallyes there that year, and we shot a little 'get together' feature for Eurotuner Magazine. It was cool to see so many Rallyes together since they were never sold in the US, and there must have been a critical point that year with price/quality of used cars in Europe and crazy people in the US to import them. I'm not exactly sure how these cars get imported, but it has something to do with Canada and cars shipped without engines... certainly prohibitive enough to discourage everyone but the most dedicated. There have not been any more than one of these cars at any show since, so in hindsight this was a special moment to see these cars together.

We will do a full feature on the green NGP car at some point, it was a VR6 Turbo conversion, and with close to 600 horsepower at the wheels and 2000 lbs , was certainly one of the fastest cars I've been in.

_BS

Show Scene Flashback: Waterfest 1998

This may not be the typical subject matter here on the WRS, but I cannot deny my roots. I've been around the block for quite a few years now, and have quite a few stacks of photos (thanks to Blaksquirrel) to prove it. I am not really all that big on shows to be honest. For me a car sitting still in a field or a parking lot just doesn't do much for me. I can appreciate it sure, but give me a beat up, battle-scarred example over some trailer-queen show-mobile any day of the week.

The pics here are a few of the Mk3's from the Waterfest 1998 show. This one was at SUNY Purchase I think, but it's been so many years, I have to admit I can't quite remember. Enjoy the trip down memory lane...we'll have a lot more of these gems to post up if Blaksquirrel ever gets off his arse and contributes.

Until next time...

I have to confess. The much maligned G60 engine is actually one of my favorites from VW. It has a certain charm. Is it the unique sound from the blower? The underdog status? The cantankerous reputation? Maybe all of those things, but there's no denying that it does, when shown proper love and affection, have some bite to go with its bark.

There is probably no-one in the world better known for G60 performance than Jeroen Dik at JD Engineering. His Mk1 GTI was, and is, the stuff of legendary status. I'll post on that sometime later on, but the final spec of his car involved a motorsport gearbox, 16v head, custom plenum intake manifold with 8 injectors, and plenty of power. I can't recall what it made in final spec, and perhaps Jeroen himself may know that, but it was at least 360hp or so. The masterpiece:

The engine shown here was available for sale up until a few months ago, and it currently resides in the car featured here, a Seat Ibiza Cupra 16v. The video is a bit shakey (could have used a better mount in the cage), but it sounds awesome, and clearly has some power. My dream project is still a Mk1 G60. One day, one day...

_WRS

Random old school VW crash of the day: Alister McRae takes a tumble

Always good for a show, I'd say this one's a write off!

Where old Golf 3 kit cars go to die....Nurburgring?

I love the Golf 3. I own one, I've had more VW's from the Mk3 era (two 2.0 8v cars, one VR6) than any other VW model I've owned, and I feel they offer a certain something that you can only get from the Mk3 set up. The size and nimble characteristics of the Mk2 (they use the same exact chassis don't you know) along with a slightly larger interior and a little less tendency to rattle over every. single. bump. Yes my fabulous Mk3 GTI 8v rattles over every-other bump, thank you very much. But seriously, they offer that sorta-modern feel with that basic, non-computerized, non-airbag, fun feeling while behind the wheel.

My biggest problem with the Mk3 in the USA is that they never offered it with the ABF 16v. Sure the VR6 has a lot of potential with a turbo, but is is heavy, heavy, heavy. I'll take a slow 8v with sharper handling over a VR6 any day of the week, let me tell you. The ABF 16v has tons of potential, and from the dyno charts I've seen on the few ABF 16v swaps in America, they make almost as much power as the VR6 with significantly less weight. ABF = @ 140whp, VR6 = @ 148whp. That tells us that the 16v ABF is about 10 horsepower down at the crank (and underrated by VW) from the mighty VR6, and quite a few pounds lighter. So now you all know what to get me for Christmas next year.

But anyways. The Golf 3 kit car was always one of my favorites. With Alister McRae (brother to the late, great Colin) behind the wheel it may not have gotten many wins, but it was always worth a show. Here we see (what I assume) is an ex-"factory" Golf 3 16v at the Nurburgring 24 hours. Does a pretty good show of keeping up with some of the other faster machines too. I'll take mine in white please.

Before continuing on

Why not take a look at a VAG machine that WAS successful in Rally. The fearsome, awesome, insane, Group B Audi Quattro machines. Quite simply, these were one of a kind. Insanely powerful with their 5-cylinder turbocharged engines, barely controllable, with what may as well have been stone-age suspension, braking and safety equipment, and awe-inspiring, with their popping and hissing anti-lag systems. As we can see here, the driver's who got behind the wheel of a Group B machine may only be rivaled for the size of their driving cojones by those who got behind the wheel of the 254mph Porsche 917. That's another story though. Enjoy the spectacle and have a good weekend.

-WRS

Cool site to check out: VW Motorsport.com

I'm not alone in my quest to bring more VW Motorsport information to the forefront of the internet community. VW Motorsport.com is a great treasure trove of old school pics, new school info, and even the set up specs on various VW rally kit cars from the past. They are the source for that Rallye Golf video from a few days ago. Although I'm not nearly as in-depth as the VWMS site is (YET!) I hope to bring a bit more color commentary to the excellent stash of info they have available. Check it out for yourself, they've got some great stuff.

_WRS

The Golf Rallye, for better or for worse

The Golf Rallye. To many, one of the greatest Volkswagens ever to roll off the assembly line. It was intended to be the primary weapon in a full-on assault for Group A in the World Rally Championship, which was emerging as the leader of the pack from the ashes of the now-banned Group-B machines. Only 5,000 Rallye Golfs were made and sold in Europe, although they are less rare than some other models like our own Mk2 GTI 2.0 16v's sold here in 1991 and 1992, they have a certain something that makes them one of the most desirable VW's out there. On the street that may still be true, but racing was something else for the Rallye.

The real world of rally racing treated the latest and greatest from VW Motorsport with little respect, not that it earned any. Going with not only a smaller and less capable base motor with the 1764cc 8v was one thing, going with a complex and, let's face it, delicate supercharger is another. A friend of mine was on the UK works-supported team contesting the British Rally Championship at the time, and he said they changed chargers regularly, with a fresh one for every stage, and that it wasn't unusual for them to go up in the middle of a stage. It was, as team manager David Power told him at the time, the only rally car he had seen that had storage for willingly carrying extra weight. Spare tires and spare superchargers. Something's wrong when a crucial engine part won't make it a stage without expiring.

Internet rumours abound about exactly what the VW Motorsport crew did with the Rallye to make the power it did. It was quoted at making around 280hp in competition form, but if you've ever driven a Rallye Golf, even with a highly modified G60 under the hood, the result is a little underwhelming, and 280hp they do not make. With a highly modified charger, ported and polished intake and exhaust ports and big boost, most 8v G60 motors struggle to get above 250 crank horsepower. Stock G60's of course, make around 160hp to the crank.

Word on the street from those lucky enough to own genuine VWMS parts is that there was some trickery with part numbers on things like cams, heads and the like. Bigger exhaust valves and noticeably different port shaping on the heads, more aggressive camshafts, you name it. My source said they never even got far enough into development to think about power, and were mainly concerned about making the cars reliable, which never happened. The superchargers, hand picked for the best and cleanest casings, were over-driven beyond belief. A super-small 48mm cogged pulley was mated to a toothed belt, which had the delicate magnesium displacer grinding itself away with every redline shift. As mentioned before, spare chargers with quick-change oil fittings were carried in the cars on stages, and probably were swapped more than punctured tires. Crazy.

The entire program, as my source said, was far from ideal. "The whole programme was a disaster. The cars were expensive to run and not fast enough. The Syncro system wasn’t ideal for rallying and the g-lader was too fragile for competition. However, VW was adamant it had a competitive package and never made the necessary changes to keep them competitive."

Indeed. So goes part one. We'll take a closer look at the two main problems with the Rallye -the Syncro AWD system and the infamous G-lader- in the next installment.

_WRS

just plain serious

I've been away for a few days so I haven't had time to finish up my grand Rallye Golf post, but in the meantime check out this awesome pic, thanks to Speedhunters. Great website, I highly recommend checking it out. Check out the full size pic and wallpaper sized image at the Speedhunters site. From left to right, the Audi R8 'LM' GT3 racecar, the Audi R15 TDi and the Audi A4 DTM race car.

Continuing the Rallye Golf Theme

Something to post until I work my way up to the proper story which covers some of the more in-depth aspects of the Rallye Golf. Vintage VW Motorsport preparation, Rallye Golf water splash. Unfortunately there is little to no video of the Rallye in action on a BRC stage or otherwise. They just never made it far enough into an event I suppose.

Up Next: The Golf Rallye

The Mk2 Golf Rallye never made a big splash in the world of motorsport when it was first introduced. It had potential, but it had a problem with reliability like no other racecar I can think of. More of that in posts to come.

In this clip (one of my favorites) you can see that a Works Rallye can be a fast and capable machine, but perhaps it is best suited to hill climb events like the one shown here, rather than open rally stages. I don't know if this is a standard 8v G60, or if it has been converted into a 16v, -the power difference between the two heads is around 100hp when fully optimized- but it sounds glorious none the less!

Random old school VW crash of the day: Sony Manx, British Rally Championship

Back in the early 00's VW did a fairly decent job with the Golf Mk4 kit cars. These were high tech enough...270hp 2.0 16v, wide track, sequential transmission, the usual, but they couldn't quite put it together in terms of pace and reliability. They looked amazing, and up until recently you could still source the parts at Bildon Motorsport. Crashes like this one on the 2000 Sony Manx Rally, with Mark Higgins is at the wheel, didn't help matters much. The TDi Rally car which came after this petrol-powered version did a bit better, but ultimately VW has never made a machine which is considered a rally classic, like Ford, Subaru, Toyota or Mitsubishi. But it didn't always have to be like that. There was one car which could have changed everything, but we'll have more on that later...

Random old school VW crash of the day

I remember seeing this video for the first time back around 2002 or so. Guess there is something to be said for tires that have just a BIT too much grip in them, stock suspension, and getting it wrong in a big way. From the looks of the heap after it's done rolling I'd say the driver was lucky he had a helmet on, I can't tell if it had a full rollcage but I'd say it at least has a 4-point bar. Not pretty, but it's an honorable way for a good Volkswagen to die.

PS: That website isn't around anymore, just letting you know before you go checking for more footage of this.

Scirocco GT24, while we're on the subject

I can't tell you how pleased I am to finally have a Volkswagen racer as successful at its task as the the Scirocco GT24. A superb performance on all accounts, both in the preparation of the cars and the performance of the drivers. Of course, when you have the one and only Hans-Joachim Stuck on your team at the 'Ring, the driving talent equation is not in doubt.
-
It's been a long time coming too. Too often Volkswagen seems content to allow the Audi brand to take the glory and the racing budget, leaving the flagship brand -for me anyway- drifting in the wind with semi-obscure Rally machines. Either entry level Super 1600 machines like the Polo kit car, or completely off the chart desert racers like the Touareg, which has little to do with the production model. Not that I don't love the Polo rally cars, but where was the GT3 for us VW fans? Where was the link between the track and the street? Finally it is here.

The Scirocco GT24 is a purpose built, no expense spared racecar, don't doubt that for a second, but the base car and its key components are essentially what you get with a new VW GTI. 2.0t TSi engine, DSG transmission, the works. The fact that they chose a DSG transmission and even more so the fact that all three cars not only finished the race, but claimed the top two spots in class really proves that when they put their mind to it, VW can go racing as well as anybody.

Sure it has a carbon fiber body, massive 362mm, 6-piston front brakes, an upgraded clutch package and limited slip differential to cope with increased output of 325hp and 296lb/ft of torque, and so on, but the DNA is there. It's the same uni-body construction, plus you can get most all of those upgraded items in the aftermarket. It feels good. Should you chose to upgrade your own VW 2.0t, you can even buy the same fuel pump used on the GT24 from APR here in the USA. No joke!

The only thing that would make me happier would be for VW to keep these cars in action and race them in a series. Preferably over here in the states. Granted, in this economy that may be asking a bit much, but a man can dream.

Also, VW, please sell this car in the USA. I've heard about the 20R model in the works. All wheel drive, DSG, S3 motor (same as the one used at the ring!). That would be enough for me to sell off my first born to get one on order.

As a bonus, check out this uber-cool clip from sportbilen.com of in-car footage at Sturup raceway in Sweden. In the rain no less!

first post, a greeting

It occurs to me that much like Volkswagen's somewhat spotty and inconsistent racing history, there is a real lack of quality, interesting, motorsport oriented content on the web relating specifically to VW. Sure it's out there, spread across the Internet in bits and bytes, but it's not in a place that's easy to navigate, easy to read, and perhaps most importantly, interesting to read. With VW's success at the Nurburgring 24 hours with their three Scirocco GT24 race cars, along with some wistful memories of VW's past motorsport endeavors (or near misses) I figured why not. I love VW's, I love motorsport, and I don't see enough coverage out there. Sure I love a slammed GTI with pulled and stretched tires, as long as it's not on air-ride of course, but you don't need the flash when you've got it where it counts. On the track, trail, whatever. So welcome aboard. Join me as we look back into the vaults and look to the future of Volkswagen Racing.

_WolfsburgRS