VW Sport IMSA GTI (Part 3, Inspection of a factory racer)

When we last left off with our VW Sport IMSA GTI Bring a Trailer score, we had just gotten back from picking it up from the previous owner, and narrowly missed possible (near?) disaster thanks to a rather intense lake-effect snow storm. Although we had certainly inspected the car before signing off on the bill of sale and loading up, it wasn't exactly the best situation for rumination on the finer points of the car.



I mean sure it all checked out. The car was clearly a one-of-a-kind. But what exactly did we get? The ad on BaT as well as any other information we've scrounged has said that it was a spare car built into an IMSA GTU class car, or perhaps was more a concept than race car. One thing's for sure: It's an odd and completely original piece of the Volkswagen motorsport history in the United States. Let's take a look inside to what Portland Racing has done shall we?



The chassis

 

Not a GTI as a matter of fact. The VW Sport IMSA GTI started life as a lowly white Golf before it was converted into the wide-body muscle car that it appeared to be. It's a non-sunroof car, which is great, and surprisingly most if not all chassis components appear to be stock. Stock brakes, stock suspension pieces, stock shocks, stock springs and stock everything else you can think of. It even has power steering.

 

Steering racks, suspension components and the like can all easily be replaced in an afternoon, the unibody itself cannot, and that is where all of the real preparation has gone into the IMSA GTI. The cage of course is the primary piece.



All tubing appears to be chromoly, although we are going to get it inspected to be sure before hitting the track. Welds are pretty clean, and the cage ties in at four points to plates which have been added to the chassis, twice at the rear strut towers, plus a cross-bar for seat bracing.





The cage is far from elaborate but it's nicely finished and appears to be in good overall condition. The general consensus from those who are more knowledgeable than myself say that the design, materials, and general level of protection fit the time period in which the car was first constructed.

 



The one problem is a missing door-bar on the passenger side which curiously appears to have been a bolt-in piece. No problem, we've got a shop next door to NGP that does cages and chassis work for 6-second NHRA drag cars. I don't think our little door bar will amount to much of a challenge.



The engine / drivetrain

 

More questions than answers. I didn't pull the intake or exhaust manifolds to check the porting of the head, but the valve cover was easy to pop off and revealed a very new, very mild looking camshaft. Judging from the lobes it's a stock piece and doesn't have much overlap. Not a race cam, and not a single mark or discoloration on it anywhere. From that I'd say it's never been turned over in its life, let alone turned a lap in anger with hot oil. All wiring has been replaced with the bare minimum and not a shred of the factory harness remains.

The exhaust manifold is stock, and it has the no-good single downpipe which came on all the Mk2 cars at that time too, but the intake manifold is far from original. It's a carburetor manifold, and is matched to what I can only assume is a 40 Dell'Orto DCOE carb. Nothing is mounted up and it's odd to find a carb on car that was originally mechanically fuel injected, but from what I've read carburetors were actually a requirement for GTU racing at the time; no fuel injection was allowed. The transmission also remains a mystery since it has yet to be cracked open, but my guess is that it will be original. Disappointing perhaps, but just a drivetrain swap away from significantly more power, and since we're going to be building up a new motor anyway, this shouldn't cause any significant delays.

The body 





Wow. It's wide. And man are those fenders nice.



In all honesty I have never seen such good fiberglass work.  Both front and rear are designed to fit exactly to the countours of the Mk2's rather angular body.







There are no chips, no bits of rubber, no holes, dings or any other evidence of damage which further confirms that this car never saw the track.



The rear fenders have been cut away and treated and wrapped with fiberglass to prevent corrosion. Speaking of which, there is very little. Some mild surface rust is about it, and even that is scarce. The fit, finish and quality of the fenders is simply unbelievable, which is a problem, because...



The Paint

 

Almost all of the graphics are painted onto the car. Hand. Painted.



The BBS, Bosch, Goodyear and various window decals are obviously stickers, but the every other logo or graphic is painted on. Every line, every pinstripe. It's amazing, and it would be impossible to replicate for anything other than a small fortune I would imagine.



 

The wheels



Magnesium centered BBS racing wheels. 13x8" or maybe 13x8.5", low offset. Works of art. What more is there to say?





The Interior 



Finally there is the interior. As you can see from the cage pics there's not much left. It's been fully stripped, with a neat little dash pod consisting of mechanical oil pressure, water temperature and tachometer. The dash pod is mounted to a support which is welded to the roll cage.





All wiring has been replaced and is pretty much bare-bones. Everything is neat and tidy. It's simple, but shows that a lot of thought has gone into the car's build. The floors are smooth and show no signs of having been taken off road, with little to no rust or corrosion, certainly nothing significant.



The original fiberglass shell Corbeau GT seat is still with the car, and will probably be recovered and reused. I want to run a modern seat with better bracing and stronger seat brackets while Alan wants to run the car exactly as it was intended, but it has yet to be decided for sure.



The final piece is the dash plaque: 'Built for Volkswagen by Portland Racing, Inc' Awesome.



All in all, the IMSA GTI has shown that it is indeed an amazing find. It is 100% original, and we've got every single part from way back in 1985 except for one thing,. The tires. Nothing else is missing.

Even more so it's in excellent overall condition for a race car that is not only 26+ years old, but has been sitting outside with minimal protection for the last 20 of those years. We've still got more questions than answers at this point, but we're hoping that as word spreads additional pictures, stories and pieces of history can be put together to tell the whole story.

For part four we'll begin detailing our plans for the revival of the IMSA GTI. We have a goal of having her back on the track in early 2012, so we don't have too much time to waste.

Check out our relevant posts to the IMSA GTI here.

If you have any information about the IMSA GTI which you would like to share: Pictures, stories, history, heck, if you BUILT it, please get in touch with us. We're looking to compile every shred that we can. 

_WRS