VW Sport Caravan GTI (Part 5, The supposed truth is revealed and what do we do now)

The VW Sport Caravan GTI. Ever since it popped up onto Bring a Trailer it has been shrouded in mystery. Or perhaps more accurately, it wasn't as mysterious as it was that barely anyone knew anything about it. All that we had to go on was the following:

1. The GTI was used on the 1985 VW Sport Caravan, a traveling example of sporting VWs put on display at motorsport events.
2. It was painted in VW Sport graphics, along with logos (and a build tag) for a company named Portland Racing. Google revealed absolutely nothing about Portland Racing.
3. It may or may not have been built from a spare IMSA ProFormance shell that Portland Racing ran in 1985, for a driver named Eric Randoph.
4. Eric's name also adorned the roof of the GTI. Google turns up nothing on Eric Randolph.
5. The car had big, wide fenders similar to what a GTU class car would have been allowed, but VW did not run GTU in 1985. It may have been a GTU concept.
6. The GTI had never seen the track.
7. The GTI came from VW and was gifted to a rally driver in 1991, Mark Molner.
8. Mark never used the car as he retired from driving after a bad accident, and it sat on a trailer in Ohio until it was sold off in 2002.
9. The current owner had plans to restore it at various times, but decided to sell it as he has too many other projects and not enough time.
10. Literally no other pictures, information or memories could be found, discovered or dislodged about the car, Portland Racing, Eric Randolph, or the 1985 VW Sport Caravan itself. Not a shred.

After Mark Windecker came up with another Portland Racing GTI picture, and a new name to search, we scored. David Rugh emailed us back, and he confirmed he built the Caravan GTI. Paydirt. But what he had to say makes this GTI both more significant and less useful all at the same time. Time to share.


First and foremost, I'd like to thank David for his time and responding to the questions I sent over. David us a hardcore race driver and race car builder, and like many racers, he's a little bit cagey and more than a little brief when it comes to specifics about much of anything. David has been racing since 1968 and is quite accomplished as both a driver and builder; particularly with Alfa Romeo. His company Rugh Engineering makes bodywork, springs, and does full builds and preparation, from what I can gather online. Our exchange was for the most part, brief and quite devoid of color commentary. So before we jump into the specifics on the Caravan GTI, let's talk about what David told us about Portland Racing.

Photo copyright / courtesy of Mark Windecker.

Portland Racing was based in Portland Oregon, and campaigned VWs on a limited schedule from approximately1981 until 1986. David began racing VWs in the SCCA because Volkswagen offered contingency prize money to winners. Eric Randolph was the primary financial backer for the effort, along with limited support from VW Sport. Nearly everything was handled in-house, with very little of the build farmed out.

Photo copyright / courtesy of Mark Windecker.

A total of five cars were built during this time, with one being totaled, two sold off to Mexico, one currently in storage, and his current VW race car, which is now an SCCA tube-frame GT3 Corrado with 2.0 8v power. If you want to take a look at David's Corrado check out this photo (it has wheel fans!) from the 2004 SCCA Runoffs, where he placed 3rd in GT3. For those that don't know, that is a very impressive feat. Check out the Sports Car Club of America site for more about the Runoffs.

Portland Racing officially shut down in 1986 when Eric Randolph ended his funding. David continued running a Mk2 GTI in 1987 as an independent, and that same year earned his best result with a Portland-built GTI with a 3rd at Portland International Raceway.

Photo copyright / courtesy of Mark Windecker.

I asked about some of the more specific modifications done to their IMSA RS / Champion Spark Plug Challenge cars, and to most of those questions the answer was simply, 'IMSA regulations.' Fair enough, I've gotten some pretty funny looks when asking drag racers what kind of horsepower they're making, so it's not unusual to get this sort of response from real racers regarding chassis mods and suspension work. To a real racer, bragging about horsepower numbers is foolish because ultimately you don't want anyone to know much about your car...bragging is for show offs that can't get it done on the track. Let the results speak for themselves.

At any rate David did mention that at most they made around 180 horsepower, and the GTIs were a little under-powered for the weight they were required to run. Mazda, and later Acura, provided the toughest competition in the class. So what is the Caravan GTI?



From what we were told it's not a race car. What it is however, is the car which was used to introduce the Mk2 Golf to the USA market. Then-president of Volkswagen of America, Jim Fuller, had commissioned the build and the legendary Joe Hoppen was the point of contact for David. VW had no specific input or instruction about the car, simply the color that it should be painted. Jim Fuller then rode in the car through a pyrotechnic display to center stage at the press event. The car was equipped with what David said was, "Stock engine with very rich carburetor, very hot plugs, and megaphone exhaust to make it loud and lumpy."



This of course all makes some sense after our dissection of the car in previous posts. It was pretty clear that the car had never seen the track and was still equipped with mostly stock running gear. Since Fuller rode in the car to center stage, that would explain why it is missing a door bar on that side. After all, you can't have the head of Volkswagen of America climbing over a roll cage to introduce the A2 Golf and GTI to America.



I was surprised to learn that those flares are hand-made one-offs, built by David and Portland Racing strictly for this car. And that paint work? All done by David as well. When asked about the differences between the Caravan GTI and his real race cars, David simply said, "Everything".

Everything indeed. So it turns out that the Caravan GTI might not be all what we thought it to be or what we hoped it might be, at least so far. It's less than it was in that way, but yet more important at the same time. Either way it is still a piece of history.



It is physical evidence, along with The Screaming Yellow Zonker and perhaps a few others, of what Jim Fuller envisioned for Volkswagen in the United States. It is evidence of what could have been, for it is Fuller whom we have to thank for the USA ever getting the Mk1 Rabbit GTI in the first place. Fuller was a strong proponent of sporting VWs, and in fact bringing the Rallye Golf into the states was one of his priority projects which was nearly seen to completion.




Unfortunately Fuller, along with his vision for VW of America, the USA Rallye Golf, and everyone and everything else died on Pan Am flight 103 on a cold December day in 1988. It's nearly impossible to overstate how big of a blow Fuller's death was to Volkswagen. Fuller, along with Marketing Director Lou Mareng, were both key people inside VW of America and it took many years for the now-rudderless entity to get itself back on track.



Presumably the Caravan GTI, having carried Fuller to center stage for the launch of the Mk2 in the USA, lived the rest of its days on the VW Sport Caravan tour before ending up in storage at Volkswagen of America. With Fuller's death and Joe Hoppen's retirement not long after, it is not difficult to see how this car would have been stuffed into a corner with any of the other remnants of Fuller's ambitions; the car's true purpose long forgotten.



So there we have the supposed true story of the Caravan GTI, for better or for worse. Certainly Alan, Josh and myself are all quite disappointed, but we're still a little unconvinced that we've gotten all the facts on this car. For example, why would a company which already has the materials and measurements done for a roll cage change out the materials or use different measurements, when this car and the IMSA RS cars were being built at the same time? Why put in a door bar on the passenger side and then cut it out for show purposes? Why weld in plate anchors for the cage? Why put in a seat anchor?



As of right now the final fate of the Caravan GTI has yet to be determined. There are still too many unanswered questions to give up just yet. We're doing some additional investigation work to try and find out more on the car, and we will get the cage inspected for material type and strength. We're meeting tomorrow to decide what to do, but if you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

_WRS