Pic Post: The Gold Cup Historics at VIR

A few weeks back I made the trek down to southernmost Virginia - and the classic track that is Virginia International Raceway - for the Heacock Classic Gold Cup Historics. It was my first time to the once abandoned, now re-opened circuit, and I have to say I came away thoroughly impressed. It very much has the vibe and layout of an old-school track. It reminds me a little of Lime Rock but it's significantly longer with a lot more elevation change. It's awesome.


 

It has been a very busy last few months, and with VIR lying about a five hour drive it made for a very early morning on Saturday. And with temperatures dropping into the 30s overnight, it made for a very cold sleep in the trailer. It was all well worth it. The chance to help out Alan and get my feet wet for 2012 with the IMSA GTI was fantastic, and it left me really looking forward to next year...

Full selection of pictures after the jump...

Pic Post: Mini in Virginia

It's not everyday that you see a beautiful Mini in America. It's even less likely to find one having just rolled out from a heavy-duty truck repair shop, owned by the shop's painter, but that's the beauty of the automobile. The most unlikely of individuals can become a dyed in the wool fanatic. This is one of several Minis which the painter owns, and he's as hardcore as anybody I've met when it comes to his cars. 

More pics after the jump...

Pic Post: From the Handbook

So I received that 'VW Motorsports Handbook' that I found on eBay, and have put together this little combination of scans from the 8-page booklet. I'll do a full post on what it covers inside, but I thought it was very cool to not only find this oddball piece of VW Sport history in the USA, but to find it in such good condition. The thing is mint!

Although there is now not a shred of doubt about the Caravan GTI being an official Volkswagen car, and the car we have in our possession being the same car pictured here, it is curious that it does appear slightly different in these pictures. Sure, the wheels, fenders, graphics, instrument cluster and everything are the same. But there is no giant 'Portland Racing' painted down the side and it has some additional stickers not seen in any other images, that we have seen thus-far. Those include additional Valvoline stickers on the front fenders and rear valance and Schrick stickers, also up on the fenders. Stickers are no big deal as they are easily added or removed, but it's odd that there is not a trace of these on the car as it sits now. Curiously, there are two race seats in one shot, only one race seat in other shots. Why go through the trouble of putting seats in and out for different pictures? Makes no sense.

Full scans of the VW Motorsports Handbook tomorrow!

_WRS

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.

Introducing: The VW Sport IMSA GTI (Part 1: discovery, research and acquisition)

"Hey, you might want to check your email...Alan sent a link for a GTI listed over on Bring a Trailer. It looks pretty cool." These are the words that I heard from my brother Josh when I answered my phone early one Friday morning; February 4th to be exact. I hadn't checked my email yet, as there are very few things I ever do in the morning before drinking some coffee, but the urgency in Josh's voice prompted me to, and boy am I glad that I did. Alan's email was brief and to the point. A link, and the text, "Seriously let's get it."

Sebring 2010 - Day one, part two (SVRA Enduro)

One of the more interesting aspects of attending a full weekend of racing at the track, rather than just going for the main event, is that there is often some sort of vintage racing event going on. Sebring was no different, and there were a few races sanctioned by the SVRA (Sportscar Vintage Racing Association) that we got to check out.



Vintage racing is something that I am only recently becoming interested in. Originally it was because of simple association - 'Let's go to Lime Rock because Alan is running his MG.' - and now because of keen interest. Quite simply, you will see any and all manner of cars and drivers on the track at a vintage race.



Some cars are very old, some not so much, some are blazing fast and some are so slow you have to wonder if your car out in the parking lot would do better, but they are all interesting in their own way. Similarly some drivers are very much in it to win it, as the saying goes, while others are just enjoying their weekend and having a bit of fun.





Perhaps one of the coolest elements is the huge disparity between the cars. GTP, Trans Am, American muscle and German flat six are all going head to head, with some surprising results on occasion.





This Corvette, for example, was an absolute monster on the track. It managed to make the GT2 cars which are currently being run by the General look a bit slow and tame. There was also a 90s Trans Am series Camaro which was equally impressive, but I failed to get any decent pictures of it.





As per usual, there were multiple Porsches on hand. Here we had everything from late 60s up to a 2003 GT3R. Josh and I were particularly excited to see the GT3R, as it is an ex-Hazardous Sports unit, and still sports sponsorship decals from when it was last run professionally, at Sebring back in 2005.



Robert from Lufteknic supported the team that year, and it was really something to see this car in the flesh, running at Sebring, and with the Lufteknic decals still displayed proudly on the front fenders.



Sadly it did not last the whole one-hour event...a fuel pump is said to have gone down, and rather than risk a blown motor (not cheap) it was retired. More pics of this car in the future...



This little car is definitely one to file under 'huh?' Powered by Ford, and about a million miles from the ground effects, fully enclosed prototype Mazda Kudzu GTP Lite car, which was on the track at the same time.





Yes, this is a Pinto. F-Troop is one of the legendary Sebring camps. We'll have a closer look at some of those in a few days...



This little Datsun 510 was super cool. In my lottery-winner dreams I would defintiely consider adding one of these to the garage.



Flames on overrun...going into the hairpin, BMW CSL Turbo.



I believe this is called a Nimrod. Really. I can't say for sure why it's called that, but it was loud, V8 powered, and had some serious speed. It's from the 60s and looks it, like the sort of car that will take your life if you're not careful.



Did I mention that you can get quite close to the track at Sebring? This is very much an old school track with regards to safety!



Often times the vintage events end up being as much fun as the main attraction. Everyone in the vintage world, it seems, is there to have some fun and get together over a mutual love of the automobile, and that infectious enthusiasm is hard to ignore.



So ends our look at the vintage race at Sebring, and tomorrow we'll look at day two (Friday) for qualifying and some Patron Challenge (Porsche) action. For the full sized versions of these, and MANY more, check out Sebring SVRA Set on Flickr.

_WRS

Pic post: (A recommendation)

So I've been dipping into the old-school sports car stuff pretty hard lately. With big things happening in the ALMS, I've been reflecting back on the past as a way to look towards the future, and next season..if that makes any sense. Does it? Maybe not. Anyway, google is our friend in all these things, and it seems like more and more great stuff can turn up with each search. It boggles the mind to think none of this content, or at least very little of it, would have ever seen the light of day had the internet not become as easy and accessible as it is.

For those who have either been reading for a while, or have been kind enough to check the back catalog here at Der Wolfsburg Rennsport, you may recall when we visited the BMW Art Cars while they were here in NYC. I've looked for video of those cars, pictures in action at Le Mans, all that stuff, and it's usually hard to find decent ones. They are out there, but not as easy to find as you might think. Well thanks to JCC Photos we have those images. Now...I would post them up, but I can't link to them (all rights reserved and all that) and well, I don't blame the guy. He has some pretty amazing shots, pretty much all the the 24 hours of Le Mans. So go check em out, I can't say I've ever seen such a complete collection anywhere else...

JCC Photos Le Mans Collection

_WRS

Interesting find - The World of Automobiles: An illustrated Encyclopedia of the Motor Car

The weather is absolutely horrible in NYC today. It's cold enough and windy enough to make the constant gray drizzle feel like shards of glass hitting your skin, but it's not cold enough to actually snow. Days like this make warm summer days, or even rainy spring days seem like heaven on earth. Anyways, weather aside Melody and I decided to drive to this vintage store a few blocks over since walking seemed like a poor choice, especially when one has a car at their disposal. It turned out to be the right choice, as I scored some amazing books for a mere $2 each and carrying them back would have destroyed both the books and my good mood.

The series is called The World of Automobiles: An illustrated Encyclopedia of the Motor Car
, and I snagged everything they had at the shop, 8 of the 22 volume set. It was published in 1977, and covers the absolute widest range of topics you can imagine. Some of it is very mundane, such as how a water pump works, to very detailed and in-depth technical features on the top race cars of the 60s and 70s. Added to that are driver details, brand histories and everything in between. I'd never seen or heard of this series before, but it looks like I may have to start tracking down the remaining 14 volumes to make my collection complete. As a fan of pretty much all things automotive, it's quite an intriguing find. If you see it anywhere, take a peek, I'm sure you'll find it as fascinating as I have.

_WRS

The final round from Watkins Glen: Best of the rest

We're finally in the home stretch of coverage from our one-day blitz to Watkins Glen, and it strikes me that I took pretty much no pictures of VWs. Mainly because there were none on the track, and that's where my main focus was. Josh did take some, so maybe he can log in and share, because there were more mint condition Scirocco 1s than I have ever seen, anywhere. All driven by guys who were probably original owners to boot. So Josh, any pics to share?

One of the main reasons we drove over 10 hours in one day was to go cheer on a friend of ours who was racing that weekend. Alan campaigns an MGB and does quite a bit of racing on the vintage circuit. I don't know the exact specs on the car, but I can tell you it's about a 1.6, makes good power and really sounds great running around the circuit.

Better still it looks great. After all let's face it, a race car should be fast, but it should also look great doing that. And lest you think vintage means slow or not exciting, you're 100% mistaken, for many competitors really let it all hang out from start to finish, which makes for a very exciting, and enjoyable day.

Although the races are short, vintage events are really worth checking out. Not only do you get to see an incredible array of rare street vehicles parked in and around the paddock, you get to see the whole of motorsport before it became as sterile as it sometimes seems today.

Big, loud and insanely fast American V8s thundering around in lightweight Lola chassis. Trans Am Mustangs, Camaros and Corvettes, Porsches of all shapes and sizes, and pretty much anything else you can think of. From championship winning 914-6 Porsches to ex-NASCAR tube frame monsters.


The WRS MK5 project did quite well on the drive up and back, providing smooth transport to weary travelers, and it got a bit of attention in the pits as well.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled programming soon....H2O International is just over week away! Needless to say there are a TON of additional pics, in much larger sizes, over on the Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr page.

_WRS

Tomorrow: U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen

Just a heads up for anyone in the greater N.Y. / Pennsylvania area, the U.S. Vintage Grand Prix is this weekend at Watkins Glen. Blaksquirrel and I are headed up super early tomorrow morning and I hope to have some great photos to share of cars like this wild Lotus...if you haven't been to a vintage race I highly recommend it. It's really an experience to see these cars of yesteryear being hustled around a track at top speed. Very much worth the effort and entry fee...see you there!

_WRS