Pic Post: Bill Scott / Milt Minter Trans Am Scirocco

Years ago, VW ran a pair of Sciroccos in the Trans Am series and, on occasion, in IMSA. They were driven by Bill Scott (42) and Milt Minter (43) and were a really something else, even running in the 12 hours of Sebring in the late 70s. I wonder where they are now? I did a little poking around, and it would seem that one of the cars (42) was written off, perhaps at Sebring as they are listed as not finishing, but the #43 car may still be floating around. Some say it made it's way to a VW museum, but one would assume that there would be at least one picture of it from the recent past, rather than the ancient past.



If it is at a VW museum, it's probably in storage. From what I have read these two cars basically ran Super Vee motors. Pretty much a classic 4-cylinder VW engine, built by Bertils: 1600cc, 8 valves, carb'd, dry sumped, and reving to 10k RPM and making over 180hp (depending on where you're reading the info.) It's a shame these older VWs haven't been preserved as well as some of the more expensive cars of their day....but then I suppose there weren't as many to start with.

Pic Credits: Unknown

_WRS

Video Post: In-car from Watkins Glen with Josh Hurley (APR)

I'd like to apologize for my super slacking of updates about the APR gang and their efforts in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. It's not for lack of caring, mainly just lack of time. (and let's face it, the Le Mans 24 is going to take pretty much any and all focus that I can muster from initial testing and practice, until that checker flag drops on Sunday afternoon.)

APR has not had the break-out year they were likely hoping to have, or continue, after numurous successes last year. Like so many other series, it would seem that legislation which puts turbo motors at a disadvantage has continued to keep the GTIs down on power in ST, and combined with bad luck it's been enough to keep them out of the winner's circle. There have finally been some podium appearances however, so it's not all for naught.

Lime Rock Park saw the 181 car combo of Hurley / Stadtlander just get nudged out of a podium spot, with a 4th place result, but the following weekend at Watkins Glen they managed 3rd in class after having lead for a good portion of time.


This weekend the CTSCC teams are at Mid-Ohio Sports Car course, and it's not looking good so far. Of all four APR cars, only two show up on the qualifying sheets, and only one of those is actually locked into a position, with the #171 Mk5 GTI (now piloted by Baas / Halpin) coming into 24th position and the 181 as not having a qualifying time. It would appear that the #01 S4 (and #91 Mk6) has been put on the shelf for the time being. I'll try and find out a little bit about that, but I suppose the effort of fielding a full 4 cars, in two classes has proven to be more than the APR team can muster, at least for now.

The race is scheduled for 1:15pm start tomorrow, EST.

_WRS

Quick Pic - The art of the sale

So you're a semi-rich dude, and you've got one of your Porsches for sale. Sadly, it has to go. Maybe you're getting divorced, maybe you're making room for something else in the collection, or maybe you've decided that 17 cars is just too many, and 16 is a much more appropriate number. The problem is, how do you draw attention to it? After all, you're going to be one of many people trying to get attention at this weekend's vintage motorsport event. Why, I know how! I'll put the for sale sign on the Scirocco! They'll walk over thinking this pristine example is up for grabs, only to realize it's the red 356 sitting next to it which is on sale. BRILLIANT!

Seriously, that's what was going on in this pic...nothing like using your Scirocco to draw attention to your Porsche. Smart man. This VW Camper with the R. Crumb spare tire cover was pretty epic too.

I'm about 99% sure these fans were also responsible for the Camel GT banner which was up across from their campsite. In retrospect I should have stopped by and introduced myself.


_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

Group 44 Jaguar XJR-5 at Watkins Glen

The 962 which I wrote about yesterday was not the only GTP machine at the event, but it was the only one which took to the track. The first GTP which I laid eyes upon, and made a mad-dash to go check out, was this Group 44 Jaguar XJR-5. This rather fascinating beast was beyond immaculate, and it was quite obvious this car spends it's time being pampered rather than spanked on a race track.


I'm a little torn about that fact, as I mentioned yesterday, I prefer a car on the track as opposed to the garage, and it seems a shame for this american-built chassis with its V12 British heart to not be put to good use. That said, if I owned a Le Mans class-winning car I might not be too eager to write it off just trying to have some fun. This car, running the #04 (all the Group 44 machines ran with 40, 44 or 04) was actually chassis number 008, out of ten total built. I'd like to say that if I ran a race team, all my cars would be 05 or 55, so any sponsors who want to get on board should get used to it. Just saying.


Group 44 was an American team headed up by Bob Tullius, a man passionate about his British sports cars, and who was almost single-handedly responsible for bringing Jaguar back to Le Mans, and sports car racing in general. It's a fascinating story, and one well worth reading about. check it out on Ultimate Car Page.

So as the story goes, I happened to be wasting time on GrandTouringPrototype.com earlier, and was very pleased to see they had the video from the Daytona 3 hour Finale of 1986 posted up. It was complete and random chance that I noticed this, and it just so happens this race was the final win for Bob Tullius and the Group 44 Jaguar. So set aside some time, sit back and enjoy some great racing. I couldn't figure out if chassis 008 was being raced at Daytona, but it doesn't really matter...just listen to that engine screaming around the banks and don't worry about anything else. Larger pics over at the WRS Flickr Page.

_WRS

GTP: 1986 Daytona Finale IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt1 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: 1986 Daytona Finale IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt2 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

Feature: Porsche 962 GTP

The Porsche 962 is arguably the most iconic and most successful sports prototype car of all time. Its successes, which stretched years beyond what anyone would have ever expected, are numerous and likely never to be equaled. Perhaps what's most impressive is that the 962, like the 956 before it, was not just successful in the hands of the factory. After all it's one thing for a factory, with their seemingly bottomless pockets, to bring a car into the winner's circle time after time. It's an entirely different thing for a private team to take a turn-key race car and do the same thing. With the 962, this was possible.

There's obviously been quite a bit written about the 962 over the years, and there is not honestly that much that I have to offer on the subject. I have some inside connections to be sure, but there are those much more well connected and in the know than I. Still, when I was at Watkins Glen for the U.S. Vintage Grand Prix this past weekend I couldn't help but be taken with the lone Porsche supercar on hand. I had to take pics, I had to inspect it up close, and naturally, had to talk about it.

Although the car was stated to be a 1985 962, I had a bit of a hard time figuring out exactly which car this was. Clad in the legendary orange Jagermeister colours, it would appear to be one of the ex-Brun team cars. The bodywork however is late-model 962C spec, with a short tail and separate rear wing, and it was running a single turbo GTP spec motor. I did some internet sleuthing and managed to track down the beast's origins. First I stumbled upon a mention of the car having no racing history on URY914's Flickr account. (which has an AMAZING cache of vintage GTP pictures by the way) A few more google searches, based on the name B. Hawe residing on the side of the car, turned up the chassis designation 962 AR-1, which is not on any of the official 962 chassis lists out there, and finally brought me to yet another Flickr page, which finally had the full story.

Apparently this car was built from a spare tub back in 1996 by Kevin Jeannette from Gunnar Racing. The car was to be put on the street but was ultimately sold as a vintage racer, wrecked, purchased by Bill Hawe, and finally rebuilt once again with a 3.0 flat six made to IMSA GTP spec.

So maybe the car doesn't have any racing provenance, but that's really neither here nor there when it comes down to it. To have a proper 962 being used as it was intended, on a track, at speed, rather than sitting in some dark, grim warehouse somewhere, hidden away from the world. Clearly I'm not the only person who feels this way. I bet this vintage Camel GT banner has been proudly displayed every year since the lucky owner decided to rip it down off of some fence back in the 1980s....

More to come from The Glen, including many more Porsches, a historic Jaguar GTP car (which did not take to the track) and a smattering of old VW's. If anyone out there thought pristine condition Scirocco 1's were hard to fine, you clearly haven't been to a vintage race in the northeast.

Check out the full selection of 962 pictures over at the Wolfsburg RS Flickr page. On a side note, I've updated my copyright license so now you can actually see the full sized larger images. Took me a while, but I finally figured that one out.

_WRS

Wolfsburg RS Flickr page

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