Scirocco Madness: Continued

So after a good night's sleep, I'm thinking we can continue with this project idea. In order to make it official, I decided to come up with some sort of a graphic. Doing this I learned two things:

One. I am just not very good at coming up with logos and making things flashy in Photoshop. I can get by, but don't knowt quite enough to make it interesting. So for right now this will have to do. I will be commissioning Blaksquirrel to come up with something better in the near future.

Two. I was reminded of the other big reason I was swayed more in the "pro" direction of this project, rather than the "Con." This is a non sun-roof car. I'm not a fan of sun roofs in general. All they do is leak and add extra weight, so I figure this is an ideal shell, even more so than most that you see.

Anyways, here's a picture of one possible direction we may go in. Stripped down, very basic, very low. As I mentioned in the comments section of the last post the car is going to be resprayed. The colors chosen for my stank-a-dank graphic might clue you into the direction I'm going in for that one.
The other option is to do a Berg-Cup inspired nut-job wide fender type of thing. I'm no body man, so this is probably a poor idea, but it could be cool. Well we'll see. In the meantime I'm busy thinking about possible motive power choices. I'm leaning towards an atmospheric engine since I'm not a huge fan of turbo cars, but if I go the Berg-Cup route for looks I'm not sure anything under 400 horsepower is going to do. Decisions, decisions.

_WRS

Wolfsburg RS Project 01: Scirocco Madness

I think I'm losing it. The Wolfsburg RS is undertaking it's first official project car build, and it's a doozy. A f**cking Scirocco. Not just that, but a Scirocco II. What am I thinking? Have I gone mad? I must be, because there is no other reason to do a Scirocco project that's in the condition that this one is. It used to be an 8v, but then it was a 16v, and now it's sitting less a drivetrain and suspension in the back lot of New German Performance down in Maryland. Thanks to Jason from NGP, I'm (sorta) the proud new owner of this wonderful machine. No charge.

Did I mention that it's free? Did I also mention that it is completely straight / accident free, free of rust, and includes a perfectly valid title? Perhaps now you can see I'm only partially as mad as I appear to be. The honest to god truth is that I'm not a Scirocco guy. Scirocco guys are like TDI guys that aren't obsessed with miles per gallon, or Audi TT guys, but they aren't fashion victims. I have nothing against the original (nay, second version) VW Coupé, it's just not me. I've owned all GTI's, and other other than that one Jetta, I've been a GTI purist through and through. I feel right in a Golf-based hatch. That said, sometimes change is good.

So the other thing about this, is that I really wanted another Mk1 project. (my first car is my long lost much missed 1984 Mk1 GTI) I was watching those Berg Cup videos, feeling excited about another Mk1 GTI, feeling excited about making a poor decision and buying a project car I don't need, of owning another Mk1. Then I checked the Mk1 classifieds at VW Vortex.

The world has gone INSANE!

People are asking (and people are paying) stupid, stupid prices for Mk1 cars. $2,000 for a rusty mis-matched panel GTI. $3,000 for a car that has a Maaco respray and some slightly fancy wheels. No, way. If the WRS is anything, it's broke, and there is no way we're paying a premium price for a car that we're only going to use the shell, suspension bits, and maybe the dash from.

So a free Scirocco it is. You know what they say about gift horses, and maybe the same will be true of gift Sciroccos, but I still think I'm crazy. Stay tuned. With the car 3 states away, and there being no way to work on it here at my apartment (I think the super would have a problem with that) it'll be a long, slow, painful build up. But it will happen, and it will be awesome. I promise.

If you don't hear from me anytime soon, it's because they've put me in for treatment.

_WRS

Video Post: Berg Cup Bonanza

The Berg Cup is awesome, quite possibly the most awesome thing in the world. Well maybe not the whole world, but it's extremely cool. For the uninitiated the Berg Cup, sponsored by KW Suspensions, is a German hill climb series featuring all manner of racing vehicles. From old American iron (2nd generation F-body Camaro anyone?) to ex-works DTM machines, sports prototypes, rally cars, and my favorite, the purpose built Volkswagens in the Gruppe H class.


We're not talking a few bolt on parts, slam it down and call it a day, we're talking purpose built, 100% racing machines. Super stripped down, competition roll cages, insane aero packages to cover the wide wheels and slick tires, and typically a fully sequential transmission. Yeah. A fully sequential box in a VW chassis that is typically 20, or even 30 years old.

I can't find out full specs on the engines, but from what I gather they de-stroke the VW engines to 1600cc, the displacement limit for the class. Power is typically north of 240hp. Nice. Most are 16v, as there is an obvious power advantage at 10,000rpm with two extra valves per cylinder, but some guys stick with the 8v power, which is who I route for.


Check this video of a Berg cup racer on the dyno for a taste of the power



Obviously they're screamers, and they can build some serious speed up on the tight, winding German roads. Best of all the events seem more like parties, with huge crowds hanging out, grilling bratwurst and schnitzel, and generally enjoying the sounds of high-revving engines echoing throughout the countryside. Sounds like my kind of an event. Attending a Berg Cup event is definitely on my list of things to do before I die. Enjoy this selection of videos. (Be sure to watch in HQ if available!) There are plenty more, in much higher quality over at www.rennfotos.de I suggest going and checking it out pronto, as soon as you're done here.

_WRS

Video Post: Polo S1600 On Board

I know, I know. I'm slacking. I have excuses I swear, but I think the dog ate them.

I have a pretty cool post in the works on the A59 story follow up, but I need to get off my arse to get the facts all finished up. In the meantime however, enjoy one of my more favorite in-car videos from a Volkswagen Rally car.




Polo Super 1600, fast tarmac stage. What more could you want?

_WRS

Sorry for the severe lack of updates

I apologize for the lack of fresh material here. I had a very busy weekend traveling down to Lufteknic to take care of some work on my car, plus Blaksquirrel had a shoot for Total 911. It was a fun, if slightly draining visit, but with the quality of work that Robert is turning out down there it's always well worth trip, let alone it's good to catch up with old friends. I'm working on something more in depth, but in the meantime enjoy this pic of the Team Falken Porsche 911 RSR at Long Beach.

Sadly they didn't finish in the top three...in fact a transmission problem put them out a bit early, but they qualified 4th in class, which is something to be proud of in their first outing. I think the 997 RSR looks fantatsic in the blue and green livery, perfectly offset by the black wheels. They may not have won, but it was my favorite car of the event by far.

_WRS

The Golf A59: The car which could have changed VW Motorsport

The Golf A59 is far from a secret for the most part, but it still remains one of the most mysterious and interesting Volkswagens of all time. There is still some confusion though, mainly about exactly how many A59 prototypes were made, and where they are. I'll address those to the best of my ability, but I don't claim to be all knowing, just in a unique position. I'll explain that later.

ANYways. I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it, reading an issue of European Car way back in the stone age of paper, ink and pretty much no internet. The A59 was amazing to me. All wheel drive, wide fenders and a body made of carbon / kevlar, 16x7.5" Speedline wheels, turbocharged from the factory, all that good stuff. Here was the car that would make the Rallye Golf G60 a pathetic footnote in the lineage of Golf-based race cars. As luck would have it, that was not the case. It certainly had the ingredients.


The basics are as follows: VW contacted Schmidt Motorsport of Germany and had them design the A59 for their motorsport branch. SMS consisted of several players in the rally and motorsport scene back in the 90's and late 80's. The team was lead by Konrad Schmidt, who was involved in the Audi Quattro rally program, so he was no stranger to the land of VW and Audi performance. Work on the project started around 1992, and was supposed to debut in 1994.

The A59 was to be a Group A / Group N machine, meaning 2500 would have been produced to homogate the car for the World Rally Championship. One of the more interesting aspects of the A59's design was that SMS did not use anything even close to a standard VW engine. VW's standard family of inline-4 motors are hopelessly undersquare. This is ideal for torque and average drivers and average driving conditions, but undersquare motors don't like to rev. A racing motor needs to rev. So rather than take the standard 1984cc 82mm x 92.8mm 16v engine and adapt that to competition use, a clean sheet design was used, with a perfectly square 86mm bore and 86mm stroke. That's more like it.


Of course the engine was turbocharged, and with the new head design this was apparently a necessity. SMS decided to use much large valves than an atmospheric engine would be able to take advantage of...they would rely on positive manifold pressure to make up for any loss in flow and efficiency at lower RPM's. In standard form it was said the A59 would make 275 hp @ 6000rpm, and 273lb/ft of torque at 3500rpm, with enough headroom to make 400hp unrestricted. Not bad at all.

Putting all this power to ground was a brand new all wheel drive system. Not the crap Syncro system which was used on the Rally, but an electronically controlled type, quite similar to the Haldex system currently used by VW in their 4-motion and R32 cars. Interior was to be outfitted with a digital dash, Recaro A8 seats and an optional competition roll cage.


But is was never put into production. At the time that the press was first learning of the A59 back in 1994, the project had already been shelved. Something about a recession...hmm...sounds familiar. VW Motorsport kept one of their two prototypes for the museum, where it was kept under wraps until the early 2000's when it was rolled out, sans engine. (why was that you ask? I'll fill in the blanks in a few days) A second prototype was made, as you can see from the pictures there is a substantial difference in the fender design and rear spoiler and air-intake area on the C-pillar, but it was either destroyed or has been lost.

There is not a third A59. SMS did however make three complete Carbon-kevlar body kits. The first is what is what is on the still-living A59 prototype with the duck-tail spoiler. The second is on the "lost" prototype, which had larger fender flares and the different rear spoiler and A-pillar treatment. This is the same design, as far as I can tell, as the third body kit.


The third bodykit was sitting on the shelf at SMS for nearly a decade, until an interested party with the cash to buy it (and the connections to know it existed in the first place) had it deliver lock stock and barrel to British Columbia. There the hood and rear wing were traded for parts, while the rest of the kit, including the side skirts, fenders, quarter pabels and front and rear bumpers were installed on a Blue 1997 Driver's Edition GTI VR6.

So what of this third kit? That is a post-in-progress. As soon as Blaksquirrel loads the images into the Flickr account, I'll be ready with a story.


A few more pics at the WRS Flickr page.... All I really have to say in the end, is imagine if this Golf had made it into production? Not only would it have been a worthy adversary to the Escort Cosworth, Impreza WRX and other cars of the day, but we would have a completely different family of engines to choose from. A perfectly square fresh design without the limitations of previous architecture. Something 100 times better than the 1.8t, which is a fine if slightly underwhelming engine at the end of the day: it was not designed for performance, it was designed to provide the torque of a small V6 while delivering better fuel economy. Anyway, I'll have more on the engine from the A59 soon enough....Stay tuned!

_WRS

Porsche 959 Gallery at Jalopnik

Jalopnik just posted a very interesting look at the inside of the Porsche 959 factory, way back in the 80's. The 959 was a one of a kind and at the time, seemed the very pinnacle of automotive performance and achievement. By today's standards it's simply a very low production sports car with all wheel drive, with performance easily bested by a number of cars. Back then it was a technological force of nature, and one which was posted on many a child's bedroom wall, along with the Ferrari F40 or maybe the Lamborgini Countach. True legends in their own time. (I'd still take a 959 or an F40...the Lambo? Not so interested thanks...)

Check out the full gallery over at Jalopnik.

_WRS