Wow! Pretty cool news from Volkswagen. This is one piece of history I had no idea about. Scroll down and check the list of past drivers!
Formula 3 comeback for Volkswagen: The German automobile manufacturer aims to continue its successful tradition as engine supplier in the talent school of formula racing with a newly developed two-litre engine.
Volkswagen celebrated 92 wins alone in the German Formula 3 Championship between 1979 and 1991, and claimed numerous other wins on the international stage. The new power unit will debut at the seventh round of the Formula 3 Euroseries at the Nürburgring between 31 August and 2 September 2007.
“Volkswagen won innumerable races and championships in Formula 3 during the nineteen-eighties and at the beginning of the nineteen-nineties and, as a result, proved impressively the performance of its power units,” explains Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Board of the Volkswagen Brand with responsibility for Development. “Even today, Formula 3 is an excellent platform to present production-based engine technologies. We want to take on this demanding competition.”
Continue reading ‘Volkswagen returns to Formula 3′
HOLY S**T! VF-Engineering and GIAC have partnered to put out two outstanding GTI’s. Both the RSS and RSR will be offered but the RSR will need a rebuild of the engine. Why? Well hows 414hp sound to ya?
*On 91-octane California Premium, the RSS GTI spins the dyno to the tune of 300 whp and 281 lb-ft. On 100-octane race gas those numbers are bumped to 336 whp and 283 lb-ft. At just 17 psi, these power figures are an indisputable indicator of maximized efficiency and GIAC’s tuning prowess.
*The RSR GTI puts down an astonishing 414 whp and 355 lb-ft on 109-octane race gas and 355 whp and 320 lb-ft on 91-octane pump gas. Like all GIAC equipped cars, the programs are easily changed with the hand held Flashloader.
VF-Engineering has been providing complete forced induction solutions for enthusiasts for more than a dozen years, and they are perhaps best known for pairing their centrifugal supercharger kits with GIAC software on everything from R32s, M3s and even 911s. But when VW introduced the 2.0T, VF-Engineering founder Nik Saran saw the obvious performance potential in the motor and decided it was time to dive back into turbos once again. After some research with software partner GIAC it was decided that two unique tuning options should be offered, and work began on the development cars.
Both GTIs utilize larger Garrett turbochargers, each chosen for different power levels. The RSS (street version) car was developed with the intention of selling a kit through a series of VF & GIAC dealers. The more powerful RSR (race version) model was designed to be purchased as a completed unit straight from VF as it requires a complete engine teardown and rebuild with new internals. For this, VF-Engineering developed an engine rebuilding program.
Both cars seen here are equipped with STaSIS suspension systems and brake upgrades. The RSS car uses the Touring suspension package and 13.5-inch front brake upgrade. The brake upgrade utilizes the factory calipers with different carriers and two-piece rotors. The RSR is equipped with a Street Sport Coilover System and 14-inch front brakes. These larger brakes use Alcon Monobloc 4-Piston calipers with the larger two-piece floating rotor and aluminum hats. Both cars ride on 19-inch OZ Ultraleggerra wheels wrapped in Toyo R888 DOT-Legal race tires.
Head on over to vwvortex for the complete article and gallery!
Technorati Tags: VF-Engineering, GIAC, vwvortex, GTI, VW, Volkswagen, oneighturbo
Nice work guys! Here to kickin Ferrari’s a**
Flying Lizard’s No. 45 and No. 44 Porsches qualified third and seventh, respectively, in today’s qualifying session at Mid-Ohio. Joerg Bergmeister clocked the third-fastest lap time in GT2 in the No. 45 during the 20 minute qualifying session and was the fastest Porsche. Lonnie Pechnik was seventh in class in the No. 44.
Bergmeister commented, “Mid-Ohio is one of my favorite tracks: it’s very technical, but this can make setup challenging because of the combination of elevation changes and off-camber corners. We made a lot of improvements on the No.45 setup during the second practice today, and the guys did a great job getting the car ready for qualifying. We need to keep improving, but I think the direction we’re heading is the right one and we’ll be able to use tomorrow’s warmup to finalize things.”
Join the Lizards for tomorrow’s race, the 2007 Acura Sports Car Challenge, which starts 3:15 p.m. ET Saturday, July 21. Bergmeister and Johannes van Overbeek will again team in the No. 45, and Seth Neiman and Pechnik will pilot the No. 44 Porsche. The race will be broadcast on CBS Sports on Sunday July 22 at 2 pm ET.
Flying Lizard will broadcast team radio communications live during the race. For more info, see www.lizardms.com
Technorati Tags: Flying Lizard’s, Porsche, Mid-Ohio, Joerg Bergmeister, Johannes van Overbeek, oneighturbo
Nice work from Porsche and the LMP2’s. Again, Audi has their work cut out for them.
Live Timing
Live audio broadcast
Acura Sports Car Challenge, scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 21 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be broadcast XM Satellite Radio’s Sports Nation Channel at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday. American Le Mans Radio will air live coverage via americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA’s Live Timing & Scoring. CBS Sports will broadcast the race from 2 to 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 22.
Penske Motorsports’ Timo Bernhard had a feeling that Friday would be a record-breaking day at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He just didn’t know by how much. Bernhard earned a bit of redemption with an overall pole position for Saturday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge with a landmark lap in his Porsche RS Spyder.
Bernhard set an American Le Mans Series record with a time of 1:08.510 around the 2.25-mile, 13-turn road course as new qualifying marks were set in all four classes. The Porsche factory pilot bested Hayanari Shimoda’s mark from 2005 by nearly three full seconds, set in a Zytek LMP1. Friday marked the sixth consecutive event at which a LMP2 entry captured the overall pole position.
Bernhard and Romain Dumas took the first overall victory for Penske in the American Le Mans Series last year at Mid-Ohio despite starting from the back of the grid. Bernhard qualified on pole position but his car was found to be overweight in post-qualifying inspections. There were no such problems this year.
“Last year I was sitting in the tower with the first pole for LMP2 and for the Spyder,” Bernhard said. “Last year I started from the back and caught the top four guys very quickly. This year we have a lot of poles but have never won from the pole so we have to change that here.”
Continue reading ‘ALMS: Bernhard puts Penke Porsche on Mid-Ohio pole’
6 New Car Technologies in Your Not-So-Distant Future
Popular Mechanics has a great article on some of Volkswagen’s future tech. Electronic Sun Visor, Family Tech, Traffic Decongestion, Hands-off Doze Control, Cleaner Fuel and Future Powerplants. It’s a 6 pager so head on over to read all.
Volkswagen recently did what most automakers do not: It lifted the veil and let us inside German test facilities for a hands-on look at its tech development process—front-row seats at technical seminars, prototype test drives and more. From nav systems for the kids to cruise control for drowsy driving to cleaner fuel conversions, here’s what’s on the horizon.
- Popular Mechanics
Technorati Tags: VW, Volkswagen, Popular Mechanics,
Love it! Audi comes back strong at the Mugello track. From testing to free practice, Audi crushed the Mercedes-AMG’s!!! In free practice Audi held the top 8 positions!
Now, as I’ve always said, race day is a completely different story. My #1 strategy is work together. Seeing that Audi has 1-5 on the grid, I would hope they take the first turn etc nice and easy. Fighting for that turn is great and all but if you take a car completely out, have to come in for a flat or whatever, that gives AMG an immediate in.
Premat needs to control Spengler, Rockenfeller on Green and Abt on la Rosa. Kristensen lets Eki go (ha, ya right) to get out and establish plenty of buffer. This allows him to gain top points.
With Schneider back in 11th he’s out but we know how he can move all the way up with perfect pits and speed. He’s 1.5pts in 1st. Keeping him out of the points is #2 in my mind.
Spengler is 4th in points. Being 5th on grid, he quickly needs to be nullified. He will be on a charge.
… but we know that’s all a dream. Racers are racers.
Technorati Tags: DTM, Mugello, Audi, Mattias Ekstrom, Tom Kristensen, Martin Tomczyk, Timo Scheider, Alexandre Prémat, oneighturbo
How does our current Golf R32 compare to the first one, of 2002 vintage? Neil Carey has a chance to find out.
That’s the question I asked in my post regarding the press release on the ‘08 R32.
Since we cannot pull of a test review of both of these (I guess we really could at the dealer) Evo has done an excellent job of comparing the two. In a short but sweet article they point out the differences which become more apparent on the road than on paper.
I’ll take mine in white, red if it’s an MKIV! 
Two VW Golf R32s - on the left, the mk4 version introduced in 2002. On the right our more recent mk5 model.
Text: Neil Carey / Photos: Andy Morgan | July 2007
Two VW Golf R32s - on the left, the mk4 version introduced in 2002. On the right our more recent mk5 model.
The humble Golf has come a long way in its 33 years. It has grown in every dimension, and it’s the same story with the performance. Back in 1977 the original hot Golf, the much celebrated mk1 GTI, was armed with a measly 110bhp 1.6-litre motor and used (and needed, for that matter) only the front wheels to transfer that power to the road.
Skip forward to today and the premium Golf is no longer marked out by the letters ‘GTI’. It’s now the R32 that tops the range, and it has moved the game on considerably, with an additional 136bhp, four-wheel drive and, if you tick the right box at the dealership, a race car-inspired paddle-operated gearbox.
Continue reading ‘VW Golf R32: Old vs. New’
Well after I reported on the qualification yesterday, the second placed Acura failed post race inspection moving Ian into 2nd and Chip into 3rd on grid. That’s just one step closer to podium’s today.
Sunday’s SPEED World Challenge round 6 at the Grand Prix of Toronto takes place at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time July 8th. The race will be aired on SPEED Saturday, July 14th at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Photo: Michael Tan
Toronto, Ontario (July 7, 2007) Ian Baas had his best showing of the year qualifying 2nd in his #18 PFAFF/STaSIS/Clear Capital/Audi A4 at the Grand Prix of Toronto with a time of 1:20.842. Teammate Chip Herr was only 4 thousandths of a second behind in 3rd in his #17 PFAFF/STaSIS/Clear Capital/Audi A4 with a time of 1:20.846. Herr was quick early holding the 3rd fastest time with Baas in 7th position. With Herr in the pits conserving his tires for race day Baas kept working and improved to 3rd moving Herr to 4th. After qualifying the 2nd qualifier failed post race inspection moving Baas and Herr to 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Commenting on the qualifying Baas said, “I’m looking forward to starting on the front row tomorrow. Ideally I can get a good start and be fighting for a podium the whole race.”
Herr was understandably pleased to have company near the front. Herr commented, “Hopefully Ian and I can work together and get both cars on the podium.”
Technorati Tags: SPEED World Challenge, Chip Herr, Ian Bass, Grand Prix of Toronto, STaSIS, Audi A4, oneighturbo
First Season Win for No. 45, No. 44 Finishes Fourth
Excellent race guys! I am so stoked that the Lizard’s pulled off this win! The crazy thing is that the Rizi Ferarri placed 9th and with this win put the team into first in GT2!! Kick ass!
Be sure and set your Tivo’s if your not going to be around. CBS, 1pm EST.
Photo: Kevin Tyson
July 7, 2007 — Lime Rock Park, CT — In one of the most exciting races of the 2007 ALMS season, the Flying Lizard No. 45 and No. 44 Porsches came from the back of the GT2 pack to finish first and fourth, respectively, at today’s Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. The No. 45 Porsche now leads in the ALMS GT2 drivers’ championship and the team is second in the team championship.
Stakes were high in today’s race, the halfway point of the season. The narrow 1.54 mile Lime Rock circuit proved to be a high-consequence course: nearly every team suffered at least one significant incident on track. The Lizards started seventh and eighth out of ten GT2 cars. (Friday’s qualifying session was cancelled due to rain and the cars gridded based on Friday morning practice lap times.)
In the No. 45 Porsche, Joerg Bergmeister encountered some bad luck just after race start when a flat tire sent him immediately into the pits and put him two laps down on the next closest car. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Joerg. “After all that work, to be so far down so quickly was incredibly disappointing. But I stayed focused and kept on it: I was determined to stay in the running. Traffic was so difficult: everyone was in the game to win. One mistake, and cars were off into the wall or the swamp — there was just no room for error.”
Continue reading ‘Flying Lizard Wins GT2 at Lime Rock’
Excellent work by Ian Bass moments ago, qualifying for tomorrow’s SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race. It’s taken a bit but he has come through and put himself in top 3. With Chip Herr in 4th this gives Audi a second row and everyone knows how they are off the line! PUNISHING! The AWD could kill the tires with 11-turns, 1.755 mile temporary circuit, but we will see at 3:30pm tomorrow.
Technorati Tags: SpeedTV, Speed World Challenge, Audi, STaSIS, Ian Bass, Chip Herr, oneighturbo
