Getting to the bottom of stuff

Watkins Glen was our last race of the season. I did get back down to the Glen in October to pick up my now repaired transmission from Johannes at the Enduro race. It should be much nicer now with the correct .91 5th and 2nd gear swapped over to a 1.94.

I found a few things with the investigation into the power loss at the Glen. Three of the valves were out of adjustment, this was probably due to the new cam, valves and springs seating, and

the fuel pump's output volume was way down at the bottom of the range listed in the manual. So the valves now have the correct shims and all of the clearances

are back to where they should be and I have a new fuel pump to replace the used one that originally came with the Golf surge tank that I am using.

With winter coming, I have drained the coolant and fuel cell and bagged all of the racing slicks. There is lots to due before next season. I need to find some +.40 1500 pistons and decide if I want to put them in this engine or build up a new block.

It's almost time to get out the shop heater.

Scirocco 2l, 16V, 275 PS, Start up!

Another new MkI racer!

For Sale,: H Prod VW Scirocco 1600

Nationally competitive, has been running Regionally for last year. Won SARRC Championship 2008 this is David Boles former HP Scirocco. The engine was freshened 1 race ago. Trans is good. (close ratio with limited slip), has double adjustable Motons. Tubular front lower control arms with rod ends. Momo seat, 8 Panasport wheels with Hoosiers, 4 alloys with mounted Hooiser rains, full legal fiberglass kit, Electromotive XDi ignition, many more...

Price lowered to price to $7900.00.

Call Louis at 1-888-346-7266 or email at louis@ltbmotorsports.com

Watkins Glen SCCA National

It turned out to be a very eventful weekend at Watkins Glen.

In the rain at Mosport I was having some difficulty getting 5th gear and spent time between the two race working on the linkage. I also made a new upper stress bar and was looking forward to the large 10 car field with lots of guys in my range to race with.

We paddocked with Chris Kopley and Ned and Linda Beman were in from Oregon to help.

As first race group we were on track early Saturday. Things were working well when I went for 5th on the pit straight and it wasn't there. I finished the lap and came in. Johannes came over to help me check out the linkage and we decided to pull the 5th gear cover off. The oil that came out looked like metallic paint. Opening up the cover a bit it was easy to see that the teeth on 5th gear had been cleaned off and apparently liquified.

We were already half way to getting the tranny out so we thought that there might be a chance to get the spare 4-speed in before the afternoon session. This was only my second transmission change on a VW and things took a little longer than expected. When group one went out, we still had to adjust the linkage and put oil in it, so we took a break for lunch.

Just after the qualifying session the sky got black and the wind picked up. The forecast was for afternoon thundershowers and it was spot on. The rain started coming in sideways from the west and everyone hung on to a canopy pole. In an instant our 10x20 was in the air and tumbling over my trailer. It landed in the road, Theo and I ran over to stop it from lifting up again and damaging someone's car. I undid some joints and we ran back into Chris' trailer completely soaked.


The trailer was dry and in about ten minutes the sky started to lighten up. The rain stopped, the sun came out and the rest of the day turned out to be pretty nice. Good thing because we all had a lot of stuff to dry out.

Ned and I finished up the car and I drove it around the paddock roads. Other than the locked diff trying to snap my wrists, everything seemed OK.

Sunday morning I went out for the warm up to figure out shift points and to remember how to drive the welded diff.

A couple of laps in, I got a big cloud of smoke in the left hander out of the boot. I came into the pits, Ned took one look at the left front and said, in that Ned way, "You got a problem". The tire and left side of the car was covered in gear oil. Back in the paddock I found the drain plug missing. Johannes had suggested filling the tranny from the speedo cable hole so I didn't put a wrench on the drain plug. Stupid, we should have checked it. Theo got to work cleaning up the tire and car. We took a plug from the 5-speed and filled it up again. Time was short for going to the pumps so Chris gave me some fuel to top up the cell.

I was gridded pretty close to the back but there were about 5 HP cars right in front of me. Howard Gerstein was starting his GTL Miata from the back as usual. Howard walked by and I asked him where he wanted to pass me. Ned said that with such a large field that the green will come out while we are still going into the last turn. Howard had a radio and would know the green was out before me, "So just follow him". It's great to have a crew chief with you.

So that's what I did. On Ned's advice, I followed Howard out of the last turn and down the pit straight. I passed Gib Stine's Bugeye, Dave Hammer's Rabbit, Ray Santomo's Golf and was on Chris' Mini bumper going up the esses. The first 5 laps were pretty wild. We were running in a train, Ray was all over the back of my car. He passed me, I drafted and passed him, Dave stuck his nose in and more passes were made back and forth. I was thinking that this is a lot of fun but I don't know if I can do it for the whole race.

Ray got in front and Dave was filling my mirrors. On lap 6 the car just went off song. Nothing big, it just lost 15% power and took longer to rev up. Dave got by and I couldn't do anything about it. I backed off and watched the oil pressure and water temps. They looked OK so I ran for the finish. It was a disappointing way to end the weekend after all that work and good racing on the start.

So now we have all that lovely gear oil to clean up and a 5-speed to fix. I'm a bit more worried about the power loss, it was almost like a switch was pulled, it was that sudden.

I'm not sure where we will race again; The Fun One? Great Pumpkin? Prod Fest? It all depends on how repairs and work go through August and September.

Mk1 Sciroccos at Nürburgring

There are more than new Sciroccos running in the Nürburgring 24 hour. It is such a cool event, check these Mk1s.

Sciroccos at 2009 Nürburgring 24-hour

source: Volkswagen Motorsport

Wolfsburg (24 May 2009). The Volkswagen Scirocco cars powered by natural gas and petrol engines superbly mastered the world’s most difficult circuit marathon, the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring, by clinching two class victories.

The Scirocco GT24-CNG with innovative EcoFuel technology of Vanina Ickx (B), Peter Terting (D), Klaus Niedzwiedz (D) and Thomas Klenke (D) won the category for vehicles with alternative powertrains (AT) and finished 17th overall, outperforming numerous more powerful cars. The petrol-powered Scirocco GT24 of youngsters Jimmy Johansson (S), Florian Gruber (D), Nicki Thiim (DK) and Martin Karlhofer (A) achieved a remarkable 15th place and Volkswagen's third consecutive victory in the class of cars with two-litre turbo engines (SP3T).

Altfrid Heger (D), Cheng Congfu (CN), Carlo van Dam (NL) and Franck Mailleux (F) finished third in the SP3T class and 20th overall, the CNG-powered Scirocco of Volkswagen Executive Board Member for Technology Dr Ulrich Hackenberg (D), Bernd Ostmann (D), Peter Wyss (CH) and John Barker (GB) finished as the runners-up in the AT class. The fifth Scirocco of Carlos Sainz (E), Dieter Depping (D), Wolfgang Kaufmann (D) and Patrick Simon (D) retired after a strong showing due to an accident that was no fault of theirs on Sunday morning.

Volkswagen with Scirocco R debut

235,000 spectators lining the legendary Nordschleife in perfect weather not only witnessed an extremely thrilling 24-hour race but also the world debut of the new Scirocco R, the most powerful version of the sport coupe with a 265-hp engine. The Scirocco R presented itself to enthusiasts in a motorcade around the roller-coaster in the Eifel along with the Race Touareg with "Dakar” winners Giniel de Villiers (ZA) and Dirk von Zitzewitz (D). The many guests rooting for the Volkswagen team at the "Ring” included actors Erol Sander and Mark Keller.

Needless to say, VfL Wolfsburg's winning of the German Football Championship was a major topic at the Nürburgring as well: Before the start to the 24-hour race Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Carlos Sainz and Kris Nissen wished the VFL team well in a live transmission to the stadium and a short time later sent their congratulations on Wolfsburg's triumph by pit board messages and from the cockpit.

Sciroccos at Nelson Ledges

I just realized that the header photo of the Trans-Am Scirocco in the late 70's is also taken at Nelson Ledges. Pretty cool to win there again 30 odd years later.

Nelson Ledges and Mosport SCCA races

A victory at Nelson.

Theo and I travelled to Nelson Ledges Ohio in May for the SCCA National, setting up in the paddock with my Mini racing friends, Ted Phenix and Chris Kopley. It was just like old times.

Over the winter we prepped a new head and cam to move the engine closer to full Production car specs and I was very eager to see how it would perform. With more power and torque, the Scirocco was much more fun to drive. After feeling out the car and track in the first session, we were able to edge out Debbie Lafond's Honda Civic for the pole position in HP in the afternoon qualifying.

The weekend's only problem surfaced in the Sunday morning warm up. The transmission was stuck in first and would not budge. After disassembling the shift linkage and with encouragement from Ted and Chris, we got it out of gear and fueled up in time to make the grid.

I planned to start off in second avoiding first gear, but on the start I was in fourth instead of second and had a very slow launch when the green flag came out. Ray Santomo's VW Golf got by me and Debbie was on my bumper. I quickly sorted things out and set chase on the Golf. It took over half the race to catch him and I slipped by on the inside going into turn one. The Golf and Honda were always in my mirrors, but we hung on for a very satisfying first win.

A few weeks later at Mosport, things did not work out as well. The two Midgets of Ron Bartel and Dan Collishaw were way out front in a class of themselves. One of my Scirocco mentors, Johannes Krause, was third and I was a slim 15/1000 of a second behind him with Dave Hammer's Rabbit another second back. With some fresher rubber on the car, it looked like I would be in the middle of a fun 3-way VW battle.

Race day dawned sunny , but soon after the warm up black clouds rolled in and the rain started. We put our "rain" tires on, which are really an old set of hand cut intermediates. The track was very wet and the rain constant, this was a day for full rains.

I moved ahead of Johannes on the start and held it to Moss Corner. As soon as we got through 5C, Johannes pulled out and powered by me up the straight on his fresh Hoosier rains. A few laps later and Dave went by, there was nothing I could do as the rain was heavy. After a full course yellow and restart, it was clear that I had nothing to gain and drove to make the finish without bending the car.

Congratulations to Johannes and Dave who had close battle for the whole race and turned faster laps in the rain than the two Midgets!

July 11 we are off to Watkins Glen were there is an 8 car HP field entered including a rematch between the three VWs.

Getting ready to race

With my son Theo, we took the Scirocco to Dunnville at the end of April to test with the VARAC group.

The car has a new head/valves/springs/cam, more compression and few other small mods that make a big boost in power. It was much more fun to drive and ran all day with no problems. Work has shifted to final prep for our first race of the year at Nelson Ledges, Ohio. I have not raced at Nelson since 2001 in the Mini and am really looking forward to it.

Tom Davey 3 Time GT3 National Champion

VOLKSWAGEN SCIROCCO won GT3 in 1980-81 and 1982. Picture taken at Summit Point national 1980.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27666849@N04/2946111466/in/set-72157605942449051/

Ex Boles HP Scirocco for sale

For Sale, VW Scirocco 1600. Nationally competitive, has been running Regionally for last year. Won SARRC Championship in the hands of Dale Covington. This is my former HP Scirocco. The engine was freshened 1 race ago. Trans is good. (close ratio with limited slip)
Has double adjustable Motons. Tubular front lower control arms with rod ends. Momo seat, 8 Panasport wheels with Hoosiers, 4 alloys with mounted Hooiser rains.

This is a fresh great driving race car and probably the best deal on the market today.
$7500.00
$10,000 with Haulmark enclosed 20 ft.trailer
321-254-1344 (David Boles)
321-480-7575 (Dale Covington)

Volkswagen Racing Cup Scirocco revealed at the Autosport International