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VW - Lets Go Racing
By by: Chuck Macak
Nov 17, 2003, 14:45

One of the most frequently asked questions I get as the editor of Speed Arena is “Why doesn’t VW get involved in motorsports?” Well, they are… sort of. It all depends how you look at it. They are involved in Rally, Endurance Racing, Touring Car racing and Open Wheel Racing, along with other forms we never hear about over here in the good old US of A.

Let’s break it down - Audi developed the 3-time Le Mans winning R8’s. They are also involved in Touring cars in the Swedish Touring car series, Speed GT series and the DTM in Germany. Skoda runs the Fabia in the WRC (World Rally Championship). Seat is involved in the ETCC (European touring Car Championship) along with their own Cupra Cup in the UK. So you see, VWAG is involved in lots of motorsport activities, probably more than most European manufacturers.

Oh - you're wondering why Volkswagen, as a brand, is not involved... I’m sorry I misinterpreted the question.

That is a good question. In fact I ask myself the very same thing almost every day. They have had a few things going on in motorsports like the Beetle and Lupo Cup series, not to mention the formula Volkswagen open wheel series in Germany. There is a Volkswagen Cup series in the UK that VW UK gets behind and it is pretty impressive looking. They are also entered in the Paris-Dakar Rally with a Toe-Rag. But as far as I'm concerned, all that is hogwash in the grand scope of things. Volkswagen needs major exposure in the world of motorsports to grow more market share for the brand!



The events that VW puts on are great but it does get hard watching a series where all the cars on the track are the same. We want to see VWs kick a BMW’s ass - not another Beetle or Lupo. We want to go to an ALMS/Speed world Challenge weekend and see the R8s the RS6s and a few Factory backed Jettas. Is that too much to ask?

If I were in charge of motorsports at Volkswagen, here is what I would do:

Rally Racing – I think what Skoda is doing in the WRC is wonderful, but I must ask why is a brand (Skoda) that does not sells cars outside of Europe entered in the higher-exposure section of the WRC series, while VWAG's highest profile and best-selling brand (VW) races in the lackluster and mostly unpublicized super 1600 class with the Polo? I think VW would be a smarter, as far as the WRC goes, flip-flopping the brands.



I also wonder why VW has no official involvement in the SCCA ProRally here in the states. There are more VWs in that series than any other in the world. These are guys shelling out hard-earned cash out of their pocket every weekend to race VWs because they love it. And if you talk to most of them you'll find they love their VWs and would not race anything else. If VW did not want to enter cars in the series the least they could do is have a contingency program to reward these hard working teams. Being involved with the RallyVW team in SCCA ProRally last year was great and we thank all the fans that helped the team out to win the Production Class championship. Did the team get anything back from VW? Hell no! Not even a thank you. Subaru has a great program for the Group N class payouts. If you win the class you get $25,000 and a try-out for the open class team. Second place gets $12,500 and they pay all the way down to eighth in class with $2,000. You also get discounts on parts for you car. And now you understand why there are so many Subarus in ProRally...

Touring Car – you'd think this one would be easy with the domination Audi has had in this class over the years. Just call up the boys over in Ingolstadt and get a few pointers. This one just seems too easy to me. Just run Jettas (Boras) in the European Touring Car Championship and run a Golf in British Touring Car Championship. ETCC and BTCC pretty much share rules so you could develop a component-shared drivetrain to cut costs. You could keep the Seats in ETCC and also add Skoda and component-share. In the Speed World Challenge they could take a team like Metro VW, who made the investment in the cars from Volkswagen Racing and help out on a cash and engineering/race development front. They would do well in the series. Worst-case scenario would be to do a contingency program to inspire more teams to use VWs to race in the series. Use the teams as a development program, then use the data collected when it's time to field their own team.



I bet one main reason why we don’t see VWs on the Touring Car track is because VW does not have a very competitive normally aspirated engine. Since most Touring car series rules will not allow a car to have any forced induction, it puts VW in a bad spot. The 2.0 liter motors are not all that competitive against the offerings from Mazda, BMW, Honda and all the other manufacturers out there racing. Does this mean VW ought to stay out altogether? NO! Look at Porsche - they canceled their factory racing program, but you still see their cars at almost every racing event they can race in. They help the teams out with development and parts and contingency and the teams race the cars for them and they win!

I can go even further with these arguments and jump on the Formula One thing, but I will save that for another day...

The bottom line is, you race to win, but sometimes just racing will gain you a lot of respect and that which leads to some very valuable exposure.

SO, VW - LETS GO RACING!

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