The Swedes Have All The Fun

Take a new VW Scirocco, build it to 627 horsepower, add VW’s 4Motion AWD drivetrain and go find a frozen lake. Bonus points if you use studded snow tires, but that really won’t matter since you’re still going to have a hard time getting all that horsepower translated into forward motion. There’s disturbingly little information available on the car (other than the 627 horsepower from a 2.0 liter, turbocharged inline four), but the driver is Tommy Kristoffersson. Kristoffersson began his career driving for Audi in Rallycross competition, but formed his own Touring Car team in 1998. He ran the Touring Car series from 1998 until 2009, finishing as high as 4th overall in 1998 and again in 2001. As amusing as the video is, it would have been even better if there was a “moose slalom” involved. [Read more...]

VW’s Bulli Concept: A Microbus It Ain’t

VW's Bulli Concept. Image: Volkswagen

Say what you want about the old VW Microbus, but they built character. Dangerously slow, prone to snap oversteer in all but dry conditions and about as unsafe as you could get without using the driver as a bumper, VW sold the same basic design from 1950 to 1979. The formula was simple: the engine (and most of the weight) went in the rear, the steering wheel, driver and passenger went up front and everything else went in the middle. They were good on gas, mainly because the air-cooled four only made up to 70 horsepower. They were lightweight, and as far as I remember power steering wasn’t even an option (which made tight corners an aerobic exercise). Utterly terrifying to drive in snow, they were equally bad in crosswinds, which generally required about ninety degrees of steering input to keep the van pointed in a straight line. Despite this, I actually miss them. [Read more...]