Historic VW Competition Vehicles
 
     
 

Vintage Scene May - 2001

  
  When you hear the word "Vintage" these days most people automatically think of early original factory vehicles. Fortunately there is also another side to the story with "vintage" VW's being modified and adapted for competition use. Volkswagens have always been a target for successful use in motorsport, so it was obvious that once VW's arrived in Australia, the VW legends would come out to play. There are so many cars and people involved that unfortunately many will be unintentionally omitted. I will try to very briefly cover mainly some of the South Australian VW heroes from the "Vintage Era".

The first name that springs to mind is the legendary Ken Virgin who with his Son, Glen (now one of our respected club members) piloted their awesome '61 Beetle into VW's history books. Ken started racing using a '56 oval then stepped up to the (then) brand new '61 40HP model. The later model leaned itself to more options in the speed equipment department. This car was used in circuit racing, hill climbs, motorkhanas, and rallies and progressed to compete solely in drag racing, where it was to become a 'giant killer'. The car was so competitive that many rulebooks were rewritten to try to penalise the car, which would then allow the 6 & 8 cylinder cars more chance to win. The best ¼ mile times for Ken & Glen were mid 11 second runs in 1975. When you consider that this was over a quarter of a century ago it makes it even more impressive. Even with the technology available today, few normally aspirated Beetles can boast these times.

  
 

Another notable South Australian in the '70's was Tony Thornton who ran 10's with a supercharged VW gas sedan. He also won the Australian National Tin Top Titles in Surfers Paradise. Just to get slightly off the track with some trivia, Tony had a friend by the name of Peter De Biasi who used to compete at Rowley park Speedway on the bike and side outfits. Peter was the swinger on the side car - brave man!

Also in the 70's came the invincible team of "Kruger Motors" (authorised dealers) with the legendary Herbie Rally Cross Beetles driven by Keith Poole. As well as Rally Cross they also dabbled in Formula Vee, again being very successful. Special mention must be made of Alwyn Kruger whose engineering and fabricating skills were (& still are) second to none. He was responsible for many of the in house innovative ideas that were used at the time. Behind the scene stories are not often counted so believe me, this guy had his act together and was responsible for a massive input into these motorsport success stories. You can't buy experience like this at any price!!

There was also Len Miller who competed in Rally Cross. He fabricated a chassis to run a mid mounted VW in a similar format to the Formula Vee concept. He was also involved in 356 Porsche repairs. Len ran a few service and repair outlets and was also involved in automotive trade school teaching. I was actually one of his trade school students in 1966 at Frome St before the present school was built at Regency Park.
 

Wally Taylor (father of Andrew Taylor of Volks Auto in Edwardstown) also got heavily involved in Formula Vee racing at the same time and had a very successful, record braking, car which is still around in its original state today.

Hill climbing saw Kim Rohrlach take out many titles in his VW special. This awesome open wheel special was actually street driven to the "Climb to the Eagle" during the Adelaide Grand Prix.

Going back to the '50's VW's were very successful in Rally work, especially the Redex Trails where they were known to fill the top four placings. Names at the time were Eddie Perkins (father of V8 tourer Larry Perkins) and George Reynolds who ran a very successful competition Beetle from the eastern states. George Reynolds is a household name in Vintage VW circles and deserves one of the top spots in the honour roll.

Having just come from the very successful VW Nationals I had a chance to talk with Chris Heyer in Sydney who also flew the flag for VW in Rally Cross using the also famous ex Antarctica VW. At the same Nationals I came across Richard Holzl (also a VW motorsport addict) who had photos of the awesome VW Type III Fast Back of Brian Thompson which competed in Sports Sedan racing. This Type III was a Type III in looks only as it actually ran a 5 litre V8. VW enthusiasts still drooled over this machine just for the fact that they could see a VW win with the big guns at the time. Pat Crea also ran a 2 litre Beetle in circuit racing around the same time.
 

This was an awesome era to experience the power of the flat four mixing with the best available at the time. I vividly remember the awesome Victorian Super Charged chop top VW or Earl Kryger running at Adelaide International raceway in the '70's. This car was named "Yo-Yo" for obvious reasons as it pulled wheelies in first, second & third gears and from memory ran ¼ mile times in the 10 second bracket.

Early '70's legend Peter Keegan, from NSW, drag raced his Beetle into the record books as the first 10-second ¼ mile Beetle in the WORLD. Peter actually was partly sponsored by VW Australia. The car ran a 2.2 litre Super Charged engine on a diet of Methanol. It used a roller bearing SPG roller crank and put out over 350 HP.

Right up into the '70's the aftermarket industry was fairly limited and racers had to rely on fairly standard equipment and improve on it to make any gains. Many hours were spent out in backyard sheds modifying standard equipment unless they were able to get their hands on Okrasa, Denzel or Judson aftermarket speed goodies. The SPG roller bearing crank revolutionised drag racing in the '70's world wide and the combination of an 82mm roller crank and 88mm pistons piloted historic cars such as the American Tar Babe, Lightning Bug and Inch Pincher into the history books. Many others including our own late Ken Virgin also ran this combination (1996cc's ) topped of with 48mm Weber Carburetor's.

From this brief summary you can see that VW's were very serious indeed in all forms of competition from the early days. Even today VW holds its own with sedans capable of running in the 9-sec bracket for a ¼ mile strip!

Although equipment is more technical and better advanced today it's still good to see and read about the original VW speed scene because it's from these guys that after market parts are at the standard they are now. I get a real buzz out of seeing full on competition VW's from the '60 & '70's as they were really exciting times when VW proved their point against all comers at the track. Fortunately for our Volks Enthusiasts Club we have two pieces of VW competition history in our ranks. These include Ken Virgins Drag car and Kruger Motors "Herbie II" Rally Cross car complete with all original parts on or available for the car. These two cars alone promote and preserve South Australian VW competition from a by gone era.

There is a rumour in the pipeline of the possibility of an Australian VW motorsport registrar to be formed to preserve the by gone era.

Keep your Volks Waggin,

Richard Newbury