► Volkswagen Racing's History

Being a part of Volkswagen Racing means being part of a worldwide heritage that has seen drivers and cars that have been an integral part of motorsport’s history books.

At the beginning came circuit racing: the foundation stone for Volkswagen's motorsport activities was laid back in 1966 with the founding of "Formula Vee" – racing cars built from readily available VW Beetle parts. In 1971 came the more powerful Formula Super V, which until its end in 1982 became renowned as a hotbed for up-and-coming talent, producing Formula 1 drivers such as Niki Lauda, Jochen Mass, Nelson Piquet, Jochen Rindt and Keke Rosberg. Volkswagen also achieved several victories and the championship in Formula 3.

After its move in 1973 to Hanover, the department, renamed as Volkswagen Motorsport in 1981, specialised in a new field. With the first generation VW Golf, the sports department took over the development of rally cars.  At home and abroad, the Golf GTI in the hands of Sweden's Per Eklund, the Frenchman, Jean-Luc Thérier, and the Finn, Pentti Airikkala took the world by storm.  On its 20th anniversary in 1986, Sweden's Kenneth Eriksson won Volkswagen Motorsport the title of group A world rally champions. 

Meanwhile in the UK, the company was also strongly represented in national rallying from 1997 with the Golf GTI MkIII which secured the British Rally Championship crown, and two years later with the Golf GTI MkIV. The Polo GTI ‘Super 1600’ in 2001, along with a second place in the British Rally Championship was Volkswagen Racing UK’s final chapter in it's successful rallying tradition.

Renamed as Volkswagen Racing in 2001, the team has concentrated all of its efforts on developing its own circuit racing championship, the Volkswagen Racing Cup.  This flexible arena has allowed some remarkable firsts over the past couple of years.  Perhaps the most significant motorsport development anywhere in the world in recent years can be attributed to Volkswagen Racing UK – the first ever sprint race victory for a diesel-powered car anywhere in the world.  Back in 2002, the achievement of a feat that the pundits dismissed as impossible has changed the thinking of many motorsport bodies, and led to Volkswagen Racing UK advising Touring Car and Le Mans teams around the globe all keen to be the next to follow in our footsteps. 

On a lighter note, but still pushing the boundaries of motorsport innovation is the Volkswagen Caddy Van racer.  The first generation Caddy was developed in 2002 as a brand awareness builder for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, the 210 bhp diesel-powered van holding the honour of being the first racing van in existence anywhere in the world.

It all got a bit more serious with the generation 2 Caddy.  This time it was purpose-built as a racer from a bare shell.  With nearly 300bhp available from its 2.0 TDI engine, it has finished on the podium a number of times, and still holds the class lap-record at Rockingham circuit!  It has been driven by high-profile drivers such as David Coulthard, Jason Plato and Tiff Needell.

Today, in Germany our colleagues are concentrating on the Dakar project with the race Touareg, the Formula Three engine (powering the reigning British Champions), and the new Scirocco Cup one-make championship. 

Meanwhile, Volkswagen Racing UK is fully involved in preparing cars for our flourishing Volkswagen Racing Cup - especially Golf 5, 6 and Scirocco race preparation  (but also a brand new Leon Cupra for SEAT UK).  We have prepared versions of these cars for motorsport with 2 and 4 wheel drive, manual and DSG gearbox, 1.4 TSI, 2.0 TDI, 2.0 TFSI and 3.2 V6 engines. It is this experience and knowledge that has led to the introduction of the Performance and Motorsport Parts Range that you will find detailed in this website.

To see these cars in action , have a look through our Gallery of photos from over the years.