Silver Beetles in extreme positions have belonged to the Austrian rally scene for five years and are now already in dominating places. Ninth in the overall placings in the 1972 European Rally Championship characterize the strength of the Salzburg Volkswagen Team, which in this year is a word of the encouragement, as they didn’t get one Pfennig from Wolfsburg. At the end of 1971 the Salzburg Team Manager Gerhard Strasser went before the Volkswagen boss Leiding, in order to refer to successes and to obtain funding (including assistance) for the future. Strasser: " Mr. Leiding was very interested and gave them half an hour. " More, because Wolfsburg sport assistance is not limited to Formula Vee. The hope, which was that the Salzburg sport department of the Austrian Volkswagen importer could become such a thing as the assigned one (official or unofficial) of a Volkswagen factory team, did not fulfil itself. Thus the Austrians continue alone: 1972 the importer provided a budget of 2.5 million Schilling (approximately 340,000 Marks) for the rally operation, a further 150,000 Marks of sponsorship (from Shell, Bosch, Pirelli and Bilstein) were received. That is sufficient, in order to be competitive in Austria, and to structure a sporty image for VW, but too little, in order to show the Volkswagen flag abroad.
The largest assets of the Salzburgers are five years experience in the building of hot Beetles. In 1969 and 1970, when Gerhard Strasser’s department became the official Porsche Importer, and Messrs Siffert, Elford, Hulme and Herrmann drove under Austrian colours, the rally cars were on the sidelines, since 1971 it is the only object for Team Manager Gerhard Strasser, foremen Paul Schwarz, seven mechanics, an apprentice and a secretary.
The pluses and minuses of the Volkswagen in the rallysport can be characterized quite simply: Simple technology makes it a continuous runner, good-natured handling enables an extreme driving technique, on the other hand a Beetle will never be able to get into the weight per horsepower realms of an Escort, a BMW or an OPEL.
For the possibilities that are offered to the driver, specialists are brought on in Austria. In sport, a VW - on any type of road - oversteers, which drivers must never count on, because of the danger that for alternation the front could break out instead of the tail. The technique of awkward placing can be operated thereby with less compromise than with any other vehicle, one lets the Beetle whip backwards, brakes in awkward places, aims for the curve "Apex " transversestanding on, helps themselves in any way with awkward places. An extreme driving fashion is a must, in order to adjust for the lack of power, at least for people who want to lead. Guenther Janger, 30, is the ideal figure for this car. In many painful rides he pushed the limits again and again, and today white it rather exactly, " where never goes ". Accordingly it lowered its firings almost on zero, and with a front seat passenger (Harald Gottlieb), who is durable enough to stop budding nervous breakdowns, it even became a safe finisher. Dr. Gernot Fischer, 36, is the long-distance type of the team, newcomer George Fischer, 24, is something like a reserve Janger, he is becoming ever faster. For the remaining cars (up to six per rally) there are several candidates, whereby Gruensteidl and Bisek are in the foreground, also the services of Safari winner Edgar is gladly accepted. Large cash is to be paid to none of them, but otherwise the care is as at a factory team, which concerns the strictly professional preparation of the cars and complex service. Team manager Gerhard Strasser, 35, is of the opinion, " that us in the rallysport now none more which tell can ". Strasser formerly raced motorcycles, and still today enjoys the possession of three 750cc Nortons, which he alternates riding.
Technical head of the department is Paul Schwarz, 44, former Apfelbeck co-worker, ex-KTM Works Leader and developer. He alone is responsible for engineering the chassis and engine -. Engine: A prerequisite for a successful power increase was a dry sump lubrication system - "System Schwarz ". Beside the standard mechanical pump (attached to the oil tank), a feed pump is built into the cycle. The l7berlegung, for this second pump, which sends the oil from the crank case back into the oil tank, three normal Volkswagen production cogwheels are used, is at the same time simple and reliable. The oil cooler comes from the Mercedes 250 SE and is found under the front bumper, behind the grill (the US specification apron). A loan of the Porsche 911S oil thermostat controls the cycle.
By over-boring the barrels to 85.9 mm, the capacity boundary of the class was almost achieved: 1599 cc (opposite 1584 in the series). The exterior characteristic of a Paul Schwarz engine is the double carburettor system (two Weber 46 IDA 2/3). The adjustment resulted in considerable problems, which were only recovered with a trip to Modena, to the Weber factory. The newest adjustment enables high elasticity, and yet works well with the ignition timing. Starting from 1600 rpm, the engine can be accelerated at full throttle without jerking.
The intake manifolds (light alloy) come from Sauer and Sohn, which became of BLW manufactured intake valves on 40 mm increased, the exhaust valves remain standard. The " flanking measures " consist of shortening of the valve guides, shaping of the ports and discreet work on the combustion chambers, probably making a compression ratio of 9,1:1, which in relation to standard is clearly increased, but still quite tame.
Tuner Schwarzen’s dearest child is the camshaft, for which the master gives, however, no specification.
Forged Mahle pistons, chromium-plated Goetze piston rings are after-market parts, the remainder are Volkswagen series, which, according to Strasser, the individual sections are not even particularly scrutinized.
The result of this work is 126 HP at the crankshaft (at 6000 rpm) with a maximum torque of 13,9 mkp (100 lbft) at 5200 revs, but the curve runs rather flat. Numbers of revolutions in the area stood by 6000 rpm those getunten Beetles even on longer time, with 6500 one abgeregelt however.
Transmission: The Homologation of the VWPorsche-914-Five-speed gearbox was, for the Salzburgers, a crucial step forward. Up to then they had helped themselves with a close-ratio four-speed box. The current ratios of the 1:4.429 Differential (3.091, 2.189, 1.684, 1.318 and 1.04) result in the following km/h of values in the individual courses in the case of 6500 routes and the 165HR15-Bereifung: to 58, 82, 107, 137 and 174, corresponds thus to a close four-speed gearbox plus another gear. Except the differential with 80-per cent-locks, all further sections of the power transmission are standard.
Chassis: Amazingly small changes to the standard car are made to the chassis. Bilstein shock absorbers, front shock struts (a Bilstein development), an adjustment of the front wheels to a negative camber of 0,5 degrees and experiments with a stabilizer on the rear axle, which one does not always use, that is all. Steering element, rear wheel suspension and even clearance remain unchanged. The dry weight of the rally-ready car amounts to 890 kg. The gasoline tank holds 80 litres. The 5 1/2-rims are produced in the house: Normal Volkswagen rims are cut apart, and welded together wider. These steel wheels are only insignificantly heavier than light alloy wheels, and brought the best results in hard operation. Because of the contract with Pirelli mostly 165HR15-Tyres of the type M535 (normal or coarse profile) are drawn up, the selection exist also between Racing and winter mixture.
The weakest point of the Salzburger Beetles is the brake assembly. The modification is limited to the rear, with an over two millimetre increase on the wheel cylinders, harder shoes and brake fluid with a higher boiling point - for the style of driving of Janger and co that is somewhat too little, and the last part of a special test is often driven without brakes. One experiments at improvements however.
Be called beetle available: In practice a chassis is used for a full season and is re-designated the following year to be the training car. Also the engines are held at least one year in operation. Salzburger beetles are also available, however only for customers who have already achieved appropriate successes. The price for a new Rally Beetle (inclusive of engine), which would be completely identical to a team car, amounts to 180,000 Schillings (approximately 25,000 Marks). Used cars, which ran one for season to the year-end, depending upon the status of the engine, are around 9000 to 14500 Marks apiece.
The Salzburger running department built and offers a tamer-tuned version of the 1600-ccm-Motors as a by-product, a " GT engine " to the everyday driver. This machine is fully suited to everyday-life, and might have almost the same life expectancy as a standard engine, which is performance lifted to 65 HP, which will help a Beetle to a genuine 145 km/h. The price for the exchange of a 1303-engine fresh from the factory, against a GT machine, amounts to 8100 Schilling (1100 Marks) without assembly, which can be achieved by skilled amateur mechanics themselves. In 1972, in Austria, 210 GT machines were nevertheless sold.
Future: The management of Volkswagen Porsche Austria might still give no official green light to the Racing department for 1973, for approximately the same budget to be granted again. Strasser would gladly modify the proposal, and would deny only half a dozen renowned rallies abroad. Whether the importer will accept this request, is another matter, above all because Wolfsburg is still uninterested. Except the Homologation of the dry sump lubrication and the five-speed gearbox, so far no relief from Wolfsburg was proven to the Salzburger sportsmen.
A further shadow for Gerhard Strasser: Its star Guenther Janger is on the capture list of Toyota. The star already received an invitation to join the rally team of the Japanese, which is to be run from Brussels.
