Scirocco Production Ends with No Succession Plan

Even though you couldn’t buy it here, and even though it was part of a class of cars that don’t really make good business sense—perhaps because of that—the Scirocco held a special place in hearts of the faithful. Now, after nten years, production of the third-gen Scirocco has stopped, with no follow-up expected for some time, if at all.

Car and Driver recently discovered that Volkswagen’s German site has stopped giving potential buyers the option to build a Scirocco of their own. Despite that, there are still a few unsold Sciroccos up for grabs, but the Palmela, Portugal production line has stopped (metaphorically).

First introduced in 2008, the third-gen revived the Scirocco name after 16 years out of production. When it came out it was named Top Gear’s Car of the Year 2008 and a 260 hp Scirocco R was eventually offered.

The third-gen Scirocco was never offered in America, apparently because it might have hurt GTI sales, though its chances weren’t helped by the Euro’s exchange rate.

Fortunately, VW’s future isn’t completely coupe-less. Frank Welsch, head of R&D, revealed a few months ago that an electric coupe is in the works. That probably wouldn’t be all that similar to a Scirocco, though, since the MEB platform is rear-or-all-wheel-drive and keeps its motor out back by default. Don’t hold your breath for that, though, because a production model is still a ways away.

For the time being, anyway, the lineup has lost something special. So take a moment of silence today for the dearly departed Scirocco. We hardly knew ye.

[source: Car and Driver]

The post Scirocco Production Ends with No Succession Plan appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2kHbZpT
via IFTTT

Comments

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog