As you May have heard, VW set a very specific record with the brand new Jetta that meant it went over 210 mph. Kindly, VW offered to fly us out for the record attempt and while we were there we talked to some of the VW owners who were around for the racing—normally that’s the part where we arbitrarily say that these are the coolest cars at X, Y, or Z, but forget it, everything and everyone at Bonneville is the coolest.
Most of these conversations happened while teams were in line, waiting for their turn to run the salts.
Who? Jeff Volk and Robbie Giroux
Jeff: We’re originally from Oklahoma, but we live in Colorado now. This is our fourth year with the same car. We’re running the big block challenge. It’s everything but the 36 horsepower engines. Once you step up, even a forty horse would be bigger, I guess. It’s got a Type 1, 2390 cc engine. It makes about 200 hp, naturally aspirated. We’re shooting for 150 mph. We’ve seen 136 in this car.
VWV: Who drives?
Jeff: I drive, Robbie isn’t curious about it, but I keep trying to get her behind the wheel. You don’t feel like you’re going fast. You can feel it in the seat of your pants. That’s how you feel it. We land race, too. We do the Colorado mile, and race motorcycles. Racing a motorcycle is alright on asphalt, but I don’t race my motorcycle on the salt. I would race somebody else’s.
VWV: You care more about the bike than your own safety?
Jeff: I’d probably just slide for a while. People get killed out here, but it’s a freak thing when it happens. People who go over 400, that potential’s there. It’s not an easy crash no matter what. You catch an edge, it’s over. And then there’s those guys who just kind of slide on the top.
VWV: Have you ever had any scary moments?
Jeff: The engine blew up last year. The oil pump lost engagement to the camshaft, lunched the motor. It was a 2440 cc, too. So this is a brand new motor.
VWV: What was that like?
The engine just went *boop.* It just went *waaaaaah, boop* and the car filled with smoke. WE lost a cylinder, it knocked the camshaft in half, it broke a couple of cylinders. We didn’t have many good parts left. We even lost the rocker shaft, lost a couple of exhaust valves.
VWV: What brought you to the Salt Flats in the first place?
Jeff: The 36 horsepower challenge brought us out. We always loved VWs. We race motorcycles and ‘Vettes, too, but this is our passion. We’ve got the bug for salt flat racing. It was, like, on my bucket list. And then there was talk years ago that there might not be any racing someday because the salt was so thin, until the save the salt organization got with the miners and everybody got on board and now the salt’s twice as thick as it was five or six years ago. These are the best conditions I’ve seen.
VWV: Alright, thanks. Good luck.
Jeff: Thanks
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