Skip to main content

Stories from the Salt: Big Daddy’s Karmann Ghia

As you May have heard, VW set a very specific record with the brand new Jetta at the Bonneville Salt Flats. 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 EVER 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.

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

Who? Bob Joslin, his son is Craig Joslin, and his son Brett “You Guessed It” Joslin.

Bob: It’s a built VW motor. It’s 1968 cc. Probably making around 150 hp. We’re hoping to get above 130 mph. We were out here two years ago with a different motor and we ran 142 mph.

VWV: Is the Karmann Ghia good on the Salt Flats?

Bob: They’re real good body style for running out here. Pretty streamlined, down low to the ground. The secret is to get it down on the ground, get as little wind resistance as possible.

We’ve been out here for four years with this. About five years ago, my son and I came out here to watch and when we got back my son said ‘dad, let’s build a car.’

We’re mostly into street rods, normally. I live in Alabama and my son lives in Georgia. My son, he races Road Atlanta, with the BMW Club of America.

VWV: Why VWs, then?

Bob: This is just fun. It kind of gets into your blood. We had it towed out, our friends towed our car and we flew in yesterday. We made the trip once before and that was enough. It’s just the thrill of being out where you can put the pedal on the ground and go as fast as you can.

VWV: What’s it like driving on salt?

Bob: Well, it’s different than driving on the asphalt. The salt is—you know, you move around on the salt. It’s like driving on a sandy beach. The car gets light, especially a car this size with that much horsepower. It feels like… It’s just a fun experience.

Main thing is just be gentle getting up to speed, keep the steering wheel straight and let it float. Let it do what it wants to do.

VWV: Who drives?

Bob: I drive, my son drives, and this year my grandson is 16 so he’s driving, too. You have to be 16, you have to have a license to drive.

VWV: Have you come every year since you first came five years ago?

Bob: We were too busy doing other stuff last year. I’m the mayor of Arab, Alabama, 20 miles south of Huntsville. I retired from the corp of engineers, that’s what I did.

I’ve been messing around with I was 12 years old. Porsches, VWs, now we’ve got street rods. I’ve got a ’36 Ford 4R convertible and it’s got a 350 chevy, power steering, power brakes. Just fun. And my son has several collector type models. 65 models and 66 models. Collector models.

VWV: Thanks, good luck.

Bob: Thanks.

If you enjoyed this story, stay tuned for more, including a lengthy discussion of a land speed racer with a V10 TDI engine.

The post Stories from the Salt: Big Daddy’s Karmann Ghia appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2NqWMau
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volkswagen Golf GTE Wins Top Honor at the 2015 Business Techies Awards

Golf GTE wins Green category in the 2015 BusinessCar Fleet Technology awards Judges praised the Golf GTE for its performance, ease of use and economy Golf GTE launched earlier this year with plug-in hybrid technology – priced from £33,755 204 PS performance combined with CO 2  emissions of just 39 g/km Volkswagen has added to its growing list of 2015 automotive industry accolades by winning the Green category in the annual BusinessCar Fleet Technology Awards – the Techies. The prestigious title was awarded to Volkswagen for the Golf GTE, an innovative plug-in hybrid that combines sporty dynamics with exceptional fuel economy and low CO 2  emissions. Now in their seventh year, the Techies are judged by both BusinessCar’s experienced editorial panel with help from TRL’s technology expert. The industry’s only technology-specific awards, the BusinessCar Techies reward the use of technology to make business car fleet operations easier, cheaper, cleaner, safer and more straig...
Post a Comment
Read more