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VW CADDY RACER
Page 34
Page 35
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Volkswagen is at the forefront of extracting the maximum efficiency from small diesel engines, with class-leading combinations of power and economy. It has already done much to promote the high performance diesel cause in the car world, but now VW Commercial Vehicles has got in on the act. With a little help from Volkswagen Racing UK, the Milton Keynes outfit has taken an innocent Caddy TDI van and turned it into a competitive circuit racer.
Having given it its first blooding on the race track, Volkswagen has now softened up the suspension a tad, fitted treaded tyres, put a Guinness label in the windscreen and given CM the privilege of being first to try it on the road.
otorsport is dangerous,' it says on the tickets, so the first thing the racing Caddy needed was a full set of safety kit. Dominating the interior is an impressive fully welded-in multi-point roll cage. A pair of body-hugging (especially on a CM-sized body) OMP racing seats, complete with full six-point quick. release safety harnesses with three-inch wide shoulder straps, and a large plumbed-in fire extinguisher round off the inventory. Inside. other changes include carbon fibre door panels with simple wire-pull interior door handles, a nice alloy gear knob, smaller racing steering wheel and, best of all, a proper pushbutton starter!
While VW could have used the PD unit injection system as fitted to the latest Golf models, it wanted to keep the van as close to its standard specification as possible, so it uses the conventional low-pressure rotary
pump system as fitted to a production Caddy TD I. The surprising feature of the engine is how little it has been modified. Thanks to the relatively low engine speeds needed to produce a large amount of torque, the engine's internal components are unmodified, not even needing to be balanced. The only hardware change is to replace the turbocharger with the large device from the t5ohp Golf TDI, and to replace the pipework for the standard Caddy TDI charge-cooler. The rest of the power increase is courtesy of Superchips' re-mapping of the standard Bosch engine management ECU.
A limited-slip differential and a 2.4:1 final drive are used in the competition gearbox, with a Sachs sintered metal racing clutch providing the drive. The whole power unit is installed with virtually solid engine mounts. A set of 7xr7in Team Dynamics alloy wheels are fitted to the standard layout suspension of McPherson struts at the front and leafsprung beam axle rear. In addition, the rear has coil-over shock absorbers and, like the front, adjustable spring seats and shock absorbers. Brakes are AP Racing vented discs on the front and a conversion to solid discs on the normally drum-braked rear axle.
Productivity
This section is admittedly not the Caddy racer's strong point. Half of the usual loadspace is taken up by the roll cage, although this does provide some useful
tie-down points. Load security is minimal, with the rear door locks replaced by safety clips. Payload is
little changed, though. The lack of car levels of trim in th basic van, combined with extra weight of th safety equipment, mean that the racer is nc much lighter than a production van, 1,085k compared with the standard 1,145kg, but thi does give a theoretical 6okg rise in earnin; ability.
Naturally, economy is not a major priorit for a racing van, but the way the extra powe has been gained means that, provided th temptation to use that power is resisted, ther wouldn't be a huge fuel penalty. Anyone usin; t for urban multi-drop deliveries would feed to be on the agile side as, thanks to he X-shaped side-intrusion bars, access s rather tight but fortunately, they'd be xcused having to wear the seat belts hey take a good five minutes to fasten ach time.
On the road
:ircumstances meant that we ran late vith our drive of the Caddy, so we were eft with no opportunity to reschedule then the chosen day turned out to be ather wet, to say the least. In its newly oad-legal form, the only available tyres were )unlop production racing tyres, designed for Fry use. We began our drive by exploring the iandling limits in the safe confines of the iroving ground's steering pad, where we soon liscovered that respect was demanded. Idthough we managed to keep the whole hing pointing the right way, the eagerness of he lightly-loaded rear to swap ends was very .pparent: the conviction to keep the power on s a must.
We were unable to measure acceleration irnes as the combination of dry tyres and wet isphalt meant that adequate traction eluded is, but we would estimate a o-Gomph time in ather less than six seconds.
As VW has gone to the trouble to ensure he Caddy is road legal. we felt duty-bound to ry it in the public arena, but it's not someking we would recommend to others. Its racng livery makes it an obvious target for every raffle cop in the country and, in the wet at east, the no-compromise chassis requires !xtremely high concentration levels, even with the slightly softer suspension settings.
The non-existent steering and suspension compliance, combined with the twitchy limited-slip HI, made for very nervous progress as the van darted from puddle to puddle. Because of the solid engine mounts, second and fourth gears could only be engaged from another gear and not neutral, so there was only one chance to make each shift. The good news, though, was the impressive flexibility that the engine retained, despite the greatly increased power. Also, when a dry surface could be found, its levels of grip were equally impressive.
But the Caddy wasn't really intended for the road. In the habitat it was intended for, it had its first outing in the Volkswagen Racing Cup at Thruxton on September is, a track renowned for its higher than average speeds. With VW Commercial Vehicles boss Peter Wyhinny at the wheel it managed not to disgrace itself with 16th place in the second race, a turbo pipe problem side-lining it in the first. Frequently on two wheels, it surprised a few modified petrol-engined Coifs in the process. This meeting was also noteworthy for seeing outright victories in both races and a new lap record for VW Racing's other project, as Michael Neuhoff humbled the spark-ignited opposition in the Golf TDI, the first UK win for a diesel-powered racer.
Verdict
To summarise the racing Caddy, it's hard, noisy, uncomfortable, unpredictable—and damned good fun! Give it a plain white paint job, fit some slightly more suitable tyres and throw away the roll cage. and you would have the ultimate courier van. No more late delivery penalties—ever. More seriously, though, as a proof-of-concept platform for the potential that diesel power has yet to offer, it's an unbeatable marketing tool.
a by Colin Barnett
VW CADDY
SPECIFICATION
MODEL
Volkswagen Caddy TDI (modified) OVW:1,770kg.
Clit3
Volkswagen 1.9 TDI 8-valve. Bosch engine management modified by Superchips.
Max power: 200hp (149kW) at 4,350rpm (std 89hp at 3750rpm). Max torque: 358Nm (264Ibft) at 3700rpm (std 210Nm at 1,900rpm), TRANSMISSION Standard type flue-speed manual driving front wheels. Competition gears and limited-slip cliff. Sachs sintered-steel clutch.
WHEELS/TYRES Team Dynamics 7x17in alloy wheels, with Dunlop DCrIJ 215/45 ZR17 tyres,