Volkswagen’s Brazilian SP Coupe Turns 40 This Year

Volkswagen celebrates this year the 40th anniversary of the SP coupe, a car relatively unknown outside Brazil, its country of origin. Built by the company's Brazilian subsidiary in the '70s, the attractive coupe has an interesting story. In 1968 Rudolf Leiding, former CEO of Audi NSU, was appointed director of VW do Brasil, a job he accepted under one condition: to have the permission of building models adapted for the Brazilian market.

In the 1970's auto imports were blocked in South America's largest market, so Leiding thought about building a two-seat sports coupe that he believed would be successful.

Together with ‘Karmann-Ghia do Brasil’, which at the time was building the already dated Karmann Ghia coupe, Volkswagen Brazil started developing a new coupe, which had to use as many parts as possible from VW's local model range in order to keep costs low.

The team used the platform of the VW 1600, the Brazilian version of the Type 3 (forefather of the Passat). Engineers took the chassis, axles and the engine, while the steel body was developed from scratch. The SP also used the twin headlights of the 1600. The 54HP 1.6-liter engine that equipped the test prototype car proved itself inappropriate for a sports car so VW decided to offer this unit in a basic version called SP-1.

There were jokes that the SP name stood for "Sem Potência" (Portuguese for "without power"), but it actually came from São Paulo, Brazil's largest city. For the SP-2 version, however, engineers enlarged the displacement of the air-cooled flat-four engine to 1.7 liters. The unit thus developed 65 horsepower at 4,600 rpm and offered the SP-2 a top speed of 156 km/h (97 mph).

While the SP-1 sold in limited numbers, the SP-2 reached 10,000 units from June 1972 to February 1976, with the vast majority of them being sold in Brazil. The car was never officially sold in Europe, but one model found its way to Germany in 1971, when Rudolf Leiding was called back to VW headquarters to be installed as the company's CEO. He brought along an SP-2 as a gift to his wife. Today, European collectors own several SP-2 coupes and one can be seen in VW's museum. A few years ago, there was an attempt to revive the SP-2, but nothing has materialized so far.

VIDEO: Volkswagen's 440-horse Golf24 Endurance Racer on the Track

Last week, Volkswagen unveiled the Golf24 endurance racer with which it will compete in this year’s Nürburgring 24-hour race. This is the first time since 2007 that the Germans enter a Golf-based competition model in the event. Unlike its 300HP, front-wheel drive predecessor, the new model gets all-wheel drive and a 2.5-liter five-cylinder turbo engine cranking out 440 ponies and 540 Nm (398 lb-ft) of peak torque. Hit the jump to see the Golf24 in action at the Vallelunga racetrack in Italy.

By Csaba Daradics

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Spy Video: 2012 New Beetle Caught Testing on the Road

We've shown you the spy shots and told you about the Oprah gig where the famous TV host gave away 275 examples of the yet-to-be-revealed New Beetle to her audience. Now, the 2012 model was caught on video towing a pretty big trailer during a series of tests carried out in Europe. VW has promised that the new generation of the retro-styled hatch, which will arrive in May next year, will be a “driving machine" but did not elaborate further. Video after the jump.

By Csaba Daradics

Via: Autoblog

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Video-Time: Volkswagen IROC Concept

Well this seems kind of premature as VW just released the official pictures a few hours ago, but we sure don't have a problem. Click at the two following videos bellow and take a closer look at Wolfsburgs new Scirocco -oops, I'm sorry, I mean IROC... concept!

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Volkswagen Golf GTI Commercials “Unpimp my ride”

Hilarious!

Volkswagen breaks a North American campaign for the new Golf GTI that takes a poke at MTV's Pimp My Ride

Featuring a German vixen who seems to have walked straight out of the 70’s, and a German engineer filling Xzibit's Pimp my Ride position, Volkswagen’s Golf GTI new series of commercials take a poke at MTV's successful “Pimp My Ride” show.

The German duo shoot a car out of a catapult in one spot, crush a car with a crate containing the new GTI in another. In the third commercial, they crush a car with a wrecking ball. At the end of these ads, Stormare spouts such gems as "Representing Deutschland", and "German engineering in da haus", and the ads end with the voice-over "Pre-tuned by German engineers".

"There are people that think the culture has gone too far and there’s a bit of a backlash from the Hollywood version. In some way they ruined what was a very organic and very cool thing," said Alex Bogusky, chief creative officer at Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky, a unit of MDC Partners. Targeting males 18 to 49, the campaign includes Internet, outdoor and print iterations, rolling out nationally over the next couple of months.

"Our goal is to make VW famous and relevant again," said Kerri Martin, director of marketing development at VW. "If the Beetle is the heart of the brand, then the GTI is the soul of the brand. It hits on all four things that really have made Volkswagen famous over the years: affordable, German engineering that is fun to drive and a distinctly European style."

Volkswagen Golf GTI: Catapult

Volkswagen Golf GTI: Crate

Volkswagen Golf GTI: Wrecking ball