The two turbo-diesel Audi LMP1′s finished first and second in today’s American Le Mans Series race. It was their first overall win at Mid-Ohio, their second 1-2 finish, and their fifth win of the season. The winning team consisted of co-drivers Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr, and they talked for a bit after the race about how stoked they were to secure the win at this challenging track. The Audis are shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with this year in ALMS—while Werner modestly chalks it up to finally hitting the right combination of tire and car, it’s clear that they have a genius engineering team and garage crew behind them. Congrats, guys!

Yesterday, I was back in the California desert, testing the effectiveness of the air conditioning of a  Dodge Caliber SRT4 that’s in the Automotive Traveler garage this week. And what did I find as soon as the thermometer hit 120 degrees? Two lightly disguised Volkswagen Golf Plus 2.0 TDIs! There’s was no camo on the tail, so they weren’t hiding anything there, but the blocker in the Nissan SUV was doing all he could to stop me from getting a good, clean shot of the front; obviously there was something they’d prefer I not see.

Continue reading "Spied: Volkswagen Golf Plus 2.0 TDI" »

It took a bit of poking and prodding, but we managed to round up four "green" track cars for the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge on Sunday. We have two Jetta TDIs–the Chili Pepper Racing TDI and the Kerma TDI. We’ll also have the AC Propulsion eBox, which currently holds the 1/8th mile record with the National Electric Drag Racing Association for a street conversion. And finally, we have the Organic Racing Lotus 7 replica (an E85-powered WCM Ultralite S2K). These four will compete to see who’s the fastest, and who’s the greenest. Stay tuned for full coverage of Sunday’s event at Buttonwillow.

Chili Pepper Racing’s MK5 Jetta TDI was the world’s first professional bio-diesel touring car. Their mission? To raise money to fund research into the diagnosis, treatment and development of a cure for pediatric cancer. And they will be competing in the green track car category at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge at Buttonwillow in June!

If you want to be involved with the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge, time is running out. Check out cardomain.com/grm. And yes, we’re looking for more green track cars!

Anyone involved in motorsports knows that racing is big bucks, and sadly, the initial outlay for some series has become so prohibitive that it keeps a lot of talented folks out of the running. I’d really like to not see this happen to our buddy William Worley, who’s been invited to qualify for the extremely awesome Volkswagen TDI Cup at the upcoming driver selection event in Phoenix. Problem is, William only has about 24 hours left to come up with the $15,000 entry fee, and though he’s been doing a great job of absolutely busting his ass to scrape together sponsor dollars and private donations, he’s still come up a few bucks short. If CarDomain blog readers can come together to put him over the line, VW will provide him with a turbo-diesel track car to run and we’ll get to follow his very exciting path through the TDI cup series this summer! Check out his ride page, and if you’re feeling big-hearted and wanna help put William in the race, follow the link to the PayPal donation button on his website. Remember, every little bit helps, and he’s only got until the end of the day tomorrow to finish raising the funds!

The Honda Civic was voted "most mod friendly car" two years running in our People’s Choice Awards, so I guess you guys really hate hybrids. Either that or you really love the TDI. Cause the poor Civic Hybrid only got two votes in our latest Showroom Showdown. Even a Civic owner voted for the VW. Oh well. The Jetta is a pretty cool car. And I guess it doesn’t hurt to have a kick ass race series, too.

Post your ideas for new week’s match up! If I use it (and you leave me some way to contact you) I’ll send you a CarDomain t-shirt!

So you want to go green, but don’t feel like you have to announce it to the entire world by buying an ugly ass Prius? Want something that’s more of a driver’s car? Two great options for around $23k are the Honda Civic Hybrid and the VW Jetta TDI. Which would you choose, the Japanese hybrid or the German diesel?

Remember the VW Jetta TDI Cup Series we told you about not too long ago? You know, the one where VW is looking for 40 drivers (30 drivers, 10 backup) between the ages of 16-26 to participate in the series? The one where the winner will walk away with $1500, and the Series Point Champion will naba cool hundred grand? And then we mentioned that if the Series Champ is selected for a professional Motorsport series within six months, theprize is upped to $250,000? Starting to sound familiar? No? Huh…. I could have sworn we mentioned it.
Well, it’s an incredible opportunity. If you like to drive, and really like to drive fast, and want to do it in a professional environment in a specially equipped factory race car, you might want to head over to VW’s website and sign up. The deadline is fast approaching – February 29th! You can check out the full press release after the jump.

Continue reading "Time's Running Out: Jetta TDI Cup Registration Is Almost Up!" »

VW recently announced the launch of a new racing series in the US: The Jetta TDI Cup. This is the first all-diesel powered car racing series, and it’ll feature the new TDI Jetta equipped with a 2.0L 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine. The car will pack 170hp, almost 300 lb-ft of torque, the amazing automatic DSG transmission, ABS racing brakes, a fully independent racing suspension, and a special driver’s side airbag. To help promote the launch, the the VWoA Motorsport Board is looking for 40 drivers (30 drivers, 10 backup) between the ages of 16-26 to participate in the series—and they mean business. After each race, the winner will walk with $1500, and the Series Point Champion will nab a cool hundred grand. As if that wasn’t enough, if the Series Champ is selected for a professional Motorsport series within six months, the prize is upped to $250,000. What an incredible opportunity! Think you got what it takes? Then head on over to VW.com to and sign up!