VW Bonneville Jetta built for speed record attempt
The Volkswagen everybody has been talking about recently is the electric I.D. R Pikes Peak racer. However, the 680-horsepower hill climb special is not the only VW product seen at Pikes Peak: VW has also brought a specially tuned Jetta to the mountain, for the Pikes Peak Fan Fest held today in Colorado Springs.
The Bonneville Jetta is built by Ventura-based speed shop THR Manufacturing, to take on the BGC/G class record at the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. It's based on the 2019 Jetta, and it has a modified version of the two-liter gasoline turbo engine under its custom liveried hood. The car also gets salt flat specific wheels and tires, a suspension kit and a limited slip differential. It's also got a pair of parachutes to help slow it down.
The graphics on the Jetta have been designed by VW's Southern California Design Center. Production details can be seen all around the vehicle, but inside it, a very sturdy roll cage dominates the interior — just in case the car ends up shiny side down on the salt flats.
The current class record speed the Jetta has to beat is 208.472 mph, which VW hopes to reach with the help of the Jetta's good drag coefficient of 0.27.
One of the reasons for the Bonneville Jetta's build is the fact there's a GTI-matching Jetta GLI in the works. As VW North America's Hinrich J. Woebcken says: "With the attempt on the Bonneville speed record with the Jetta, we want to underline the Jetta's sporty credentials and get customers excited for the more performance-oriented Jetta GLI on the way."
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VW Bonneville Jetta built for speed record attempt originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:00:00 EDT.
