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VW Golf Bimotor "Pikes Peak" - the Volkswagen with two hearts

Name: VW Golf Bimotor Pikes Peak 1987
Brand: VW

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Created on February 17, 2023

Text:

Daniel Reinhard

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

Daniel Reinhard

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

VW Golf ll Bimotor "Pikes Peak" (1987) - at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb 1987

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VW Golf ll Bimotor "Pikes Peak" (1987) - Jochi Kleint at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb 1987

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VW Golf (1985) - sixth place for Jochi Kleint in the 195 hp Golf on Pikes Peak 1985

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VW Golf ll Bimotor "Pikes Peak" (1987) - at the Rossfeldrennen 2018

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VW Golf ll Bimotor "Pikes Peak" (1987) - view of the rear engine, at the Rossfeldrennen 2018

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VW Golf ll Bimotor "Pikes Peak" (1987) - view of the front engine, at the Rossfeldrennen 2018

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VW Golf II Pikes Peak (1987) - in the special exhibition on Volkswagen's racing/rally history at the Schloss Bensberg Classics 2014

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VW Golf II (1987) - twin-engine version with 653 hp for the Pikes Peak hill climb, restored from 2017 to 2018 (Techno Classica 2018)

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VW Golf II (1987) - Fan for rear engine on the Pikes Peak Golf (Techno Classica 2018)

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Summary

In 1987, Volkswagen almost beat the Audi Quattro on Pikes Peak - with a Golf. However, the racing version had little in common with the well-behaved off-the-shelf compact car. With an additional engine in front of the rear axle, there was certainly no lack of propulsion. This report describes the twin-engined Golf and shows it in many pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

Pretty far removed from the series
Racing technology
Zigzag
Brakes irrelevant
Small cause, big effect
Yet another VW victory

Estimated reading time: 5min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The Wolfsburg-based company created a very special Golf with a small fuel tank, a monocoque chassis and two engines just for a single fast drive over exactly 19.99 kilometers with 156 bends. Where there is normally a bench seat for the rear passengers, a longitudinally mounted four-cylinder turbo was added to the front engine as a mid-engine, resulting in a total output of around 600 hp and two driven axles. The idea of twin engines was already implemented in 1981 in a Jetta with two 110 hp four-cylinder engines, then in 1982 in a Scirocco with two 180 hp engines. In 1985, the first Golf built specifically for Pikes Peak with two engines producing almost 200 hp was used, followed in 1987 by the second variant with the two 1.8-liter turbocharged engines from the Golf GTI 16V, which would finally claim victory.

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