motorsports bahn brenner - Bahn Brenner Motorsport

BAHN BRENNER
MOTORSPORTS
THE COULD-HAVE- I
BEEN CONTENDER
:: EUROTUNER_GP
’90 VW 16v Supercharged Corrado
AWARD
n my book, this was the coolest of all the
cars, though that could have something to
do with the fact that I’m partial to Corrados.
This car was more than just your average,
run-of-the-mill Corrado, though. From the outside of the car, you simply notice the very
clean body and spotless red paint, something
you don’t find very often on Corrados. The
second that the hood is opened and the motor is revealed, the car becomes far from ordinary. With a 1.8L 16v, this motor should
not put out the kind of power it does.
SPECS
Horsepower:: 254.4
Torque:: 219.8 lb-ft
Top Speed:: N/A
Lap Time:: N/A
0
eurotuner sept 2003
70
eurotuner.com
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
:: EUROTUNER_GP
John Betz, owner of Bahn Brenner Motorsports, had the faith that this motor could put
down some serious numbers. He had the
crank, rods, and pistons custom-made; the
pistons were designed to lower the compression level down to 7.5:1 to withstand highboost applications. A set of 272/268 cams
were installed, and the Lysolm MX screw-type
supercharger was installed along with a 90mm
cog belt to avoid losing power due to belt slip.
With the power makers in place, John needed
something to control all the fuel and spark, as
he knew the stock ECU would only limit the
amount of power this car could put down. A
Tec III engine management system, 83-pound
injectors, and an Arromotive high-volume fuel
pump were called into action.
The morning of the dyno runs at K&N, John
and his crew pushed the car out of the trailer.
Once a little bit of tuning was done, the car
was fired up. Everyone, and I mean everyone,
turned as the car was started. It was by far the
meanest-sounding Corrado I have ever heard,
and I’ve seen and driven quite a few of them.
As John was pulling the car onto the dyno,
his team of tuners hooked a laptop up to the
stand-alone engine management system and
began to adjust air/fuel ratios. Once they had
everything the way they wanted, the dyno
wheels began to spin. Running 17 psi of
boost, the 1.8L 16v put down 254 horsepower at 6,700 rpm and held onto the power way
past 8,000 rpm. The torque numbers were
equally impressive; the car put down 220 lb-ft
at 5,300 rpm and held over 150 lb-ft until the
accelerator was released. With the hollowedout body and its seemingly endless revs, I
was positive this car would be a contender at
Bahn Brenner Motorsports ’90 VW 16v Supercharged Corrado
eurotuner sept 2003
72
eurotuner.com
the track. At this point, I was such a groupie
that I applied eurotunerGP stickers to the car,
and I hate putting vinyl on cars.
A sad end to the story is that, during the
practice runs, the car lost oil pressure and
was pulled from the competition due to some
serious engine damage. Shortly after the car
came off the track, the culprit was found. I’m
sure some of you have experienced this
one—I know that I have. The check valve on
the factory oil pump failed and catastrophic
things ensued. This, in my opinion, could
have been the car that took it all in the lap
time portion of the GP. It had the right suspension, plenty of usable power, and, if driven to its limits, could have schooled any of
the cars present.
There’s an upside and a downside to this
whole thing. The upside is that John’s parts
stayed together and ran extremely well on
the dyno, and the downside is that a factory
part played a major role in destroying what,
in my opinion, was the coolest motor and car
at the event—but then again, I’m a Corrado
freak. —Jason Jackman