Lost Behind VW's Emissions Cheating Scandal? Diesel-Fed Jetta Racecars
Forget Dieselgate—well, maybe don't—this is diesel-powered Jetta races away from that history.
The 2006 Volkswagen Jetta isn't exactly a car that set the world on fire. It was a decent A-to-B daily driver that offered a roomy, upmarket-feeling alternative to the Japanese and American economy cruisers of the era, though its then-new, Audi-style waterfall grille proved mildly controversial among the VW faithful. Later diesel variants' getting tied up in Volkswagen's massive emissions-cheating scandal were more controversial still, but there was a less well-known, racier side to the Jetta TDIs of the era...
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Despite the small sedan being marketed as a slightly upscale daily driver, it also served as a respectable race car platform. It didn't quite reach Mazda MX-5 levels of popularity but seeing a Jetta race car at a track day certainly wasn't rare. VW even sold commemorative sporty models to the public celebrating these diesel racers; known as the Jetta TDI Cup cars, they were, more or less, diesel-powered Jetta GLIs—essentially sedan-shaped GTIs with sportier suspension tuning, cooler wheels, and such. Only instead of the GLI/GTI's turbocharged 2.0-liter gas engine, the TDI Cup models ran on VW's smaller diesel I-4.
Now you can buy a piece of that very brief moment in history at Mecum Auctions Monterey this year. A 2006 Volkswagen Jetta racer is one of many lots that will cross the auction block. This particular example even runs on biodiesel. We suspect that this purpose-built racecar will gain tons of interest purely off its ironic, post-Dieselgate potential.
According to the auction listing, car was built by Chili Pepper Racing and the team campaigned the car in the SPEED World Challenge Touring Car series. Under its hood is a PD racing engine based off the production Jetta TDI's 1.9-liter turbodiesel engine.
It's anybody's guess what a car like this may fetch at auction but one thing is for sure: It's certainly cooler and a little rarer than the Jetta TDI Cup cars. While it's rare to see any TDI from around the Dieselgate era, given how many hundreds of thousands were bought back by VW, this one just barely preceded that chapter in VW's history.
Andrew Beckford’s passion for cars started as a middle schooler when his friend Richie explained how an internal combustion engine works. He was bitten by the bug and the rest, as they say, is history. He dug deep into the tuner scene and eventually wrote for Turbo Magazine, Import Tuner, Super Street. He covered car shows, feature builds, and reviewed racing games for those magazines in addition to covering motorsports including Formula Drift, Indy Car, and F1 for his personal blog. Eventually Beckford joined MotorTrend to cover the daily automotive news beat. Besides being a gearhead, Beckford has been a gamer since the ’80s and is a huge fan of the arcade racing games of the ’90s like Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer. Beckford’s a movie buff as well, especially comic book films from DC and Marvel. When car culture crosses over with gaming and entertainment, rest assured Beckford is aware of it. In addition to serving as a consultant on a “triple A” racing titles, he’s reviewed major racing games such as Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, F1, and more. He’s also interviewed blockbuster directors including Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo). His biggest profile to date was with Robert Downey Jr. on his love affair with cars and his show Downey’s Dream Cars on MAX. Beckford’s profile of Downey Jr. was the first print cover story written by an African American in MotorTrend’s history. Along with KJ Jones, Andrew Beckford also heads up MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month by spotlighting diverse voices in the automotive industry and motorsports. Beckford’s first car was a 1982 Nissan Stanza affectionately named “Stanley” by his late mother.
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