Bill Scott Scirocco

Years ago, VW ran a pair of Sciroccos in the Trans Am series and, on occasion, in IMSA. They were driven by Bill Scott (42) and Milt Minter (43) and were a really something else, even running in the 12 hours of Sebring in the late 70s. I wonder where they are now? I did a little poking around, and it would seem that one of the cars (42) was written off, perhaps at Sebring as they are listed as not finishing, but the #43 car may still be floating around. Some say it made it's way to a VW museum, but one would assume that there would be at least one picture of it from the recent past, rather than the ancient past. They did run a car numbered '02' at the 1976 12 hours of Sebring in the GTU class. It was driven by Bill Scott and Milt Minter, and finished in 56th place overall (out of 75 cars) and 25th in GTU class (out of 30 cars) - completing 54 laps. As far as I have read, this is the only IMSA race they entered. The car was nearly stock and became the basis of the future Trans-Am program. Bob Mckee the owner of the company that built the two Trans Am Scirocco's for Bill Scott. He had told me that they originally made clay mock ups for the fenders and sent them to a local fiberglass guy to duplicate. The air dam was originally a Kamei that they modified and added the scoups for brake cooling ducks and then made molds to duplicate. They were never mass produced. Only made enough for original cars and some spares. " Unfortunately there may not be that many people left alive with any knowledge on where these cars ended up. Bill Scott's memory wasn't so good the last few years he was alive, from what I have read. Milt Minter drove the car a few years ago, as did Steve Behr. Joe Hoppen was in charge of VW / Audi / Porsche motorsport in the USA in the 70s, and would have been the man who made the decisions about the Scirocco Trans-Am project. A friend was pretty close with him apparently, and had I been able to put 2+2 together and made the effort, maybe he would have been able to add a little more to the puzzle. A bit too little too late unfortunately. The last bit of into I had heard on this was from an interview with Joe talking about the Porsche 934/935. At the time (1976) IMSA had banned the 934 from running and Joe had already ordered 10 cars from Porsche, expecting to sell them to race IMSA. So with them not able to run, he went to the SCCA and asked if they could run the 934, and if they were allowed, VW / Audi / Porsche would promise 10 entries into each race. In the interview he mentions that two of those ten cars were the Sciroccos. The first race was at Pocono race way in Pennsylvania... The Trans Am series was professional road racing sanctioned by SCCA in the 70's, 80's and maybe into the 90's. After they were dominated by factory backing it faded out because it got too expensive for privateers. Then the factories pulled out and it died. In 1975, Bill Scott, a Chicago area VW Dealer, went to McKee Engineering and had them build two Scirocco's with support from the VW factory to run in Group 1 under 2 litre. Bill drove one of the cars (#42) and Milt Minter drove the other, #43. Milt went on to win the Trans Am Championship for his group in 1976. "In 1975, Bill Scott, a Chicago area VW Dealer, went to McKee Engineering and had them build two Scirocco's with support from the VW factory to run in Group 1 under 2 litre." When they received it (kamei car), the car had a magnificent roll-bar cage from McKay Engineering, fully tied into the body at all suspension points. They also picked up boxes of parts - not all of which related either to the car or each other - from the group which originally was going to field the car. The cars were built by McKee engineering in Palatine Il., The engines were by Bertil's. Built by Bill Scott (at the time Scott VW of Libertyville, Il.) Car #43 is in the VW museum and car #42 was known to wrecked badly and probably dismanteled or scrapped.

The Volkswagen Scirocco was a unique car.