Formula Vee

Olympic Formula Vee racing at Nürburgring in 1969
2008 Formula Vee 45th Birthday Party at Roebling Road Raceway

Formula Vee (Formula Fau Vee in Brazil and Germany) or Formula Volkswagen is a popular open wheel, single-seater junior motor racing formula, with relatively low costs in comparison to Formula Ford or Formula BMW.

On the international stage, Niki Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi and Keke Rosberg, all Formula 1 champions, raced Formula Vees in Europe or America at the beginning of their careers. In Australia, V8 Supercar drivers Larry Perkins, Colin Bond, John Blanchard, John Bowe, Jason Bargwanna and Paul Stokell were also racers in Formula Vee.

The class is based on a pre-1963 Volkswagen Beetle, utilizing a collection of the stock parts to form a competitive race car around a purpose-built tube frame and racing tires. The VW engine, transmission, front suspension, brakes and wheels are stock or modified stock parts. The chassis is a tube frame design and the body is fiberglass or carbon fiber. The intention of this class is for the average person to build and maintain the car.

2010 SCCA National Championships Runoffs winner

While it is primarily a class in the Sports Car Club of America, many other organizations have adopted the Formula Vee as a class. Over the years, the rules have evolved to improve performance, lower cost, or to allow replacement of discontinued parts. In 2003, Grassroots Motorsports presented Formula Vee with the Editors' Choice Award. [1]

In 2008, a brand new ready-to-race car would cost about US $15,000. The car could be bought as a kit for about US $8,000, minus the Volkswagen parts. It costs approximately US $700 per race to maintain.

A top-running Formula Vee will go 120 mph (190 km/h) and corner at about 1.6 g. It weighs a minimum of 1,025 pounds (465 kg) with driver or 500kg with driver as raced in the Australian 1600cc specification.[2][3] Each year, Formula Vee is one of the classes at the SCCA Runoffs, which awards a National Championship. Variants of the Formula Vee rules exist in the Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Germany and New Zealand - including Formula First in the USA and New Zealand which employs the same chassis, but with later model Beetle parts, a larger 1600cc motor and other upgraded components such as disc brakes rack and pinion steering.

(Formula Super Vee, although initially similar, soon moved to water-cooled 1.6-litre VW four-cylinder engines for higher-tech and faster cars).

SCCA Runoffs Winners

Lewis Kerr – 1964

Dan Fowler –1965

Bill Campbell – 1966, 1967

Bill Scott – 1968

James Killion – 1969

Harry Ingle – 1970

Garret Van Camp – 1971

Dave Weitzenhof – 1972

Rollin Butler – 1973

Harry MacDonald – 1974

Mike Frangkiser – 1975, 1977

James Brookshire – 1976

Don Courtney – 1978, 1981

Wayne Moore – 1979, 1980

Bill Noble – 1982, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994

George Fizell – 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988

Scott Rubenzer – 1985

Steven Davis † – 1987, 1992

Skip Streets – 1991

Jon Adams – 1995

Jacques Lazier – 1996

Jonathan Rufener – 1997

Brad Stout † – 1998, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008

Roger Siebenaler – 1999, 2000, 2011

Stephen Oseth – 2003, 2006, 2007

Jeff Loughead † – 2004

Rick Shields – 2010, 2014

Michael Varacins – 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 [4]


Bill Noble, Brad Stout and Michael Varacins are tied for the most championships in the class at five.

† Denotes President Cup Winner

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.grassrootsmotorsports.com
  2. ↑ (SCCA GCR 2010 specs)
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ "Official Race Results, SCCA runoffs 2015
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