A few weekends ago I found myself at California Speedway for VARA's annual Route 66 Classic. Lunch time had rolled around and the track was silent. I had scoped out most of the cars there were to see and, to be honest, I was losing a little interest. Then, from over the PA system came the call, "The track will now be open to spectators who would like to drive their car on the track. You'll have to drive behind a pace car of course, but just bring your vehicle over to pit entrance and sign the waiver!"
Because the Jetta was parked on the complete opposite side of the paddock, and because of my reluctance to run in public, by the time I got to the gate there was no line.
"You're gonna have to push it to catch up." were the words from the gate marshal.
He wasn't kidding. By the time I rolled out of the hot pits and onto the Speedway's massive banking the rest of the cars had checked out. It was me, the full California Speedway road course and the diesel Jetta. Having never driven this course, and realizing that I was driving a diesel Jetta, I took it easy. Well, for a one lap anyway.
The course is fairly basic. In the Jetta, the front straight along with turns one and two are flat out. I might have seen 95 mph on the banking. Out of turn two you hit the back stretch just long enough to straighten out and get on the brakes for the chicane that leads you into the infield section. Down two gears, and through the chicane you're out on to a short straight. Rev-matching the Jetta is surprisingly easy to do. The shift action is positive, the pedals well placed and the engine, though not high revving, does do its thing enthusiastically. With the ESP shut off, you'll get wheelspin coming out of the double apex corner that follows the short chute. The steering is precise and even though I have a feeling the tires would rather be stuck with hot pokers than go around a race track, the cars turns in well enough. Quick upshifts at 4k rpm seem to be the way to go and again the gear box surprises with its quick and direct upshifts.
Through the 'chicane' and down the back straight, you flash (ok, you don't so much flash by anything in this car so humor me) under the bridge and pile onto the very linear brakes for a quick chicane. The corner workers look on, amused as this unlikely track car confidently barrels over the curbing and drifts out towards the last left hander that takes you up onto the baking.
Two laps later, I had caught the back of the pack and as we were funneled into the pits, I couldn't help but laugh and pat the dashboard of the car. The Jetta had held it's own and had given me the most fun I'd had in a car in too long of a long time.
Now I know this car has caught some flack for being a bit on the sluggish side. I can honestly say that after driving the car for an entire weekend in LA, that this car lacks no real world performance. On the freeway, there's plenty of torque to dip into without having to resort to a downshift. Getting on the freeway, with a decent jump I could ditch pretty much anyone and I never had a problem getting up to speed. Not only is it fun, but it's unique. That's more than you can say for a lot of cars.
I should mention that for the weekend, foot-on-the-floor track driving included, the Jetta returned right around 40mpg. Let's a see a Prius do that.
Kurt Niebuhr, Photo Editor @ 54,460 miles
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