"Karmann Giugiaro" LONG!

[Kathy Teulie <104372.1061@compuserve.com>]

History  Part 1
All Sciroccos were made at the Karmann factory in Osnabruck Germany.
Karmann had a hand in the design but Karmann is not a designer. Karmann
worked with designers to develope cars for them to build. Giugiaro designed
the first (MK1) Scirocco and Herbert Schafer's new VW design studio
designed the MK2. You can say that designed the MK2 and VW changed it.

Giugiaro designed 4 cars called the "ACE" series.
The first was for Karmann /Audi "Asso di Picche" shown at Frankfurt in
1973.
The car's theme was based on the Boomerang (  Giugiaro's earlier work). 
This car was a FWD 2-door hatch 4 seater. Inside It had an independent
display/control concept that reached the bounds of fantasy. It had a
curved two-tier cylinder shaped dash with handbag like leather seats 
and door panels. The seat cushions were replaceable.
The car was based on the 80 platform.

The second project was shown in 1976 at the Turin  International Auto Show
and was for BMW/Karmann. Its name was "Asso di Quadri" (Ace of Diamond).
This project used the 320 chassis. For five years, most of Giugiaro's
designs
featured acute angles and straiteer lines. The Assio di Quadri was a return
to curves.
The windshield corners and other corners were solid lines a cross have been
modifide into curves and this detailed treatment of the study makes the
overall
effect very soft. The black painted front was a monolithic combination of a
bumper/shield formed from polycarbonate. The rear end is a sloped hatchback
with a fin and untrimmed lights. The interior emphasizes softness but is
rather
featureless and seat styling doesn't reflect Giugiaro's taste.

Several cars would be designed that looked like this BMW. 
The BMW design was also sponsored by Karmann and was very close to the
Scirocco MK2. Now, when the two cars were compared there were several
differences.
The front view of the BMW is much more impressive. 
The rears were quite different again in favor of the BMW. The rear section
of the Scirocco
is significantly more rounded and its side view reflects a radically
different concept
in packaging, a real 2+2. VW wanted a 2+2 front wheel drive and GG did not
want the
2+2. GG had been consulting with VW on facelifts. The new design was to be
a VW
design with fixed proportions on paper by Giugiaro and would have improved
aerodynamics, reduced lift, and more head room at the rear. The VW design
 would employ the best use of interior space for both luggage and
passengers
 and attractive styling, while having to work with the constraints of the
A1 chassis.

The third was the Impulse or Piazza "Ase of Club". All the cars were
designed in silver.
The Inpulse is more like the design that GG wanted for the BMW but not for
the Scirocco. 
 Giugiaro wanted the MK2 to look
more like the MK1 Scirocco and Herbert Schafer wanted the BMW's design.
 VW had 5 short-listed proposals for the Mk2 Scirocco. Giugaro submitted 2
and 
 VW design led by Herbert Schafer submitted 3. Other designers like the 
 highly individualistic Italan/Swiss/Polish desginer Luigi Colani submitted
designs,
but they  didn't make the cut. 
To make the pick of the crop democratic, all designs were painted the
same color and finished to the same standards, and the committee at VW
responsible for picking the Mk2 were not told who was responsible for each
design.

 So you see Karmann isnot  the real designer but the car builder. As a side
note, 
Ghia is a design studio and Karman is a car builder. They could have called
the Scirocco a "Karmann Giugiaro." I am glad they changed to the Scirocco
name because I would be driving a  "Karmann Schafer" to work today.

Scirocco is Italian, named after a hot desert wind
that blows from the shores of northern Africa across the Mediterranean.
The car could have been named after the coachbuilder and the designer,
like the Karmann-Ghia, but in the style of Maserati, VW was going through a
period of naming cars after winds. (Hence Golf for gulf stream, Jetta
foriet stream, Passet, and Scirocco.) Besides, would the Sciroccos have
sold as well with a name like Karmann-Gluglaro?   

The Scirocco's 2+2 coachwork is lower and sportier than the other cars in
VW's lineup. 
Volkswagen is the owner of one of Europe's largest wind tunnels and is
justifiably
proud of their results in aerodynamic research.  The Scirocco Is one of the
stars
of that research.  The early versions offered distinct advantages over the
Golfs
through a smaller frontal area (in most part from the lower roof line), but
the second
generation Scirocco is the result of much fine-tuning in the wind tunnel.

(see my web page) http://home.t-online.de/home/07244740482-0002/0805997.htm

History part 
(Before the MK2 )
In 1975 the Scirocco, was powered by a 1471cc motor with a rating of 70 hp
at 6000 rpm. 
The Scirocco then possessed a few features not yet found on the Rabbits,
like power brakes
and alloy wheels.  The top speed was about 100 mph, and in those days of
the 55-mph
national speed limit, the performance figures were quoted 0 to 50 mph (not
0 to 60) with
a time of 7.5 sec.  The war. ranty was 12 months, or 20,000 miles.
The following year, 1976, saw the introduction of the carburetor 1.6 motor,
with improved low-end torque and the single center-mounted windshield wiper
blade with
an intermittent function.  Other improvements included height and rake
adjustable front seats, 
a slower steering-rack ratio, and a smaller turning circle. Fuel injection
was the biggest
change for the 1977 model year, with the introduction of the excellent
Bosch CIS injection.
The 1588cc motor with CIS put out 78 hp at 5500 rpm (76 hp in California). 
The 0 to 60 time
was pegged at 11.0 sec with the manual transmission.  Many consider the
1977 to be one
of the best Sciroccos ever made. Like its brother, Rabbit, the 1978
Scirocco dropped
displacement to 1488cc, reflecting those harsh days of smog controls, with
output pegged
at 71 hp at 5800 rpm.  The front end was restyled, and wraparound
polyurethane

bumpers were added.  The 0 to 60 time was listed at 11.6 sec.  It was also
the year of the
Sidewinder II special edition, which followed 1975's little known
Sldewinder 1.
The Sidewinder II can be considered the precursor of all later,
high-performance Sciroccos. 
Like just about every Scirocco special edition right up to the 16V, this
one was almost all looks,
with no added power or handling.  It featured a trim package, black
bumpers,
a slick fiberglass air dam and a sport Interior, but none of the
underpinnings like
suspension Improvements or a hotter motor.
The 1979 model year introduced the 5-speed gearbox and re-introduced the
1.6 motor. 
The two combined to help drop the 0 to 60 time to 10.4 sec, although the
top speed remained 
at 103 mph.  A special-edition Scirocco "S" was offered, but again there
were no big performance
changes, just cosmetic alterations that included black-out trim and red
stripes inlaid In the bumper.
 Across the Atlantic, the GTI and GT Scirocco were tearing up both the
autobahns and sales
records, but VW of America didn't seem too Interested in selling real
performance.
The following year, 1980, saw few changes, with the "S" model again
offered.  But, 1981 was a
different story, with a complete change In the Sclrocco body style.  The
new version was still
manufactured at Karmann in Osnabruck, and was constructed on the same
Rabbit/Scirocco,
Jetta floor pan as previous models, but It had a radical new style and a
much lower
Cd of .39-very low for a car as short as the Scirocco.

Doug
87 16v silver Scirocco "GTX"
81 8v red Scirocco.
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