VW 1500 S proved its reliability with four world records
As a friend of my father wrote in his obituary: "... apart from his motorcycle
passion, he [my father] also was forced to have a profession to earn his
living...".
And this was the profession of the public relation manager at automobile
companies. At the beginning of the Sixties he had been with Porsche in Salzburg
as PR boss.
As even in later years he always had been on the search for interesting contributions or actions for the press. He discovered in his archive that in 1964 the still valid long-distance record for series automobiles with 1,5 l capacity had been hold by an Adler-Triumph, made in 1935 (driven on the AVUS Berlin). Therefore he thought it was at the time to break this record. That record in 1935 was made over 10.000 km with an average speed of 126,3 km/h. There had been also a record attempt of Ford already in January 1964, but over the distance of 15.000 km with an average speed of 119,73 km/h.
In April in the same year thus 12 Austrian journalists got ready to break
this record on the racing course of Monza (Italy). Naturally not without asking
before the FIA whether “national records” were also recognized when achieved
abroad. And then between 7th and 12th April 1964 four new
world records with two completely standard VW 1500 S (sedan and Variant) were
driven!
The cars were driven around the clock, about 80 laps between each driver change. The time ran along when refuelling, with the oil change, with the driver change and with the tire change, evenly from start to finish. There were moments of shock and moments of entertainment - as the singing original of a racing course caretaker, "Mr. Caruso", who searched the 4,259 km long race course each morning with the bicycle for stones or lost screws or run over rabbits… But despite many smaller and larger obstacles, despite the mental difference of the 12 "driving journalists", despite one car failure - only the second got through – and when all is said and done it were called:
World record!
4 days (96 hours) - 12.096,103 km = 126,001 km/h
5 days (120 hours) - 15.132,082 km = 126,100 km/h
15.000 kilometres: 118 h 57.57,1 = 126,086 km/h
10.000 Miles: 127 h 19.51,1 = 126,390 km/h
Altogether the last car drove 3.793 laps, which corresponded to a travel time
of 127 hours 47.40 minutes and a mileage of 16.154,500 km! The fastest lap with
the winning car, by the way, were driven, of course, by my father with an
average speed of 143,832 km/h in the 10. lap. Unfortunately this record of the
Austrian journalist team kept not for a long time. Already one month later,
between 14th and 20th May 1964, Ford fetched back the
records over 15,000 kilometres and 10,000 miles again - with a Ford Corsair GT,
likewise in Monza.
And finally about "records 1964" – the fastest record of the year 1964 obtained by Craig Breedlove with "Spirit of America" in Bonneville (USA) on the salt lake: 1 mile by 843,590 km/h... Of course I have not told you every detail of the record week at Monza of VW. But that would lead here too far.