"505Turbeaux" (505turbeaux)
03/13/2014 at 15:11 • Filed to: None
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"505Turbeaux" (505turbeaux)
03/13/2014 at 15:11 • Filed to: None | 12
| 7 |
James R. Fuller was an executive for Volkswagen of America when he was aboard the ill fated Pan Am flight 103 that went down over Lockerbie due to a Libyan terrorist bomb. He was one of the biggest champions of bringing the bonkers Golf Rallye to our shores. With all the talk about aircraft lately I was reminded of this story.
A little history, Fuller was an American, born in Boston, and a car fanatic from an early age. After stints at Ford, American Motors and Renault, he joined VWoA and was in charge of the Porsche-Audi division. After success in the early 80’s growing the Audi brand, he went to direct the VW brand. Instrumental in convincing the Germans that the GTI should be built and sold in America. Following the critical acclaim and sales numbers, the Jetta GLI was released soon thereafter.Although he had his doubts about the feasibility of the Westmoreland plant, he helped make sure the plant stay open to produce the new mkII Golf for some time. He also paved the way for the Corrado and Passat into the country, though those didn’t make it till after his death.
So with all of this high performance achievement under his belt, and with the homologation G60 powered, flared-fender having, all wheel treading Golf Rallye under development, he decided it was time for VW to up it’s game in the States. Although Golf sales were in a slump, and VW management in Germany thought VW’s brand perception didn’t support a truly high performance, high dollar car over here, Fuller kept pushing for it. I think in retrospect it would have sold quite well for what it was. GTI’s and GLI’s certainly weren’t cheap cars and they did just fine. In December 1988 Fuller and VWoA Marketing Director Lou Marengo were coming home from a meeting in Germany when the plane went down, and VW corporate stuck to the decision to not bring the uber-Golf into the States. And that’s history folks. Now we have the R/R32 and those seem to be doing pretty ok too. But this was the original.
jkm7680
> 505Turbeaux
03/13/2014 at 19:45 |
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That was a really great article. It may have made it, seemed like it was almost there.
desertdog5051
> 505Turbeaux
03/13/2014 at 20:21 |
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Great history lesson. Great post. Thanks.
Chappie
> 505Turbeaux
03/14/2014 at 19:10 |
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Thankfully a couple of Rallye's have been imported over the years and they can be had, when one actually goes on sale, for around $20k. If I had the money, I'd buy it in a second, they are special cars that should've been here. Unlike the Golf R's of today, the syncro-AWD setup was pretty much identical to it's Audi quattro-counterpart and delivered some very stellar performance. If only the g60 put out a bit more power from factory, it'd have been an all timer.
An Dre Stroy
> 505Turbeaux
06/03/2014 at 05:52 |
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my Pan Am Rallye! For Sale in Germany: 10.000€
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An Dre Stroy
> 505Turbeaux
06/03/2014 at 05:59 |
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Raphael Orlove
> 505Turbeaux
05/05/2015 at 13:18 |
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hey man, great post — what sources did you use for the history in this?
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505Turbeaux
> Raphael Orlove
05/05/2015 at 13:26 |
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hey Raph, digging into the oldies now! Anyhow, I remember a little about this and how I got to writing it and alot of it is backed up by straight Wikipedia if you string all the small blurbs about the situation together. I had a few other sources I could dig up as well likely enough.