November, 11th, 2000
A brief history about the what and why: David Doppelreiter is the national Rally-Champion 2000 in the diesel class. He recently offered rallyfans the possibility to take a ride as co-driver in his VW Golf 3 (rallyversion: 204hp, 450Nm@3000rpm). Only thing to do was guessing his diesel consumption for the OMV-rally event. I was in the group of nearest guesses and this fotos tell the story of that day.
We arrived on the scene just before the Golf powered up his engine. You should have heard that rapid bubble sounds from the exhaust, no sign for a diesel at all. David was allready changing clothes for his “work” outfit. But wouldn’t we all love to have such a workplace?
Then the track (an actual part of the SP2 of the omv rally) was cleared for racing and the heat was on! Shut the door, keep down yourself! And that Golf blistered by with about 160 kilometers per hour. And that WONDERFULL sound.
Then it was time for my friends and me (the one with the beard) to sit in the “hot seat”. While the mechanic strapped me into the seat and plugged my helmet in, so i could speak with David, the adrenlain was slowly rising. When the Golf started to roll, David started to talk a little bit about the controls and the instruments in the car. Did you know the wipers are operated by the co-driver? We rolled to turnpoint 1 while that. Roll means not so fast but most possible faster then i ever would drive in a normal car on that certain street. Then it was pedal to the metal, up back some turns and the straight, trough the forest, turnpoint 2 and then the same combination back again and again once more. I never felt fear and i think the only thing an inboardcamera would have filmed was my big grin :-). The ride finished much to soon for me, but it was one hell of an experience, thank you david for that day, you and your Golf.