Volkswagen Concept: iROCK Scirocco

Hot dry air pushes northeastward up from the Sahara Desert and spins in a counter-clockwise rotation across the southern coasts of Europe. The Italian name for these winds is Sirocco and it carries red Sahara dust along the African coastal regions causing abrasion in machinery and magageing to penetrate buildings. The winds peak during March and November with wind speeds up to 100 kilometer per hour.

Like these winds, storms, heavy rains and lots of water usually followed.

Volkswagen desperately wanted to modernize it's product offerings and realized that the air-cooled platform so successful from before the war had run it's course. A new breed of
water-cooled Volkswagens were in the works.

The Volkswagen Scirocco, a small 3-door coupe was developed during the early 70s as a replacement for the venerable Karmann Ghia. Using the Golf/Rabbit platform, the model's all-new wedge shaped styling was penned by none other than Giorgetto Guigaro. His other notable "Wedge" designs include the "James Bond 007" Lotus Esprit S1 and the "Back to the Future" DeLorean DMC-12.

In 1974, the Scirocco officially went on sale in Europe and in North America in 1975. The Mark I, manufactured from 1974 to 1982, featured four-cylinder engines ranging from 1.1 to 1.7 Liters, all having 2 valves per cylinder and single overhead camshafts. Most came with a 4-speed manual transmission before the 5-speed American version was made available in 1979.

This Volkswagen Concept: iROCK Scirocco uses a late (1979) US Version of the Mark I Scirocco. This is a car I lusted after when I was in college. It was not offered in the Philippines and the best I could do was the 1st generation Passat 2-door which I painted black (from white) including the rims and installed front fender "windsplits" and a FOHA rear spoiler. I also installed a Clarion "component" car stereo with Jensen Speakers.

But this IROCK Scirocco was the look I was gong for. I was always fond of the single wiper which parked on the passenger side of the windshield and the one-piece wrap around bumper. To make the dream complete, this concept includes the windsplits and FOHA spoiler as well as a quartet of Bosch fog lights.

Volkswagen Concept: iROCK Scirocco is powered by a turbocharged version of the 2.0 FSI engine, producing 200 PS (147 kW; 197 hp) from a Mark V Volkswagen Golf coupled to a 7-speed DSG (Dual Clutch) from the new Mark 6 Golf all tied up on a PQ35 platform from the Golf Mark V.

The interior features comfortable gun metal grey leather while the exterior was painted a 1981 "S" version Cirrus Gray Metallic color to keep it stealthy!