Every car manufacturer has used the tag "GT" at some time in its history, even Volkswagen, but EMPI took things a stage further when it introduced the GTV. In a VW Relics special, we take a look at the story behind the car that Volkswagen tried to stop.
By Keith Seume
For years, despite an everincreasing youth market, Volkswagen resolutely refused to acknowledge any sporting connections as far as the Beetle was concerned. In the 1970s, the conservatively-minded company did eventually produce a GT Beetle but it was hardly a sports car, being little more than a badging exercise in an effort to bolster sales. The truly tasteless Black and Yellow Racer 1303S was a later effort to cash in on public awareness of motorsport but, once again, it was no performance car. Somehow, Volkswagen never quite seemed capable of producing the right car at the right time - the Type 4 and the K70 are proof of that !
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However, a switched-on Volkswagen dealer in California - and you're probably one step of us already - by the name of JOE VITTONE was running an agency under the name of Economotors in Riverside. |
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Best known as the home of EMPI, Economotors was an extremely successful company in its own right, with the performance and dress-up parts operation being a profitable sideline. Vittone was more aware than most of the growing interest in the VW being shown by younger drivers, as well as those who drove performance cars in their youth but who, with a family, now needed a practical sedan with a little get-up-and-go. He was also aware of the fact that there were probably more Beetles being driven around which had been accessorised than there were stockers. Clearly, there was an opportunity for Volkswagen to capitalise on this growing interest in its product but Wolfsburg refused to take the bait. Vittone, therefore, decided to do his own thing and market a series of performance cars based on the basic Beetle, selling them, either from his Economotors showroom, or via numerous EMPI dealers across the USA. |
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Joe Vittone, founder of EMPI and the GTV programme, poses next to a 68 Beetle fitted out with a ton of EMPI dress-up parts, including a striping kit.
La GTV Mk IV included a number of dress-up parts, a set of BRMs and a basic engine conversion, comprising a Zenith 32NDIX carburettor and 010 distributor. |
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