1976 Keimola Drag Race

Unbelievable footage from Youtube :)

Flashback: Kotten's Dragster

Some pictures of Kotten's dragster from late 80's / early 90's. The photos have been on the wall of our garage as long as I remember. Ageless set of photos, the Bay Window is there and even Kotten hasn't changed much since. Only the Dragster looks today different after Henkka's lease over the last few seasons..













Photo credits: Kotten Tallgren

Flashback: West Coast Aircoolers in American Car Show 1997

West Coast Aircooler's department in 1997 American Car Show. Cars on display were Jussi Jyränkö's Type IV powered 1950 Split and Hannu Hellman's turbocharged Oval.

Flashback: 1995 VW Expo

Two drag race participants from 1995 VW Expo.

Flashback: Henkka's racer

Henry Forsgren's old racing car that he raced around 10 years in various classes. At the fastest car performed steady 10 second times.



Henkka's racer in 1999 American Car Show.




Henkka's racer in 1999 VW Open. Photo by Jyri Erämaa.



One respectable side of this team is kind of a professional attitude. I am not sure whether there is any Volkswagen racer in country who has progressed to this level in all aspects including transporters, how the pit looks in races etc.





In 2005 car became one of the fastest local street legal Volkswagens in Jussi Jyränkö's hands and got nominated in Top20 of CalLook.com's rankings.

Flashback: Pro Bug Racing

Antti Lehmussaari's beautiful drag racing Beetle. One of the few Finnish racing Volkswagens that looked as good as their counterparts in Volksworld or Hot VWs magazines. Just noticed that there's Kotten's bay-window too in the background..



American Car Show, 1997 I think. Photo by Jussi Jyränkö.

Flashback: Marko's Tubeframe Type III

Marko Jääskeläinen's turbocharged tubeframe Type III was the fastest aircooled Volkswagen in Finland during late 90's with low 10 second ETs. This Notchback was sadly totalled in racing incident during early part of this decade.

Marko's Notchback is pictured here from 1999 VW Open (photo by Jyri Erämaa).

Flashback: Make's Rusto Looker

Make Leivo's Oval photographed above in 1996 VW Open and below in same event further modified couple of years later. Make, like many other VW guys, moved forward to American cars and is nowadays racing with late 60's Camaro.

Flashback: Hannu's old Oval

WCA member Hannu Hellman's turbocharged Oval was the fastest air-cooled Volkswagen in Finland mid 90's, fastest ET being 10.877. After 1997 season Hannu moved forward and acquired matching numbers big block Corvette that became one of the fastest street racing cars in Nordic.

Flashback: Hannu's old Oval continued..

After Hannu quit Volkswagens Jussi Jyränkö from Kuplapaja bought the Oval. Jussi transformed it into circuit racing car and raced Historic Races for couple of seasons and sold it forward. Having one of the few businesses in the country specializing in old Volkswagens Jussi bought the car back and sold again a couple of times.


In 2004 once the Oval returned to Kuplapaja again, Jussi decided to have one more serious go at drag races. Jussi has bit unorthodox approach sometimes and he went street drag racing with Type IV engine among the Cal Look guys. His fastest time 11.311@119.75 km/h netted him 3rd position in CalLook.com ranking.


Following season long-time VW drag racing enthusiast Jyri Erämaa bought the car, had it painted in black and mounted in a former Super Stock Type I engine. Fastest ET for Jyri was 12.3 in Alastaro after couple of attempts.

Flashback: VW Cup Racers

Some photos from the happy days of Finnish VW Cup by Alhoracing. VW Cup pages luckily still exists and show some of the times scrored in 90's.

Ari Pihlajasaari's old '66, fastest 1/4 mile ET I came around was very respectful 11.754.
Petri Partanen's racer.

And last the very unusual suspects, Zulu racing :-) Sebastian, Turo & Kaide were once teamed with very rough entry.

Flashback: Mika Mansukoski's Super Stocker

Mika Mansukoski's Super Stock Volkswagen. Mika set a world record 9.7 in his Super Stock subclass. Photo by AlhoRacing in early 90's Alastaro.

Flashback: Kosto

Hitlerin Kosto (~Hitler's Revenge) is old nickname for Beetle in Finland. When our garage chief Kotten and his friend Tom started drag racing with Tom's old Beetle in late 70's they named their racer with the old nickname. Later when they got more famous they modified the name into more politically correct format by dropping the chancellor's name..



Scanning of 1979 Pori drag race in V8 Magazine. Shows how Kosto is been towed with Tom's daily driver. Kosto was very popular from day one and the guys had bit of a mad scientist approach with racing. At one point Kosto even had a Type II reduction gears to get more suitable gearing (at the time VW parts weren't generally as available they're now) and their first start probably still is the wheel hop record in Finland.



Feature article about Kosto in 1980 V8 Magazine. Season when Tom & Kotten won the Finnish chapionship in Street Altered class (forerunner of Pro Stock in Nordics). At the time Kosto had 1835 engine with 10:1 compression, Scat 326 degree cam, VW heads with 40/35.5 valves and 48 IDAs. Fastest ET with that setup was 13.76.



Scanning from 1981 issue of V8 Magazine, only season Kosto had paintjob other than matt/army green. Reason for the nice blue paintjob was that in 1981 Kosto was sponsored by V8 Magazine. It looked like Kosto felt uncomfortable in nice paint since the season wasn't as succesful as the previous had been. Car was also heavily modified for 1981 season, most notable change is chopping job and Centerline wheels.

In late 80's Kosto was getting bit outdated and Kotten bought a VW powered dragster and put Kosto in storage. Fastest ET for Kosto was 11.683@180km/h in Competition class with 2332cc engine.

Flashback: Kosto in 2005

Latest pictures of Kotten's Kosto, taken in FHRA American Car Show 2005 in Helsinki Fair Center when it was 30th anniversary of organized drag racing in Finland.

Flashback: Mika Mansukoski's Buggy

Mika Mansukoski was the fastest Finnish VW drag racer in early 90's. He started in street racing classes with his turbo charged 1600cc(?) buggy. Regarding his ETs I found set of low 12-second ETs (best 12.002) with quick magazine search, I am happy to correct it if someone can provide more correct information. Mika's buggy is pictured here in the 1990 Race Car Show.

Flashback: 1990 Race Car Show

Couple of pictures from 1990 Race Car Show held in Helsinki Fair Center. The show was organized together with FHRA and Street/Race magazine. Those were the happy days, to me it looks like Drag Racing has shrinked a lot since that in Finland. The progress was really fast those days; from a country where Drag Racing was organized in remote old air-fields, suddenly there were two drag strips and dozens of new drag racing cars imported in late 80's to early 90's

Flashback: Leif Nylund's Drag Racing Porky

Leif Nylund was one of the most successful drag racers in Finland during the 80's winning many Finnish Championship titles and at least one in Nordic Championship. He started racing with "civilian" 60's 911 with 2.5 liter engine, then continued with another 911 built for drag racing and later had yet another 911 (as a spare car). He spent his career in Modified Standard class and continued in similar Super Stock class when Finnish Hot Rod Association started to fully apply the NHRA rules.



His times in MS were in 13-second range which were due to get car in favourable sub class, most of his opponents had much faster V8s, but Leif usually won them due to his handicap in his subclass. The handicap gave him 2-4 second head start while the V8 guys were still at christmas tree watching the Porsche disappear, catching just at the finishing line and most cases just after it :-) During the Super Stock years he got into 9-second range, fastest ET I saw while browsing old magazines was 9.901.



I tried to dig more about the cars and engines but came bit short handed. There was one feature article about Leif's Porsche in Street/Race magazine but that wasn't exactly filled with details. One of the sad events was the '87 race in Seinäjoki where the 911 got sabotaged, someone had poured sand though the oil filler over the night at the pits. Leif's 911 is pictured here in 1988 Super Car Expo in a slant nose 935 disquise, held in old Helsinki Ice Hall like many 80's car shows.

Flashback: Paise joka vei potin

I was re-reading some V8 Magazine back-issues when I came across this 1982 issue having feature article about Drag Races for street cars in Hanko Airfield. Our garage-chief Kotten, who at that time was competiting for Finnish Drag Racing championship with his "Hitler's Revenge" Beetle, won the elimination rounds with his '51 Split Window. The '51 was compiled out of left over parts from 5 other Beetles for fun (never missing an opportunity to race) and it got license plates only couple of days before.

The ET, 15.850, doesn't perhaps sound all that fast in today's standards and the fastest muscle car was running 12s in the event, but still win in first "real" organized Finnish Street Race and with 1600cc engine. Knowing Kotten I can picture in my mind his expression when he told the interviewer how he assembled the car and it all costed almost 5000 Finnish marks (which is less than 1000 Euros today) And yes, Kotten still owns the Split :-)