The official thread of the Wangaro Experimental Car Comapny. You can find all the Wangaro AND Wangspeed cars here!
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1986 WangSpeed Aquilae TC Special
When your car is named after a hypergiant planet, it’s gonna have expectations of galactical proportions…
Wangaro was in a dire financial state in 1980. 10 years after launching the super succesful Wangaro Chapman, the company struggled. They produced some good cars, but they were often too expensive due to the massive R&D push or unreliable due to trying out radical ideas. They really needed a car to save them…
In stepped German/Dutch auto manufacturer MundA motors. The company was notorious for producing reliable but boring cars. Pretty much the complete opposite to Wangaro, but hey, opposites attract. All that chairman Michael Markel said to Dick Wangaro was “Add some spice to this motor okay”.
Meanwhile in the World Touring Car championship, European cars were dominating the field. The only other countries that could upest the europeans were the American’s and Japanese. So far no one had given it a go. Until Wangaro that is…
To create the new motorsport team, Dick Wangaro teamed up with 1978 World Touring Car runner-up Kristof Wanglebork (father of Formula One driver Jamble Wanglebork), and formed Wangspeed Touring International. All they needed was a car, which is where MundA stepped in. Using the MundA T3 Series car as a base, Wangspeed fitted a new, purpose built, Touring Car engine. Named the WS R20/2x6, meaning Racing 2000cc 2 valves 6 cylinders, it’s a glorious sounding Inline 6 revving up to a scarcely belivable 10,000 RPM, and putting out 200HP, a very respectable figure for a naturally aspirated 2 litre engine. This would allow the car to enter in the World Touring Car Championship, since the rules were no more than 2 litres and no more than 6 cylinders. However, one rule would force Wangspeed to create a completely different beast to anything they had built before…
The WTCC outlaws anything taller than 15cm and 0cm wider to be sticking out from the original shape of the car being based off (to maintain the look of the ordinary counterpart, in this case the MundA T3 series), so to get the grip Dick and Kristof desired, they had to shave lots of weight and create some very thick racing tires. First of all, they had to remove the hood and trunk and replace them with aluminum clones, then the block and head out of the engine were made of more aluminum, and remove the ABS system for the T3 Series. Then they added a racing exhaust and a performance intake, to get more air into the engine, and finally heavily tune the suspension for more spirited driving.
The car made it’s debut in 1983 with a singular entry from Kristof at one of it’s three “home tracks” at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, finishing a respectable 11th out of 20 on it’s debut. However, as Kristof got up to speed with the car, he managed to get his first podium at the penultimate race. For 1984 Wangspeed increased their entries from 1 to 3, retaining Swede Kristof Wanglebork, fellow Swede Bjorn Faltskog and Italian Giorno Giacometti. The new beefed up Wangspeed team had a terrific debut at Hockenheim, with Faltskog winning, Wanglebork 3rd and Giacomettti 4th. Wangspeed picked up further wins with Faltskog winning again at Anderstorp in Sweden, Giacometti at Mugello and Wanglebork finally taking his first win at Wangspeed’s “true” home circuit at Watkins Glen. This was enough to take the manufacter’s title, but not enough consistency from the drivers meant Wanglebork fell short of the title by 2 points. However, 1985 was total domination, winning 10 out of the 12 rounds, Faltskog winning a record 7 races and taking home the title by an insane 27 points. The following year they went one better, winning all 9 races of the season and Faltskog equalling his 7 race win record.
In commemoration of these incredible feats, Wangspeed released the Aquilae to the public, naming it the “TC Special”. True, the slicks were gone, and two more seats were added in the back (as Wangaro insisted, as more people could experience this beast of a racecar), but it was practically the same beast, even with the race exhaust! It’s true that it cost nearly $20,000, more than double of the base T3 Series, but customers were willing to shell out to get the glorious Aquilae, as 3,000 of this limited edition model were produced in 1986-87. The Wangspeed Aquilae, dominant yet beautiful
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Behold… The WANGARO RUGNUT!!!
Most manufacturers these days stick the SUV tag on pretty much anything. Oversized hatch, SUV, really tall vehicle, SUV. AWD, well I bet your sweet bippy that’s an SUV! However, here at Wangaro, we don’t market tall lumps of plastic as SUV. Nonono. SUV means Sport Utility vehicle. The Wangaro A26/5x5 engine (meaning 2600 cc, 5 valves for every cylinder) produces 273 HP, more than double the competiton, and some nice wangs to go with it. Yes, it only does 24.8 MPG, but you’d be forgetting it’s a Sport utility vehicle if you thought that was dissapointing. It makes a meaty growl as well, with its turbo’d 5 cylinder engine. As for the Utility bit, the CHONKY offroad tires mean you can take this thing pretty much anywhere, while the aero and suspension has been finely tuned to find the perfect balance between comfort and practicality. We fitted the biggest brakes we could make in this thing, and a monstorus 352 NM of torque (nearly matching the base Ford F-150 model) so you can haul whatever you like in this thing. The Wangaro RugNut, putting the Sport and Utility, back where they belong…
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1986 Wangaro StallionF1
America is all about pushing the boundaries of what is possible. First Nuclear bomb detonated, first to put a man on the moon, and now, the first 700 HP production car… Or should I say… Van. Dick Wangaro was a man obssesed with pushing the boundaries of what is possible. At aged just 33, he won the 1948 Indy 500 but almost a whole lap in his self made race car, the Wangaro Type 1 SS (Meaning SuperSlippy). He won the next two Indy 500’s until in 1951, a large crash forced him to end his racing career.
Without speed, he grew frustrated and lost intrest in cars… That is, until in 1968, a man named Colin Chapman invented the inverted wing. Dick was amazed by this feat, stunned at how his Lotus Formula One cars were stuck to the ground like glue. So in 1970, he decided to do what no man has done before… Take wings… TO THE STREETS!!! The Wangaro Chapman was a tribute to Colin Chapman, a lightweight, small, cheap sports car that stuck to the ground like Lotus Formula One cars. It was a huge success and Dick’s passion for speed had never been greater.
Dick’s dream was to let ordinary people experience the thrill of racing while also being able to do things anyone else could do in an ordinary car, which meant he had an idea… Why not stick an enormous, turbo changed, F1 inspired engine that would challenge the overall power output of the 1,000 HP Formula One cars at the time, driven by Niki Lauda and Nigel Mansell. A concept coupe was made called the Wangaro Niki, named after his favourite Formula One driver, but no matter how hard the Wangaro engineers tried, they could only squeeze 500HP out of it. A bigger engine would have meant sacrificing practicality, which Dick frowned upon.
After weeks of hard thinking, Dick came up with a ridiculous idea. Put the engine… IN A VAN. After all, the person who tries something radical is seen as stupid… Until it works. The Wangaro engineers had way more room to work with, so they ended up creating the WG X63/4x10. Meaning Experimental, 6300cc, 4 valves and ten cylinders. Fitted with an enormous 2PSI turbocharger, the engine cranked out 755HP, nearly doubling Carroll Shelby’s previous production car record. The engine was even made out of iron to reduce production units, so more people could experience the radical performance of Formula One cars. But there was a problem… How would they get the power down…
Dick rang up the engineers of Citroen, and said he would pay $300,000 (450,000 in today’s money) to use the AWD transmission from their BX4TC Group B car. Sadly, the Citroen engineers said their transmission could simply not handle 750HP, and that they would not be able to make enough units to keep up with the production of the Wangaro concept. So they had to build their own 5-speed manual, FWD transmission. However, in test track runs, the prototype went straight off into the gravel at the first turn. Dick however, say that the Formula One cars used insanley thick rear tires and thinner front ones to aid with traction. F1 cars are RWD, so it this is front wheel drive, why not make the front tires thicker than the rear ones to help the van turn in. He asked on of the engineers to use his tires on his Chevrolet Camaro, and, on the second test run, the van made the corner for the first time. So, for the first time, a van was going to use asymetrical tires.
The van was more expensive, less economical and harder to drive than the competition, but when you drove it, you felt like you were chasing the likes of Lauda, Prost and Mansell like a Stallion at the Monaco Grand Prix, even though you were just delviering some matresses. The Wangaro Stallion… Radically practical
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Wangaro Champan WMV (Winged Motor Vehicle)
Inspired by Colin Chapman’s Lotus Formula One cars (hence the name), the Wangaro Chapman was built to do one jobs, bring the thrill of driving a Formula One car to the masses.
To create this unique car, Dick Wangaro brought back together the legendary Wangaro Racing Team that won the Indy 500 three times on the trot from 1948-1950. Using the old Wangaro Racing shed, Dick and the boys spent a full year working out what would be the best design which had a comprimse between ease of production, and raw speed. Dick wanted as many people as possible to experience the thrill of F1 racing, so he layed out three rules for building a car. First, it must have a wang on it. Second, it must be faster than all of the competiton. Thirdly, at least one car should be produced every couple of days. Using these three golden rules, Dick and the boys came up with this, the Wangaro Chapman
Dick wanted the car to resemble a Formula one car as much as possible, specifically the Lotus cars he really admired, while complying to street regulations, so a sports coupe was the obvious choice. If you remove the windscreen and feders you almost have an exact copy of what a two seater Formula One car would look like. The grille was a larger version of the Lotus 49 F1 car, the car was painted green, but Dick didn’t want it to be a complete copy of the Lotus F1 cars so he went for an extra light green instead of the dark green. Significantly, this was the only car to not be available in the white black and orange we have today. Some samll vents were added on the side of the hood to allow the 3000cc A30/2x5 engine to get as much air as possible. And finally, Dick’s favourite part of the car, the wing. This was modelled on the very first wings spotted on Formula One cars in the late 1960’s. It made the car stand out massively from anything else on the road. It also made it very very fast on the exit of corners. Despite being RWD, you could send the power down very quickly thanks to the downforce generated by the rear wing, which made it feel like a racecar while simultaneously making it easier to drive. Costing $2300 (16000 today) this made it a very popular choice for amateur club racers accros the United States, since it was cheap, easy to drive, but still very fast. The Wangaro Chapman, the racecar for everyone…
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The idea of a 60s sports car using the Cobra body (in any size) is tempting, but the tall, narrow wing seems out of place for the era. And why does it have such a high ride height? Is it because it has solid axles (leaf-sprung and/or coil-sprung) front and rear? It makes it look cartoonish and not at all realistic for its time.
In fact, none of the cars you have made so far actually make any sense at all - and they would probably be best described as meme cars. Not just because of extreme quality spam (+15 everywhere is an absolute no-no), but also because of engineering choices that seem like min-maxing to me, with no concessions to realism whatsoever.
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