Darrell Vittone was a true pioneer of the VW hot rodding/performance industry, drag racing, and a true legend of the Volkswagen scene.
Darrell Vittone was only 10 years old in 1954 when he became a VW enthusiast. Darrell’s father, Joe Vittone, started a Volkswagen and Porsche dealership, Economotors, in Riverside, California. That’s when Joe brought a brand-new Beetle home - and so began Darrell's “VW life”.
Joe started a Volkswagen accessory and tuning parts company in 1956 - European (later changed to Engineered) Motor Products Inc., aka EMPI.
Teenage kid Darrell became part of EMPI’s team, and his first duty was packaging Okrasa kits. Okrasa, or “Oettinger Kraftfahrtechnische Spezial Anstalt”, was a company founded by Gerhard Oettinger in 1951 in Germany. It specialized in performance parts for VW engines, and EMPI became a US distributor/dealer of Okrasa components. Darrell was passionate about the air-cooled VW’s potential to make more horsepower.
In 1963, Darrell was competing at local dragstrips with his ’56 Beetle, which became an EMPI’s official race car: the Inch Pincher. He poured his passion for research and development into various EMPI products and race cars, making VWs faster - these products made Vee Dubs more enjoyable to drive and work on. The Inch Pincher became a fast, iconic race car, not only in the VW world but the hot rod scene as well. It graced a variety of covers of non-VW-oriented car magazines, too.
During the second half of the 1960s, EMPI made it big across America. The company built an empire revolving around VW aftermarket products, with 28 official distributors and 489 agents spread throughout the country. In 1966, Economotors/EMPI started offering special edition VWs equipped with a range of EMPI kits and a full Volkswagen warranty. The cars were known as the EMPI GTV. Many EMPI agents also owned VW dealerships; so, the GTV was sold through several of them as well. However, Volkswagen of America was not happy with the idea. Joe had to pick Economotors or EMPI. Vittone decided to sell the EMPI brand to Filter Dynamics (Lee Eliminators) in 1971. Having lost his racing facility, Darrell left EMPI and started a new tuning firm called “The Race Shop”.
In the 1970s, The Race Shop set new standards in VW performance. Darrell built a Fiat 850 Spider with a VW engine that was light years ahead of the competition. The car eventually ran over 130mph in 10.3 seconds over the quarter-mile.
Darrell was always looking for the latest technology; he was readying to move on to the next step. He decided to close the doors of The Race Shop in 1975 and built his first water-cooled VW engine in 1978.
In 1981, Darrell opened a new water-cooled VW/Audi specialized shop/company, Techtonics Tuning, where he started building engines and special project cars. His new venture became very successful. In 1982, Darrell built a street-driven turbocharged Scirocco that ran 13.7 seconds at 103mph. Also, Collin Gyenes joined the team that same year as the first full-time Techtonics Tuning employee. He is running the company today.
Since Darrell moved into a water-cooled scene, he rarely visited air-cooled VW events.
In 2013, good old friends Ron Fleming and Keith Seume twisted Darrell’s arm and took him to Europe to attend the Hessisch Oldendorf Vintage VW Treffen (Germany) and the European Bug-In (Belgium). This trip was a turning point for him and the whole VW community. He had a wonderful time there and even got an opportunity to race the Inch Pincher tribute car (built by Russell Ritchie of Gasser Garage) at the European Bug-In - almost 40 years after he last drove an air-cooled VW race car. This experience pumped Darrell up, making him go back to his air-cooled roots.
After returning home, he went back in the air-cooled VW race scene! Darrell borrowed the Inch Pincher tribute car from Russell Ritchie and started attending the 36hp Challenge land speed record competition at Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway. Along with Collin and friend Brian Hyerstay, he teamed up to build a 1600cc naturally-aspirated engine based on an old 25hp case - he managed to run 115.35mph at the 2014 Bonneville World of Speed.
Darrell never stopped after his Bonneville experience. Later in 2014, he bought a 1969 Karmann Ghia to build a new land speed record car, in order to compete in the 36hp Challenge again. He assembled a 151hp motor based on 36hp case, allowing the Ghia to become the world’s fastest in class at 141.8 mph, during the 2015 Mojave Magnum.
The following year, Darrell and Collin built another engine based on a 25hp case, a turbocharged 1598cc dynoed at 265hp at the wheels (323hp at the flywheel). Darrell attempted land speed record competitions three times with this engine, during the Mojave Magnum in 2016 and 2018. He managed some record runs: 151.4mph (April 2016), 164.2mph (November 2016), and 166.1mph (April 2018).