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"   ALTON, Va. \u2014Blasting into the famed Oak Tree corner of Viginia International Raceway (VIR) here, 30 drivers scramble three Volkswagen Jetta TDIs deep for the same chunk of burning-rubber real estate. Giant, race-spec calipers mercilessly cinch down on the 14-in. front rotors before each trio dive-bombs the apex. Body panels crunch, and the sound of slicks tearing at the asphalt breaks the spring silence. Sure, it&amp;#039;s got racing&amp;#039;s zoom-zoom\u2014only each sound is discernible from the next, right down to the pebbles showering into the naked wheel wells. You can hear everything from the sidelines .. everything except the engines. This sure ain&amp;#039;t the Indy 500\u2014no raucous bark of throttle-matched downshifts, ensuing shotgun backfires or the blaring accelerations through open exhausts on the corner exit. No, these racers offer the sound of today&amp;#039;s clean diesel cars\u2014as eerily quiet as efficiently green. And these particular racecars even retain their catalytic converters and particulate filters. They&amp;#039;re running slightly tweaked versions of the 2.0-liter, turbocharged powerplant soon to be offered in the Jetta TDI, making 170 hp and a somewhat staggering 258 lb.-ft. of torque. The extra oomph is the result of more boost pressure from the turbocharger, and it&amp;#039;s available in full at a scant 1900 rpm. Torque is channeled through a six-speed DSG automatic, stuffed with the gears from the king of all Rabbit variants, the R32. The cogs haven&amp;#039;t been swapped for their strength, but for their shorter ratios\u2014better for track work. Somewhat astoundingly, these Jettas are about 70-percent stock, with some 20 percent of the racing prep performed by outside parties. What with the giant &amp;quot;R8&amp;quot; calipers glaring out from behind the front wheels, there has been a small amount of raiding from the Volkswagen Group parts bin, too. It&amp;#039;s about 5 percent of the build, mostly consisting of one-off brackets and mounts, according to Clark Campbell, director of motorsports development at Volkswagen. Each race-ready Jetta TDI is identical\u2014built to spec, right from of the factory. All the rides here weigh in at 2,884 pounds on the nose. And they&amp;#039;re tuned identically, filled with ultra-low sulfur diesel and spackled with green &amp;quot;D&amp;quot; stickers. These cars are competing in the first ever all-diesel race series in North America\u2014the TDI Cup. So who&amp;#039;s racing these clean machines? Well, the drivers don&amp;#039;t have their SCCA racing licenses quite yet, but their parents do have $35,000 to purchase a TDI Cup car. Volkswagen&amp;#039;s elaborate driver search program targeted beginners, ages 16-26\u2014kids that can end their TDI Cup season with an SCCA license ... if they don&amp;#039;t destroy too many cars in the process. Each individual race winner gets $1,000, with the season champ grabbing a cool $100,000 and VW throwing in another $150,000 if that driver gets signed to a racing team and races for an entire season within six months of winning the TDI Cup. Sweet deal. To ensure parity in the cars, Volkswagen handles maintenance and tuning. They keep the cars, too, storing and transporting them to the races. The 30 contestants share four lead mechanics and a support team, leaving no room for special tuning secrets. Volkswagen will also randomly swap contestants&amp;#039; cars during the season, and VW told us they plan to do that quite often. Plus, each driver can weigh no less than 175 pounds, geared up and fully suited\u2014lightweights get ballast added under the driver&amp;#039;s seat.  The only allowable tweak to the Cup cars is tire pressure, which can only be adjusted by the Jetta TDI Cup crew (who work for Volkswagen). Each of the 30 Jettas get six tires per race weekend, and a fully independent (and adjustable) coil-over suspension, which, again, only Volkswagen can touch. And when they adjust one, they adjust them all. Campbell says the Jettas don&amp;#039;t start the season with the suspensions calibrated to the max. Instead, they begin with &amp;quot;a nice comfortable setup,&amp;quot; allowing racers room for error during the learning process. As the season progresses, the suspension tune will likely become more aggressive.  The cars use a Memotec AIM datalogging system, which displays gear and shift up/down indicators, as well as lap time on the dash display. After each race, practice, or qualifying lap, the telemetry and engine data is downloaded onto a jump drive, which is shared anonymously with the other drivers. Campbell says a common mistake is shifting at redline\u2014with the mountainous torque of the two-liter diesel, there&amp;#039;s just no reason to do so. Volkswagen&amp;#039;s aim is to push clean diesel. The company is quick to point out that the carbon footprint left by the VIR event will be gone in 100 days. And these TDI racecars don&amp;#039;t need to refuel during the entire weekend\u2014awesome. And better still, the Jetta TDI Cup appears to be a rather generous donation to the racing world by a manufacturer that doesn&amp;#039;t even have to care this much.  RELATED STORIES \u2022 SPECIAL REPORT: Clean Diesel&amp;#039;s New American Invasion  \u2022 TEST DRIVE: 2009 VW Jetta TDi Gets 50 MPG on Clean Diesel  \u2022 VIDEO: Under the Hood With VW&amp;#039;s Clean-Diesel Tech   2008 VW TDI Cup 2008 VW TDI Cup 2008 VW TDI Cup 2008 VW TDI Cup 2008 VW TDI Cup "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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