VW-Power from Austria

Wolfgang Denzel’s preference for VW boxer engines already began in the short post-war period, when he found new use for engines of the Kübelwagens left from the acts of war. He continually developed the boxer engine to a capacity of nearly 1,300 cm³ and increased its performance up to 85 HP. This high tuning level could only be achieved by replacing the entire engine interior with own produced parts. Later, even engines with a capacity of 1,500 cm³ were developed and installed.
 
The first class tuning skills of the engineer from Graz were spread quickly in the motorsport scene. Especially the point of high performance with great reliability was underlined in sporting competition. Sports cars, equipped with Denzel-engines, proved many times as a strong rival and equal opponent in the fight of the new and very fast Porsche 356.
 
Meanwhile, the address in the Gumpendorfer Str. 19 in Vienna was well-known as specialist for the modification of boxer engines of Volkswagen. The enormous power generation made the WD-engines very attractive for European motorsport, and also the American scene found great interest, so that also a number of engines and tuning parts of Denzel have been exported overseas. The demand from the USA was showing a further upswing, when the overall victory of Wolfgang Denzel and his co-pilot Hubert Stroinigg at the 17th Alpenrallye in 1954 got a homage from the British press. Especially the 1300 sports car, which was driven by him, aroused great interest, and more and more orders were received for the production of the serial model of the type 1300 SS – called SerienSuper. The maximum speed of around 160 km/h guaranteed good driving pleasure at that time.
 
Because of different engine data, All vehicles were individually equipped by Denzel and show differences even in their engine data and performances. Therefor it is very hard to define a uniform line in the typology. About all specifications of the WD SerienSuper around 65 cars were produced until 1959.