For Jorge Diaz, drag racing his Volkswagen began in the mid sixties and nearly fifty years later it seems it will never stop. Beginning with "Profeta No. 1" and racing at the old Caguas Track, Jorge began to get a feel for speed and his expertise in working with the Volkswagen flat-four slowly started to make a name for him.

Needless to say, the sixties was the era of the muscle car, the big V8 engines, the huge slick tires, the beginning of the nitro-burning funny cars, so who was paying any attention to a Volkswagen? Well there were a few people doing exactly that both in the United States and in Puerto Rico. We should make a parenthesis at this time and point out that the fastest Volkswagen around at the time, belonged to an unknown fellow from the southwestern town of Lajas, Puerto Rico, by the name Norman González, now known to all as Dr. Norman.

Back to Jorge, as everyone knows, there were a few guys on the West Coast of the U.S. fiddling with their Volkswagens, and sure enough, there were a few of them right here in Puerto Rico too, and Jorge Diaz was one of them.

It didn't take long for people to start paying attention to this little German Bug, as it was leaving behind at the starting lane quite a lot of V8 cars that wasted time peeling rubber instead of moving forward in a quick fashion.

Gradually Jorge made a special allowance from the cash his VW repair shop generated, and began investing in better equipment, more durable transmission and gears, better cylinder heads and intake manifolds, and all of a sudden, the little "Profeta" was going as fast as the V8 cars.

"El Profeta" was stopping the clocks at 11.90 seconds for the quarter mile, fast enough for him to claim eliminator titles at Englishtown, New Jersey; Gainesville, Florida and Amarillo, Texas. Fast enough to win him the races, but not fast enough for Jorge's personal goals. So it was time to make a change.

One thing led to another and a new body was used, more efficient aerodynamics adapted, stickier lighter tires, and the flat-fours were pushing upwards of two liters in displacement. While the more traditional racers stuck to the venerated Beetle body, others looked for lighted, more aerodynamic configurations that would allow for faster times and higher speeds.

At this junction some, like Jorge, opted to install their engines in the long tubular chassis of a dragster, others used Fiat Spider or Fiat 600 bodies or other lightweight combinations. The dragster chassis worked well for Jorge, and his "El Profeta" clocked low 9 second runs at nearly 160 miles per hour. Jorge used the combination for several years, obtaining many victories at tracks in Puerto Rico, the U.S. and Curacao and Aruba.

Volkswagen fads tend to emerge from California and the West Coast, and in the early nineties, the latest craze was a new VW Competition Class by the name of Pro Stock. Following the success of domestic Pro Stockers in NHRA, the crowd loved to see a car with which they could identify themselves (a street looking car), turning some magic numbers for the quarter mile. End result, "El Profeta III", and aptly named Type III Volkswagen Squareback/Notchback that stood about two inches off the ground.

The Type III Volky clocked some serious times, with E.T.'s of 9.7 seconds, winning him one Eliminator title and a Runner-Up title at ATCO, New Jersey, and countless other podium finishes all over the country. This is a serious drag racing car, nothing micro about it is all about racing and Jorge and his wife and eternal crew-person, Lucy, have done well with this car, as they have done with all the others that preceded it.

The Volkswagen Museum, Dr. Norman Gonzalez, his wife Diana, the Museum staff and Luis Mariano Muñoz, website editor, wish to recognize by this article the continued success that Jorge, Lucy and "El Profeta" have had over the years. During his visit to the Museum, Jorge signed his name on the wall of honor next to another legend, of whom we will be writing very soon.