Seikel – Birth of a Company
On 24 January 1949, Josef-Berthold Seikel started a small company which first concentrated on the sale and repair of NSU bicycles and later motorcycles. Since NSU was taken over by Audi and later Audi was taken over by Volkswagen, SEIKEL grew into a renowned workshop for Volkswagen and Audi vehicles. After completing an apprenticeship as car mechanic at Mercedes, Peter Seikel, then 19 years old, joined the family company. With his philosophy of being technically better than others and with his sense for opening new markets, Peter Seikel pressed ahead – not only in his own company but also in the field of motor sports. Both fields demanded innovative technical thinking, flexibility, speed and a talent for organisation. These were attributes which would accompany Peter Seikel throughout his future career.
Race victories
At the age of 23, Peter Seikel passed his examinations as master craftsman and drove NSU cars in slalom and circuit races on the Nürburgring. Soon after, he ventured onto the international arena – in 1980, Peter Seikel, Manfred Trint, Willi Bergmeister and Hans-Joachim Nowak won the European touring car championship for Audi.
Peter Seikel entered several hundred international races all over the world.
Among others he took part twice in the Paris-Dakar rally, and together with his team, he entered ten times in the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans with Porsche. In 2001, Seikel Motorsport achieved class victory. The experience gained from this and many other races all over the world and in rallies in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt were directly incorporated in optimising production vehicles. SEIKEL rapidly grew from a normal Volkswagen and Audi company into an internationally recognised specialist firm for off-road engineering and motor sports.
In 2007, Peter Seikel ended his motor sports activities after exactly 40 years and has since focused all his efforts on off-road business.
Official supplier to Volkswagen
Peter Seikel speeded up the successful growth of his company by concentrating specifically on various VW models, in particular commercial vehicles, whether it was the development of the Volkswagen LT 4×4, the Volkswagen Transporter T3 Syncro 16 for Raid Rallies (as of 1988), the sale of running gear for the Volkswagen Transporter T3 or the development and sale of running gear for the Transporter T4 Syncro which were then fitted directly on site to 48 police vehicles in Kabul (Afghanistan) in 2001.
Since 2003, Seikel UK has been the official supplier to Volkswagen. Since then the company has focused on the development and sale of off-road running gear, gearboxes with short gear ratios and various underbody protection parts for the Volkswagen Transporter.
Making normal into fantastic
Seikel UK also sets standards world-wide by developing optimised running gear for Volkswagen production vehicles. The highlight is the SEIKEL T5 Extreme with its “hardcore” off-road body which provides a climbing ability of 100% (equivalent to 45°).
The Future
And what are the prospects for the future? Of course on four wheels! Performance and passion are the factors that dominate the innovative thinking and activities of Peter Seikel and his team. Together they will continue on the fast lane since there is still a lot to do. The 6th generation of the Volkswagen Transported has already been launched and Seikel UK has many tricks up their sleeve for this vehicle.