VICI GROUP is a multinational enterprise with roots that go back to the late 1980's when it started life in Bavaria, Germany .

It was around this time that Ron Meixner, the President and driving force behind VICI GROUP, became actively involved in the performance enhancement of Porsche vehicles, and in particular the Porsche 930. This strategy came about as a result of his long participation in motorsport, mainly in the single-seater Formula Renault, and mountain climb races using a variety of Porsches.

VICI RACING was formed by Ron Meixner and a select team of highly experienced automotive and motor racing engineers to structure their abilities and talent in a more progressive manner.

The new firm's first profile project was to create a high-powered Porsche 930 Cabriolet, a task that was to put them firmly on the map. The car was built in association with RS-Tuning. Using the racing and aerodynamic experience of VICI's engineers, a new aerodynamic package was developed for the vehicle, including an elongated windshield and new rear wing which made it possible for the car to achieve speeds in excess of 320 km/h without any problems of stability arising.

Early 1990 saw Ron Meixner and VICI participate in the new Porsche Carrera Trophy with a Carrera Cup racer, while continuing the develop the Porsche 930 Cabriolet. This latter project was to culminate in a customer version which boasted upwards of 850 bhp by utilising engine components of the Porsche 935/962 family. VICI was thus able to create a customer car well before the benchmark McLaren F1 had arrived which offered a top speed of over 360 km/h and was able to accelerate from 0-200 km/h in less than 10 seconds, and 0-300 km/h in 25 seconds.

This car was described by the press as a true “wolf in sheepskin” an one occasion Bernd Schneider, the former Porsche Group C pilot and present day DTM Mercedes AMG Champion, took the opportunity to drive the car, commenting afterwards that, “its feels like my 962….” True praise indeed for VICI's engineering ability. And in fact one leading French magazine described the 930 Cabriolet as " Le cabrio plus rapide du monde". The Porsche 930 Cabriolet programme, in all its guises, was to continue up until 1995.

VICI's engineering's ability saw them embrace a number of ‘non-core' projects which were able to provide excellent synergies. One interesting programme was an involvement with offshore powerboat racing, a project that would lead to the formation of a dedicated marine division.

In 1992 Ron Meixner and VICI became involved with the Cigarette Racing Team, world renowned manufacturers of offshore power boats. One interesting aspect of this collaboration was that it led VICI to gain extensive experience with two fairly new composite materials: Carbon fibre and Kevlar. These names would quickly become synonymous with leading edge racing and road cars and from this involvement would grow VICI's more than two decade experience at the forefront composite materials.

At much the same time VICI MARINE was formed to harness the powerboat racing activities into a single unit, and this new division quickly went on to set up an arm in Florida to develop and enlarge Mercedes-Benz engines for marine use.

After two very successful seasons competing in the ‘sprint' racing Carrera Trophy, in which the new team really bonded together as a unit, the decision was taken to embark on an ambitious endurance racing programme.

By now VICI RACING was very much in demand for its engineering services and expanding at a very swift rate. The decision was thus taken to restructure the company into individual units. Thus the VICI GROUP was formed as an umbrella organization. VICI MARINE would bring together all aspects of the new marine engine programme and off-shore racing involvement, VICI RACING would manage the in-house racing activities, and VICI SPECIAL VEHICLE PROJECTS (SVP) would manage individual customer programmes. While each division would be structured separately, the synergies between them meant that much ‘overlap' would occur, allowing each division to contribute actively to other programmes. Ron Meixner commented at the time that ‘the wealth of experience we have in so many areas, and the focused and flexible nature of our engineers allows us to formulate solutions very rapidly in almost any area.”

The first decision taken by VICI RACING, after an evaluation period, was to participate in the 1993 24h of Daytona, and so the battle-proven Porsche team entered a car in the legendary American endurance race. The team crew was to a mix of US, Swiss and German drivers and mechanics, and with the programme being put together in such a short time some of they only met the first time at Daytona, and language barriers were to be encountered. There was also factory assistance from Porsche in Weissach and input from Helmut Greiner, the manager of Porsche Trophy (today the Carrera Cup) who contributed his vast experience to become the team manager for the event.

The race proved to be a stunning success and one which put the name of VICI RACING firmly on the map. In their very first participation in a long distance race the team steamrollered their way to class victory after 24 hours of tough racing. Not only this but they finished a whole hour ahead of the second placed Porsche, having snatched the class lead after 7 hours battling the leading Corvette. They never surrendered the GT lead once during the final 17 hours of racing.

Ron Meixner looks back fondly on this victory. “Without doubt this was one of the most memorable moments of my racing career. Everything came together so quickly, the team all gelled, and I like to think that utter professionalism from everyone involved contributed to this amazing result.

Boosted by the success of their first endurance attempt together the new team swiftly moved on to participate in the equally-tough 12 hours of Sebring two month later, where they recorded another strong GT class finish. The entire race was plagued by lengthy rain showers, hour-at-a-time long yellow flag periods, and even a full interruption to the race, meaning that the reliable VICI RACING Porsche Carrera Cup car was unable to utilise its advantage against the factory Corvettes, which boasted 50% more power, and so the VICI entry followed them home to still give the brand new team another highly satisfying result.

VICI RACING then looked towards a front-line programme running and developing the factory backed Joest Porsche Group C/GTP cars. Since VICI GROUP was also now very closely involved in the areas of aerodynamics and turbo engine technology, running these cars was a logical progression.

At the first race in Atlanta 1993 Bob Wollek and Ron Meixner finished in third position behind the two race-proven, and at that time, unbeatable Toyota Eagles.

The same year saw Bob Wollek, Henri Pescarolo and Ron Meixner participate in the last 24 hours of Le Mans for the Group C cars. An era had ended and Ron Meixner looks back fondly on this period “The lessons learned with the Porsche 962 and to be involved with a highly experienced firm like Porsche proved invaluable for a growing organization like ours and they have undoubtedly proven to be useful on numerous occasions since.”

The focus now tuned to the burgeoning new ADAC GT Cup in Germany where Ron Meixner participated with Joest Porsche, again with the Porsche RSR.

Meanwhile into 1994 VICI MARINE was continuing its involvement with the Cigarette Racing team and learned valuable experience in the use of new manufacturing techniques and massive size V8 engines with over 1.000 bhp. The off-shore involvement with the Cigarette team would eventually conclude in 1999.

1995 kicked off with a testing program for 24 hours of Daytona with the Champion Porsche Racing outfit. VICI RACING Participated at Daytona with PTG and the BMW M3 with Justin Bell and David Donahue driving, but the car was severely damaged in an accident and forced to withdraw.

The mid-1990s saw business opportunities arising in both the United States and Europe, while VICI RACING continued its involvement with Team Herberth in the German Carrera Cup. Meanwhile VICI SVP was building up a strong client base assisting or running customer race programmes.

The latter part of the last decade saw the formation of VICI AERO. This came about due to Ron Meixner's personal enthusiasm for flying. Already holding pilot's certification for fixed wing and rotary craft, VICI AERO became actively involved in the preservation of both historical and modern aeroplanes.

In late 2001 VICI GROUP took the decision to introduce a new brand to the US racing scene via its racing division - Lamborghini. VICI were keen to formulate an individual racing programme on behalf of a major manufacturer, which could utilise the wide ranging experience of the VICI GROUP as well as its ability in areas such as global logistics and planning, and so a feasibility study was carried in conjunction with Lamborghini.

The Lamborghini angle came about due to VICI RACING's peripheral interest in the Lamborghini GTR Supertrophy, a ‘single-make' racing series for ‘gentlemen drivers' using race-prepared Diablo GTR models.

In fact, once the series concluded at the end of 2002, VICI were approached by a number of Diablo GTR owners with a view to converting their redundant race cars for ‘road homologation'. Through the VICI SVP arm several cars have been converted and approved for road use, while further conversions are anticipated, as well as several restorations of these cars which are on-going.

VICI RACING's exhaustive feasibility study concluded that the Diablo GTR, which could be easily adapted to GT class rules, would be a certain winner. With almost 600 bhp available, as opposed to 450 bhp from the Porsche 911, any handling loss would be compensated by the car's raw power. VICI's engineers also concluded that the aerodynamics could be favourably improved within ALMS guidelines. Participation in the larger GTS class was ruled out as bringing the car up to a level of competivity required was unrealistic.

Given the green light for a development programme, VICI RACING purchased two Lamborghini Diablo GTR cars and accomplished homologation by the ACO, (the sanctioning body), for the American Le Mans Series. Lamborghini assisted with homologation of the car (known internally as the Diablo GTR-V) by the ACO, the sanctioning body of ALMS. Porsche were reported to be ‘very worried'.

The development of the cars, which shattered the established GT-class times in ‘unofficial' test sessions at the Hockenheimring, continued until mid-2003 when the decision was made to transition the project into Lamborgjhini's self-developed new GTS-class race car: the Murcielago R-GT. However the direction of the programme did not fit with the targets that VICI RACING had set, and without the required perquisite synergies, VICI's Lamborghini involvement was wound down.

Today VICI GROUP is a multinational organisation with a wealth of experience not only in the automotive sector, both on the road and the race track, but also in the marine and aeronautical sectors. The synergies of the individual divisions, together with the overall flexibility of the operation, and the abilities of its staff, mean that VICI GROUP is well placed to face any challenges laid before it.

As well as there on-going programmes the VICI GROUP's divisions are preparing to put their experience to work with new ventures. Most recently has been the announcement that VICI RACING will compete in the new USA-based Porsche Carrera Cup.