That's a great video !

Did you do a lot of suspension / engine work to the car ?

Rob.

Mods include:

toplineparts.com adjustable struts
Bugpack front and rear uprated anti-roll bars
Rear wing
Simex 185/55/15s and Toyo Proxies T1-s 195/15/15s
Porsche 914 2-litre alloys
Porsche 3 spoke steering wheel
Weber 32/36 carb
custom exhaust
Cobra Aqua 4x4 racing seats
Custom and speed parts strut brace
Re-located battery to spare wheel
Kamei front spoiler

Not too shabby for a car that's mildly warmed over. Imagine racing with a moderate T4?!

Kudos and Huzzah to you!

When I was watching the video, the background music made me think of GranTurismo 3....

The Golf was hilarious !

Sandeep

Chris, your bug handled great in corner. What spring rates you were using? The relocation of the battery to the front must have helped a lot. I hope my 1303 will handle as nice as yours on the track.

Tim

chris,

you have really good technique (at least on that one corner)...keep it up. Car looked good and it inspired me to go out to the garage and finish my darned engine :)

Nick

Thanks for the kind comments guys.. I am glad I have flown the flag for bugs and inspired people a little..

Springs are stock, sqeezed into the adjustable struts. Stock torsion bars at the rear. It goes to show it doesn't take that much to make an 03 handle well...

Great job Chris!

I love to see them being raced... Not just all bling bling for shows running dubs.

FWIW in the US I bet anyone could find a local SCCA club to at least auto-x with. Not anywhere close to a real road course, but still great fun.

G'day Chris,
Its fantastic that u are on the track. Good to see others getting into it. I noticed in your pic that u have alot of body roll & that u mentioned that u have the standard springs & torsion bars out back. I have type 3 wagon (variant) torsion bars in the back of mine & 80mm springs up front rated at 150pounds. The pic that I've attached shows my car cornering in third gear at about 120kph (75mph) I've probably got about 2 degrees max body roll & it's trying to get both inside wheels off the ground. U think that u are kiking butt now, wait until u do some more suspension mods & get some more power!
Take care & keep in touch
regards
Jak Rizzo
Downunder

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/i...hoto+83328.jpg

Hi Jak,
What sizes of sway bars you are using? I am gathering all the datas to build my 1303 for racing.
Thanks
Tim

G'day Tim,
the front bar is quite large it's 26mm or 24mm, but the rear bar is only 19mm & is non adjustable.
regards
Jak

HI Jak, thanks for the info. First upgrade for me will be more power. I would love to even get near 75mph in third!

G'day Chris,
If I was u I would totally forget about more power & concentrate on handling, brakes & tyres. I would even get a close ratio gearbox before the bigger motor as well. My new gearbox is actually a 1300cc twin port swingaxle box converted to IRS. The 1300 gearboxes come with the 1.58 third & 1.04 4th as standard. This makes u quicker alone, u don't want to increase top speed, just the accelleration out of corners. The 1302 & 1303 boxes are drastically overgeared & I now find that the car is so snappy that the nose rises from third to fourth! Its great.
Please don't take this info the wrong way Chris, this is just from my experience & if I can help someone through my mistakes then the mistakes were worth it!
regards
Jak

The trouble is (an especially with the Castle Combe action day's with their no overtaking on corners policy), that when I get to a corner I am usually held up by slower cars. As I am usually faster than most other cars through the corners but slower on the straights, it makes sence to me to upgrade the power (to me anyway). Is it that, bang for buck, my money is best spent on handling to increase the overall performance? Don't forget that my engine is almost stock.. Did you spend money on a engine, then wish you had spent the money elsewhere?

As far as gearboxes go I have the AT box with 3.88 r&p, but even here I feel that the gearing is not high enough! Don't forget that I am using only 15" rims with 195/55/15s on, so lowering the gearing significantly. I only use 3rd for the 2 chicanes! Everywere else is flat out in 4th...

The rule about overtaking is the same with us, but we also have the rule that if u are holding someone up in the corners that u allow them to pass u on the straight so that they are first into the corners at the end of the straight.
As for the gearbox, I used to think the same thing, I had a 1303 box with the 3.88 & a .89 4th, but my motor was only coming on cam at the end of the straight at 5500rpm in top. U really need it to come on cam mid straight, all your power is no good to u when u have to slow down for the corners again. Just something for u to think about. It will probably become more apparent whe u have the big motor & u know exactly where your peak power is in the rev range, then select your gearing to suit.
regards
Jak