I didnt see any support on torsiontubes on your car and other high hp cars, including Wallys car, i have only seen support on mendeola oval chassis and remmele chassis.

Looks like they dont need as much support as the shock towers and framehorns.

First i wanted to have tubes from rollcage mainloop to torsiontubes, but it might be not needed from what i have heard:



http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/4650/75jz.jpg

Alex,

The fact I didn't weld any supports to the torsion tubes, doesn't neccesarily mean I wouldn't be better of with them...
In fact, thats probably the first other thing I will add to the existing cage as my instablity at Santa Pod in 2012 might be due to missing exactly that!

Cheers,
Walter

I thought about bracing the ends of the torsion tubes but I don't know if it's worth the extra metal. I'll probably setup a string pot during a track day or autox to see how much they actually move. I would think between the kafer brace and rear cage stays tied to the body it would be fairly stiff already.

All my projects are waking up as I come out of my busy season. The race bug is taking a bit longer but is getting more goodies than the other two. Recently I stumbled on not one, but two sets of spendy race wheels for a bargain. The first set I lucked into was some CCW CW10, mixed from a Cayman S and a GT3 in 18x8.5/9. I wrapped them in new Hankook Ventus F200 240/640R18 and 270/680R18 C51 tires, which I got of a racing buddy for cheap. The cazy part is these wheels are basically new, lass than 100 autox miles on the rims, basically 2 seasons. $1500 all told for this setup, almost 1/3 off it's new price.

The second set of wheels was a lucky find on ebay. I was looking to rebuild a set of Fikse 18" Profil 5S from wheel centers I got off a porsche team last year but no one had used barrels. A new set of barrels and hardware would have set me back about $2600 after tax/shipping. Looking for barrels the other day I come across a set of Fikse Profil 5S 17x9.5/10 for $1400 but one wheel needed an outer barrel half and center. $630 later and its on the way, all told a bit over $2000 for a set of wheels that cost almost twice that, not too shabby. No tires yet but those are coming once the last rim is rebuilt. That gives me 3 wide sets of wheels for the race bug, streets/rains, autox/hillclimb and track days.

Besides tires, I've been accumulating electrical necessities for the wiring job at hand, and once the other 2 cars are finished the wiring will start in earnest.

Your collection of wheels and tires are starting to sound like mine. My girlfriend says I'm about as bad as a woman when it comes to shoes, lol.

Flashback 2012. Pic thanks to JKFAB aka Jeff K.

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...57381173_o.jpg

Jason

Nice! I haven't been back to bugorama since then, but I'd like to get both GSR's side by side the next time I go. Probably won't happen in May but maybe by August.


Here's a shot of the CCW CW10's wrapped in Hankook race slicks I mentioned before.
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...c.jpg~original

Here's the new set of Fikse Profil 5S, the lower left rim needs a new center and outer barrel. The new parts came in, but were not anodized so I'm waiting for them to come back.
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...1.jpg~original

Haven't had much time for Lucy the race bug, with Joy taking a lot of my time. Once Joy is sold and Mojo the GSR get's re-assembled It'll be full time on the race bug until she's done. My old job has eaten all my time this year and I start a new gig at Apple on monday, which shouldn't be as brutal... I hope.

Not too much to report other than finally getting the rim parts I needed to rebuild the last set of race wheels. The rim is back together but I haven't put any sealing caulk on it yet. 17x10.5 ready to go!

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...t.jpg~original

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...3.jpg~original

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...4.jpg~original


To set this into perspective here's a few wheels from my beetles:

bottom: stock beetle 15x4.5 steel rim, 165/85-15 tire
left: ATS classic 15x5, sporty stock beetle, 175/55-15 sporty rim tire
right: CCW CW10 18x8.5, front race bug track wheel, 240/640-18 slick
top: Fikse FM5 Classic 17x10, rear race bug autox wheel, 275/40-17 semi-slick

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...n.jpg~original

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...t.jpg~original

Trying to drive a bug quickly on stock tires after having any of the others is sketchy as hell btw. You can easily feel the sidewalls squirming underneath you.

your getting to the point of what must be over tyreing the chassis. I have gone from 7x16 to 9x15 and now to 7.5x17 rims with various tyres and now run track wets for hill climbs i do.
I'm really not sure we can use such rubber effectively, getting them upto temp must be hard and controlling that much weight must also be difficult.
not knocking what your doing as i know it runs good times.

You doing Bug O?

Jason

Jason,
Gotta skip bugorama so I can fix my tow rig and get a damage assessment for the truck and trailer. A story coming on that later.

Judgie,
I have trouble warming up certain compounds at autox, but hillclimbs or track days get the tires up to temp no problem. If you check the porsche club racers with rs copies, a good number of those cars run 11"-13" wide rubber and weigh about the same. It all boils down to contact patch, compound, and application. That being said, I advocate for smaller rubber for folks who race on a budget, or don't want to go crazy with mods. 7-8" rubber is good enough for just about everyone and the rubber costs almost half of what I usually run.

Love the pic with the four different wheels...
Can you maybe throw them each on the scale for a comparison of weight?

My bet is that the stock steelie and tire is the lightest of the bunch. :-)

I became convinced that massive power is needed when comparing my 944T brake setup and wheels to the stockers on the scale.
Until you have a BIG power level, that donk look we all love so much here is a hinderance for sure.
Diminishing returns performance-wise until at a very high level... Due to the weight.

I remember how much slower my car felt when just the wheel/brake conversion was done.

Just because the P-car guys do it, doesn't make it right.
If anyone was prone to fashion-ism, it would be them....
:-P

I have to agree with your point of view even though I'm running 18x11 and 18x8's with boxster S brakes. Definitely overkill and I realized this once I put them on the car (but they look soooo good, lol). Like any form of racing, you only add when the abilities of the current parts are exceeded. Having followed Humble's blog from the beginning, I'd say he's probably got a pretty good handle on what works and what doesn't for his setup.

Still racing? Any news?

+1