Time attack beetle

[NO_H2O]

Nice run. Good to see an aircooled classic taking it to them like that. Thanks for the vids.

[chug_A_bug]

nice Run..sounds real nice too

[DORIGTT]

Good run.

You made it look too easy.

[NO_H2O]

A fine drive. Looks like a blast.

[Humble]

Here's a couple pics from the Kelley Park Spring Meet on sunday. I was safely the fastest car there at least until the battery died. All the time spent idling with the oil cooler fan running waiting to get in killed the battery. I ended up getting a jump so I could leave, such is the life of a race car, they don't like going slow

Here's a few shots with the semi-complete airdam in place. The splitter isn't on yet and the front suspension needs to come up about an inch or so but It looks good all blacked out.





Finally, I got the official results from last weeks autox. I did finish 2nd behind a nationals driver in my main competitor's Flyin' Miata turboed miata. He's really fast and knows his ****, and the miata he was in was a very capable car. But, he only beat me by .18 sec and without the boost issues the race would have been even closer. That was a huge ego boost for me and I could wipe the smile of my face all weekend. Ian, my main competition finished 4th, while a shelby cobra split us in 3rd. I managed 13th overall at the event, and I now lead the points race by 1. This has been a fun and exciting season so far

[Wally]

Nice pics, looking great! I like that you added the running boards. Looks almost like a normal beetle now ;-)

[Humble]

I've have the running boards on it, just hard to notice them with the huge fenders I think the running boards with be next to get a refresh along with the door and hood handles.

[NO_H2O]

Good result at the AutoX. I like the airdam. I am working on one for my car but it will be a bit more "Curb/speed bump friendly" as mine is a street car. I just have not had time to get very far with it.

[Humble]

Race #6 this year, super nice weather on sunday and a large turnout to the event. I wasn't really happy with the bug's performance this time around, and I know I could have gone nearly a second faster. The turbo seals have pretty much given up and I tried to get one more event out of it. It did okay but not great and I smoked out the grid after each run. The boost issues are killing me the most and that will be one of the next issues to get sorted. We're now on our summer hiatus and don't have any more points events until mid-august, so I have plenty of time to re-work the bug. The good news coming out of this event is that I came in 2nd again and beat my points competitor so I stretched my lead to 10 points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=steFWDnuVy4

[Humble]

Quick update...

Haven't done much with the bug recently, I've been rather pre-occupied with moving my boyfriend 3000+ miles across the country to live with me in CA. It was kind of a crazy adventure, flying to Philadelphia, exploring NJ, PA, and DE for a week, buying a new tow rig and race trailer, then driving them home to CA. The coast-to-coast drive is one that everyone should do, and one that I want to do again. Though next time I want to do the traditional LA to NY route.

The much needed tow rig (I haven't had one since I sold my truck in '09) is a 2000 Ford Excursion Limited V10. It's fully loaded, leather, dual A/C, 3rd row seat, and for a PA truck has almost no rust. It has 180k on it now and performed flawlessly on the trip. The trailer is a custom built low-deck, steel 21' car hauler. It's got a tire rack, secured battery box, brakes, tons of tie down options, and (my favorite part) a winch. Because the Excursion is a V10 gas, I got both for less than 7k, and we managed 11mpg-21.4L/100K for the entire trip.

Here's the new tow setup with the BF's track toy miata on the trailer. This was in Wendover, UT after surviving a 60 mile stretch of perfectly straight road through the salt flats.



Now that we're back home I've already started collecting parts for the bug, so expect a rash of updates soon

[Wally]

Cool he likes to drive track days too!

Originally Posted by Humble

Now that we're back home I've already started collecting parts for the bug, so expect a rash of updates soon

Yes please!

[owdlvr]

Originally Posted by Wally

Cool he likes to drive track days too!

Yes please!

Ditto! Now that my first stage is finished I'm itching for some thread updates while my bank account recovers :P

-Dave

[Mr_Zed_ZX20]

I absolutely love the track footage, this is probably my favorite thread to follow. Keep up the good work.

[Humble]

I've had a crazy month and I've got some catching up to do starting with the event in september. We were running in the afternoon, so it was nice to sleep in. I gave the front struts a little more rebound damping to see if it would help the front end stick better. They were too soft previously, and I hoped that this would make a difference. They ended up being still too soft but I was no longer locking up the front tires on hard braking. Before the front suspension would bounce off the stops and the wheels would lock up, but not this time. Awesome! However, I noticed hesitation again trying to go from part to full throttle but it could be a fuel slosh issue. I'm going to run a mostly full tank next time and see if the issue persists.

Lastly, after my co-driver/tire-warmer's first run he shut down the car. When he hit the starter button to fire her up again, the guts of the button shot out of the back of the dash. We scrambled to get the bug started again but that Painless button will have to be replaced. The starter engaged during his run, and ran until he got back to the grid where I pulled the back of the starter button off again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rymkcAR1PyU


First October event: My front damping improvements helped but I might add a bit more to see if front grip starts falling off again. Overall the bug is very predictable and easy to place in line, however the open diff is still a big achilles heel. With a nearly full tank I didn't get the hesitation issues I had before, so I'm pretty sure I was starving out the pickup in the fuel cell. After replacing the starter button, I discovered that the starter motor was cooked from engaging while the bug was racing around. The new starter is in but its planetary gearset makes the worst noise.

During this event our group was seriously short, and we basically hot-lapped 8 runs between 2 drivers. It didn't leave much time for tire pressure checking or adjustment, and the tires were gaining 2psi every couple of runs or so. All in all I finished just behind my nemesis by .3 sec, and barring him missing an event, he'll take the championship this year. Well fought!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LwpUI6ZtUg


Lastly, I have a new project I'm working out. Just bought a 71 super from the original owner, clean straight body, no accidents, and it's never left the SF Bay area. I'll get a build thread started once it has a name and direction, but I'm leaning toward a J-spec germanlook build.

[NO_H2O]

Nice 71. Should be a great platform to work from.