2443TT wrote:Pete i'd be interested in seeing what you did with your additional reenforcing, if you could take a pic or two and post it up i'd appreciate it. Ive got to add a little more steel to the pan to provide some better roll cage supports before the body comes off, but the goal in my case is to cage the chassis and keep it as rigid as possible. I dont want to go cracking the body when it starts to twist under the torque from the engine.
Here is the subframe I came up with...
The tabs on the either end of the I-beam section go onto the shockmounts. The shock go in between them in double sheer. The tubes go down onto the chassis forks onto these...
Here it is in situ...
Hopefully things will be a little stiffer with this in place. My next job is to try and drill more speed holes in it.
😎why not use tube for everything,light and strong.
nice effort though.looks like it took awhile.
down sharon.
Fat chicks can look cool when you lay on some wet paint 🙂
This guy has added about the same extension but in steal to standard guards, looks great with the 20's 🙂 oh and this was done over five years ago so pretty wild back then.
Westi you are 100% correct, but like everything in the car, there always an amount of compromise going on. I went with a piece of steel plate as the basis for the subframe for a few reasons. Firstly, the who structure needed to be as flat as possible against the panel above it. Secondly, there are 12 different mounting points on the plate for cage, shocks and the back seat and a sheet was the easiest way to secure them all. thridly, if there was too much plate material I could just cut it out or drill holes into it to bring the weight down. mmmm....speed holes....👍
So far it's taken me about 20 hours. It would probably only take you 4. 🥲
stephen - looks chopped also which makes it look a little out of proportion.
ian - i think it will look just fine as stephen said once painted. well done!
nick
2443TT wrote:Brad, thanks for the honesty. I dont think there is any other way of doing what im doing though. Because the car is so much wider than normal there is no way it can ever look normal.
Another way of widening so that the proportions don't look too far out of wack would have been to widen the body. Cut it down the centre then add metal, then again probably be easier to use 2 bodies and splice them together, a lot more work though.....
Cheers
Dino
Dont get me wrong... I actually do like the look of it a lot!
It might look a little odd in the pictures but thats expected as they arent finished yet. Seeing the join doesnt help that at all.
But standing next to the car, the widened guards do really suit it. And knowing there is 10" of semi slicks under them that will be driven by the most insane engine ive ever built just makes the guards suit the car even more. Its not this wide for the sake of putting wide tyres under it, it is as wide as it is because thats what is needed to allow the car to have the late model 944 turbo suspension setup that it has. Its function over form, though at a glance because it still looks like a beetle on the outside most will think its just wide guards and wheels, unaware of the 400-500hp that will be inside.
Remember part of my inspiration for this car is the Its Fun porsche, a 1978 911 turbo that that had the chassis widened allow the front wheel track to match the width of the rear end. Some of you may know this car... a 1000hp 911.
Taking tomorrow off work, so i hope to have both rear guards 1/2 glassed up by tomorrow night.
Cheers,
Ian
❗ not much traditional 911 front end left there.
still I suppose it's not about looks as much as go.
Hi
The importance of keeping the front track on bug wider than the rear is often overlooked, this car is going to be a weapon. You know how a tricycle handles, with the single front wheel it wants to fall over.
Steve
is that the front of the zonda?
1303Steve wrote:Hi
The importance of keeping the front track on bug wider than the rear is often overlooked, this car is going to be a weapon. You know how a tricycle handles, with the single front wheel it wants to fall over.
Steve
I'll second that! I widened my front end 3" to try to keep up with the rear. I'm always amazed when "narrowed beam" and "handling" end up in the same sentence.
Jason
If I could just get paid for my sleepless nights....
2008 BMW 335i
2001 BMW M3 'Vert
1998 BMW M3 Sedan
1960 VW Bug
Bad Dub RacingLast time i checked the track was the same front and rear (1730mm), which is the same as the 951 chassis that all the suspension parts are from. I do see your point though. Just standing next to my R33 GTR 's front wheel and looking to the back you can see the front track is much wider than the rear, that that is a car thats designed for the handling.
volkdent wrote:1303Steve wrote:Hi
The importance of keeping the front track on bug wider than the rear is often overlooked, this car is going to be a weapon. You know how a tricycle handles, with the single front wheel it wants to fall over.
Steve
I'll second that! I widened my front end 3" to try to keep up with the rear. I'm always amazed when "narrowed beam" and "handling" end up in the same sentence.
Jason
the things that astounds me is that they then take the shocks off as well and pronounce the handling as "great".
🤪pete wood wrote:the things that astounds me is that they then take the shocks off as well and pronounce the handling as "great". 🤪
The man brings the truth... Amen!!!
You also have to wonder about the tire choice too... smart car tires or 135's coupled with used 165's... well sussed out set-up there
🙅But so many of the documented and very commonly done things we have all done to the suspension on our VW's is all so very wrong if we ever wanted the car's to handle really well. Pretty much everything in the commonly done modification list with the exception of lowering (which also upsets castor, but never mind that).
Dropped spindles that offset the hub and mess with the scrub radius of the tyre, cause instability over rough surfaces and mess with the turn in of the car as the steering angles change... We've all done that before. Though really there isnt a lot of valid scope for getting great handling out of a 1960's design. So often its a compromise with handling to get the look we all want, like getting those 6+7" fuchs rims under the stock fenders.
Offsetting the hub... Is this in relation to moving the hub closer to the top torsion leaves, or something completely different?
Unfortunately the problem also lays with being at mercy of what the aftermarket offers, this is mostly catered towards form OVER function.
the more offset the bolt face is from the balljoint centreline[with positive or negative castor] the greater the arc thestub axle sweeps through you can go from + camber to - camber with very little steering input.
EVERLAST CONCRETE TANKS
1800 552 123
Speaking of steering... On friday at last the 944 turbo steering shaft and universals arrived from the US. Installation was very simple. Ive just shortened the shaft a little and also on one end I had to machine 1mm off the diameter so it fits inside the VW steering column. After goes trial fitting it I then slot cut the vw collumn and and welded solid 944 steering shaft to the vw column.
The column has to be installed from the bottom now which is no big deal. I made sure it can be removed without having to lift the body off the chassis... just in case. The shaft is being supported by a VW steering column bearing. I'll get two new ones and install one in each end of the column to support the shaft. The setup works great. Im going to be getting my engineer by next week to look at it, and give me my blue plate.
I didnt make much more progress that this today, though both rear guards are now all cable tied together and ready for glassing up now. Tomorrow will be a busy day. Here are the pics.
Cheers,
Ian
Hi all,
Made a little more progress this afternoon. The front guards 3/4 finished now. Yesterday I built up the outside of the guards to make it strong so today I could grind out the little carbon fibre pieces I had used to hold it all in shape. I then went about smoothing the whold guard over inside and out to get the base shape right while making it as thin as possible. The next step is to build it up structurly again using multiple thin layers. I dont want to to be much heavier than they were before i widened them but they must be strong.
Here are the pics:
Thats all for now.
Cheers,
Ian
I get itchy just looking at those pics dude 😁
Reub
3 down 1 to go... The finish is still rough but the shape is right now. With the last one done i'll mask up the car, bolt them on and do the finishing with them bolted to something solid.
At last... custom swaybars have arrived. Sent away months ago, lost, found, transferred to another company, lost again, finally fabricated and then the 3 days shipping to cairns took 2 weeks. Better late than never so they say...
Engineering of the modifications has been re-sheduled to Thursday this week. After which I will have a mod code for just about everything that can be modified on a car. No other updates to speak of... I had to work a whole day today for a change...
Cheers,
Ian
I want to see just how mean that car looks once those W I D E guards go on
Function over form, its gonna look mean alright.
Have you mocked them up now that they are finished?
...................( O \ l / O ).....................
Since you asked... and also because tomorrow I need to show the engineer that the steering works and doesnt foul on anything... here is one side of the car assembled. I've also dropped the front end to its lowest level. This is 100mm from the chassis framehead to the ground, the guards are 125mm at their lowest point to the ground. Im pretty happy with how its looking. Its looking insane, which is what I was hoping for. The back is still stitting a little high as there is no engine in there. The idea is to get a little of the tyre up inside the guard (which is why they are a little wider than they need to be, to allow the car to get lower to the ground while still having 2-2.5" suspension travel.
Still finishing the left rear guard, and i need to tidy the ends where the rolled edges are on the rears and the fronts a little more. Ive gotten them very close to flat without using any bog so far. Its been raining the past 2 days so i havent been able to take the guards outside to sand. Ive been trying to limit how much dust I get over everything inside the workshop...(it hasnt worked).
Cheers,
Ian
f a r k !
Pay your debts, CxxT
....what he said 🙂
Reub
*3
Woo Hoo! Engineering passed. The car now has 3 mod plates with 10 codes in all. Ive shown the engineer my 1/2 cage design and thats been approved as well!
Congrats Dude
Reub
looks great. look even better with a lick of paint. 😏
