warick this year is going to be unreal with alot of superquick n/a cars this year.
can't wait to see this one in the flesh.
we need more pic's and updates.
THOSE HP FIGURES ARE AWSOME
DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THE CARS BEEN WEIGHED YET
EITHER WAY + 300 PONIES THIS SHOULD PROVE FOR SOME
UNREAL TIMES CANT WAIT TO SEE IT👍👍
Hey guys i will try and slip down and see Ross next week.
I have a feeling he may try to have the car ready for Gunnedah drags on the 28th,29th March.
Will post more info soon.
I don't think Ross is planning to run at Gunnedah. He said "Aussie cars should hold Aussie records", so I suspect he's planning to enter it only in ¼ mile ANDRA events.
He was also telling me that as well as producing 316hp Houndog's developing 256ft/lbs of torque. Compared to a 3.3 litre XU-1 (190hp & 200ft/lbs), it's one awesome N/A four!!!!
STOCK wrote:THOSE HP FIGURES ARE AWSOME
DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THE CARS BEEN WEIGHED YET
EITHER WAY + 300 PONIES THIS SHOULD PROVE FOR SOME
UNREAL TIMES CANT WAIT TO SEE IT👍👍
In the old days it was under 1500lbs with driver.
It'll be fast there is no doubt about that.
I think I did some calcs above...in the nines at 137 or 138 from memory.
After reading comments on the HOUNDOG I am very surprised of some of the contributors
accuracy especially grogy-9/12/2008 regarding Surfer's Paradise.That date was December 1984
& the car's first attempt on an ANDRA track.It had no wheelie bars & consequently caused some anxious moments.
It felt like it was on its way backwards,I was a lot younger then & hastily avoided that with quick throttle release!!The car is almost completed & we are working on obtaining air support for the intake system & expect total completion date to be between 2-3 weeks.
The relative ANDRA requirements are near finalised.The majority of the engine parts have been handmade & are unobtainable commercially.
Camshaft,cylinders,manifolds,throttle bodies,throttle plates,throttle shafts only represent a small content of this machining to produce this engine.
When I get a moment I will post the photo on the site that somebody had clicked at the Surfer's event of Houndog on its way up !!
Welcome to the forum Ross.
You will notice that this can be a very friendly family,
and your enthusiasm will increase dramatically when you realize how interested everyone is
in your come-back as well as your important place in vw History.
DB.
westi wrote:That's mad Alan.
LIFE IN THE LOW LANEAll people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the pr
Thank you for your wlecome.The engine is so strong & dyno proven .If the gearbox can match
Ithe engine I will be happy.Transmission componentry has been all renewed except the gearcase+3rd
which are still serviceable.Major ratio changes have been made to be more compatible with the engine.
Providing the transmission can cut the fat I guess fun will be had.Thank you all for your patience as
running this business & re-inventing the wheel with a custom made engine is no short project..
We now near have the finished goods.The tricks of nearly 40 years of being a vw mechanic has certainly
been applied to the high stress/load areas within the gearbox.There are 2 critical factors in making a differential
live,firstly you have to prevent the pinion from retreating & the crownwheel from escaping.When these
components shift mainly from flexing parts the tooth contact minimises & the ring/pinion end up like a plucked chook..
this is the major area that has been extensively modified.
Welcome Ross and a huge thankyou for sharing your experience, hope fully we can squeeze alot more out of you once you add this forum to your vw addiction.
Good luck with Houndog revisited, cant wait to see you on the track.👍👍
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
Dear Matt & Stock..thank you.Over the years of running this car I have had some of the most enjoyable
experiences with racers & racing.I used to love the staging lanes when guys would withdraw their V8
cars..toranas with 350 Chevs & the like .Pull them aside to do something or other so they were not paired up
with "THE DOG"..The 10.71 that it had back then was not far off the SSCC record of Jeff.Watson who
was running an FJ20 turbo Nissan engine in a sprite for a 10.79....it of course these days is quite surpassed
by the turbo category.VW Canberra sponsored the car to run in Oct.88 at Queanbeyan after towing there it got
rained out & resechuduled for Mar.89.On this date the car was paired up against a VW beetle with 350 Chev,Powerglide &
9" Ford diff.The engine was mounted under the front bonnet on a Torana front end....it could only hold my 4 cylinder for
the length of my first gear...back then I was doing 11.4's & the Chev was doing low 12s.Regrettably for the opposition
he suffered 3 straight losses.In the week prior this event I had overhauled the engine & gearbox & had towed it away
untested/unstarted.A small adjustment was required on the metering barrel. When work is done on motor vehicles whether
race cars or runabouts always do it 3 times...twice by hand & finally by vision..this guarantees & minimises any errors.
twice with your hands & finally with your eyes.
Cheers Ross, I hope we can share some racing stories. I think that is what is so special about volkswagens, we dont seem to mind having a laugh and comparing notes etc, so what if we are racing, if we help each other out it's all the more fun.
Your coments above about car preparation remind me of a car we built in the mid 90's for a client racing the targa Tasmania. Due to the mad rush of getting a car built with a never before tried engine combo, custom building everything etc etc, the owner/driver had hardly turned a wheel until unloading in Tassie. Well he went on to win his class....preparation, quality workmanshipand components is the key.
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
You are definitely destined to have fun with a vw on a drag strip.Dave I can remember your 36-Judson unit with its
consistent times.To Dave Butler,yourself & quite a few of my mates who have lent on me to get back out there which
provided me with sufficient incentive to reproject the car I must thank ....it has been an exciting development journey with no regrets.
I did not wish to rerun it in its 10.71 form as that would have lacked some excitement.The 2440 engine that was used at
Canberra in 1989 was bought off me by Henry Spicak.The DOG not long after that event had the back regrafted with a fabricated split
window & a total new 2570 combination that you have seen at ORAN PARK when you were running in 1992.
yep some of us were truely just kids when houndog was already developing it ledgendary status.........i still remeber it and can honestly say it has been an inspiration........
some video here of 1992 with houndog right at the very end of the footage (thanx to Dave Becker)
Dear Daimo...I was always enthralled with Peter Keegan & the "CAMEL FILTER" VW which later went on
to produce 10.2 @ 135mph.I visited Peter at Orange to have a look at this unit in 1974..little did I know
then that I would be down his path some stage later.Camel filters if you do not know where cigarettes
in a soft pack just painted like the side of his sponsored car...now I am showing my age.Thank you for the
Oran Park footage.I remember running Peter's car during that day his hillclimb unit not the Camel as it had
long gone.Dangerous Dave of course now owns it.Pete's car was then a supercharged 2 litre & The Dog was
near 2.6 n/a.Oran Park was the over 850 ft not an eighth of 660 ft.My slip showed 7.91 for the win @ 110 mph
& Pete's was 8.014 @ 114mph...he certainly would have given me some had it been 20 years sooner !!!!
I still communicate with Peter to whom I respect deeply...his car would have gone harder if he had the clutches &
drive gear that one can obtain these days.His transmission was basically stock excepting ratio changes in the top gears.
Owing to the fragility of the underengineered standard parts to compete with 2.2 litres of high pressurised (26lb)
supercharging mildness had to be adopted on the launches.
After some searching regarding a post by Grogy on 9/12/2008. I unearthed an old photo captured by someone unknown who forwarded the photo onto me some 24 years ago..This is the start of the subject wheelstand at Surfer's old track at Nerang when the car was first put on an ANDRA track & the first confrontation with a Christmas tree apart from Santa.This was the only fright that the car had given me in its racing career as it appeared that it was going to go over backwards.It certainly felt like it was 1 & 1/2 to 2 metres up..another 2/10ths of a second would have made a far better picture.Note the lack of anti-rotation protection,thre baja look (lighter & ease of maintenance)the white pool hose used as breather tubing,the unchopped look,full aluminium roll cage,ram tubes unfilterd & exposed to anything around going in...fortunately that never happened although the dirt return road provided me with more concern.Note the excessive traction compound that had been used by a funny car pass previously.After a bit more experience I improved on the tree & this is the only demoralising shot I have of a V8 ever in front of it....wheelie bars where of course fitted to it near before the engine had cooled down after returning home !!!!
Dear Dangerour Dave...Had a bit of trouble doing the attchment to the words but later overcome that problem hence my shot & your shot are out of order..My advice when you get that far up in the air would have been to forget taking the dog for regular walks or put Rocket Rod in it as I think he eats lots of pies !!!!!
hi, u prolly dont remember , but that day at surfers, i was running my yellow manx, and my friend was running his black bug, and yes i can relate to being young then also. i lookin forward to seeing you bug in action again. i can remember clearly your big wheelie when u front wheels went down just on the edge of the grass, a real crowd favourite. maybe u can do a bigger one if u got more horsepower now.............. regards grogy
Dear Grogy...I must say it was a ride that I cannot erase & find it overwhelming that a continued enthusiast was present on the day.To be truthful I thought it was going to land on the safety fence after the DOG screwed itself sideways whilst in the air.. I was looking somewhere about the milky way !! I was that naive about ANDRA procedure back then (first time out under ANDRA)that because the car was unfriendly with me I saddled up straight away for a re-run.....yes it was in the eliminations !!! You younger blokes have to keep an eye on me shortly as there might be some control tips I may need that have been forgotten.Re your question about doing bigger wheelstands.. have heightened 1st & 2nd gears to reduce torque supply to the differential as well as reducing final drive punishment I will need to steer it at some point.The new engine produces nearly 60 more foot lbs & near 100 more horsepower than before & consequently has bags to spare to get this unit mobile.The car with me in it is under 1500lbs.When the car goes into 3rd at about 130kph the engine to pick up the bottom of 3rd returns to 6,400rpm on the pick up of the cam.At that point the engine is producing 300 of its 316hp...this will provide steering difficulty with wheelstanding strength.The one point about torque reaction is that when objects pivot around their axis they are not going forward.I will go through some more shots of this day as some where taken by my crew on other vehicles..hopefully yours will be their..who was driving the black bug? Remember it is not engine power that makes people its the respect provided to the person that shouts first after the racing when we are safely gathered together...ps At that meet I remember Tony Harrington running a V8 Corolla Sprinter
auto running consistent 10.12s on 10.11 dial in.Gary Phillips had the "seaworld magic" funny car there also.
The late 70's through to mid 80's at Surfers were the time when my family (Mum and Dad and the 3 sons) fell in love with drag racing. I was a young teenage pup at the beginning of that time. Still remember seeing Jim Read do the first sub 6 sec pass in Oz. Wish I had seen your car Ross as I had a beetle (even back then) and loved it but no one where I lived had any idea how you could make them go fast. The work on your engine is just magnificent. What have you changed in suspension or other to help with hooking up all the extra power? Look forward to seeing it.
Marcus
Dear Marcus...this vehicle previously had near no rear suspension except minor upward movement
to compressed bump stop rubbers.The rear has now been made totally solid...something I wished
to try especially with a swing axle.It guarantees you a perfect track contact patch as there are no angle
changes & wheelie bar height stays aligned.Everything is in the rear of the car to maximise tyre downforce.
Tyre pressure is extremely critical here.The front suspension's upward movement has been restricted so
the vehicle on take off will not let the body wind up to gain momentum then to lift the front end.It has to
lift the front end weight almost immediately.The way tracks are prepared these days traction especially with
rear end configurations is fairly well optimised.You mentioned looking forward to seeing it I just hope that it is
as easy to drive as what it is to look at it go by !!
