beetle drift car

hey all,,,


has anyone made a beetle drift/track car that people know of??

pro and cons??

pics welcome

This thread oughta create some interesting repsonses.

Plenty of people have track bugs but drifting a bug you have one very large con in the way.

All the weight is over your rear wheels right where you don't want it to be.

there is the odd drift out there but the driveline to do it costs more than you can imagine.

If you wanna go drifting just get an old RWD Corolla or datto and weld the diff.

Cheaper to but a KE70 Corolla and drop in a 1UZFE..Cheap drifter and skids in all gears!.

Would be very hard to drive.

my brother (boozo bug) took his out to an open drift day some years ago, and can definatly confirm a bug is real hard to drift. Tends to be better at doing donuts 😂

Have seen a few drifters, and know of a vert 1303 that is being made into a drift missile.

Two of them that I know of run 2.4l Type 4's, and another one has a ej22 in it.

Either way, would be a bitch to handle as, like Joel mentioned, all the weight is in the rear. This makes getting the rear out easy, but not necessarily bringing it back in.
Because it is heavier at the rear, it will always want to spin due to the momentum in the rear swinging around. I've done it, not good fun.

Definitely get an old school RWD front mounted engine car if you want to drift. R31's are nice.

yeah could get something 'easy' to do skids in... my r32 skyline does fine but there is a million of them... i've never seen a beetle!!

just putting it out there!!! i want to see one... Can Rod Penrose put up the motor ie donation lol... everyone can chip in and get this done i'm sure!!

Christians Lbug pulls a mean drift but it's got a massive f__k off type4 in to do it

Joel wrote:Christians Lbug pulls a mean drift but it's got a massive f__k off type4 in to do it

yeah i saw this years ago... made me fall in love with bugs!!!
odd how no one want to build it??

should i say that its too expensive... if it was cheaper would there be more race bugs??

I don't think it would be impossible. It would just be a little more difficult and you you would have to be creative during the build of the car.

Like moving as much weight up the front as you possibly can and lightening the crap out of the rear. And yes you would need a good engine like a Type 4.

Would be an interesting challenge for someone to undertake.



Smiley 🙂

Joel wrote:Christians Lbug pulls a mean drift but it's got a massive f__k off type4 in to do it

My beetle drifts like that around the large roundabout near my house. Couldn't you just weigh down the front with lead or bricks and drift away? 😂

shokwave2 wrote:My beetle drifts like that around the large roundabout near my house.

My Baja drifts ok on the sand or dirt 😀


Smiley 🙂

Smiley wrote:I don't think it would be impossible. It would just be a little more difficult and you you would have to be creative during the build of the car.

Like moving as much weight up the front as you possibly can and lightening the crap out of the rear. And yes you would need a good engine like a Type 4.

Would be an interesting challenge for someone to undertake.



Smiley 🙂

You're suggesting moving weight to the front and then fitting a boat anchor to the rear? 😂

Being a bit more serious for a second you can accomplish a lot with swaybars and spring rates to get a car not to handle...ie drift. I think some sort of engine conversion to something late model that revs all day would make sense for a drift car, but again it's more weight in the back.

A stiff rear roll bar is your friend in promoting oversteer.

A type4 converted to upright is not much heavier than a type1

Its that stupid pancake cooling system with the cast shroud that adds weight to a type 4 in stock form.

THis guy is out there mixing it up with the Jap scrap using a type1 engine, I bet he does a lot of engine tear downs after each season though

Put the engine in the front.

EJ25T+more boost!

My old turbo beetle drifted well until a tree got in the way!

from another forum
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=132978&hilit=drift
also try contacting this user
http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=53880&page=3#pid856739
he has been drifting them for a while

barls wrote:from another forum
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=132978&hilit=drift
also try contacting this user
http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=53880&page=3#pid856739
he has been drifting them for a while

drifting for a while but by the look of things its a full race car... i'd hate to think how much the total cost would be...

I've promised a few drifting mates ill get mine to qld raceway one Friday night, eventually, or a private day to save on embarrassment, just gotta finish it first 😂

Hi

Now that I have Quaife I might give it a go in the future, it will have to be wet track as I cant break traction in the dry.

A friend of my son is building a Beetle bodied drift car, with all Corolla running gear.

Steve

1303Steve wrote:Hi

Now that I have Quaife I might give it a go in the future, it will have to be wet track as I cant break traction in the dry.

A friend of my son is building a Beetle bodied drift car, with all Corolla running gear.

Steve

So a corolla with a bug shell? Or just running gear?
Mate of mine has an sr20t ke70... goes really hard... keep us posted

2nd gear was always interesting in my old 4age panel. 8000rpm ringing in nothing more than a biscuit tin!!! Hahaha

Here is a thread on the French drift beetle.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=446188&highlight=drift

Seeing as more and more people these days opt for transplants into vw's especially of the Subaru variety if I had the cash I'd do the same. I'd get an impreza wrx and gut the crap out of it and put a 2.7L type 4 in it with a gt42r with 20psi. Make it rear wheel drive and go and have some fun and upset some people hahaha

Funny you say that Brenndan, Col and I were discussing exactly that a few weeks ago. He knows of a cheap wrx that has had the engine robbed and we suggested exactly that to get the rice eaters to stand up and take notice.

Do it Matt!! Take one back for the air cooled team!! I reckon it would be awesome!! 6 speed sti box and cooling system would be so easy!! Porsche shroud with ducting to where radiator would normally be so always pulling fresh air. Barrel cooler for intake and away we go!! Imagine the looks when you lift the bonnet!!

Golf

Subaru gearboxes are too weak to drift with. Throw away their engine too. Better off with a 36hp and split case tranny any day !! 😂

IWL_86 wrote:Subaru gearboxes are too weak to drift with. Throw away their engine too.

Yeah you're right, weak as piss....

I'll just leave this here 😉

Joel wrote:If you wanna go drifting just get an old RWD Corolla or datto and weld the diff.

Or an old R31 Skyline

Christians bug was European drift champion a while back.

Joel wrote:

IWL_86 wrote:Subaru gearboxes are too weak to drift with. Throw away their engine too.

Yeah you're right, weak as piss....

I'll just leave this here 😉

And a VW transmission can't do that......


I'll leave it here shall I?


5 minutes in a bus... woopee

turboty wrote:So a corolla with a bug shell? Or just running gear? Mate of mine has an sr20t ke70... goes really hard... keep us posted

I went to a drift practice night last night and I was talking to spanner guy on this project, its still being built.

matberry wrote:

Joel wrote:

IWL_86 wrote:Subaru gearboxes are too weak to drift with. Throw away their engine too.

Yeah you're right, weak as piss....

I'll just leave this here 😉

And a VW transmission can't do that......


I'll leave it here shall I?


5 minutes in a bus... woopee

Many moons ago at Jambo I ran my bus over the qtr. 2.0L type 4 with 1600 bus box. Hacked a pretty mean skid and have a pic somewhere at home. 1st gear,2nd into 3rd and 4th which was pretty funny!! Only ran a high 17 sec pass but watching blokes laugh as I started to do a skid then shift up a gear I saw many cameras get dropped while fumbling to get a pic. 2.04 to the 60ft mark and went and bought new rear tyres the next week haha!!

VW boxes ain't real strong......

Hi

There is a lot of setting up involved with the suspension on a drift car, more than stiff springs and a locker.

After last night, my sons Skyline above had excessive wear on the front tyres. He needs to fit different steering knuckles to change the Ackerman so that the wheels are tracking better on lock.

Steve

A full Mendeola Suspension setup (front and rear) would probably give you the settings you will need to setup for drift.

Either way, there is a lot involved and I wouldn't recommend trying to do it to a bug. Just get a bomb Datsun, Toyota or even a Commodore and do it on the cheap.
If you really want to drift a bug, be prepared to spend a lot of money.

Why settle with a beetle? Why not a kombi? Now that would be something to scare the locals lol

I reckon Aaron's bus could have a crack lol

matberry wrote:And a VW transmission can't do that

I didn't say they can't.

I was just taking the piss out of someone saying Subi boxes are weak,

The main time they break is when boy racers think they can drift an AWD or crank way to much power of the engine without doing anything to the gearbox.

Chuck one in a bug that is half a tonne lighter and only driving the rear wheels they are fine.

You can make any Beetle drift with enough POWER.

Hi

The rotary bug is impressive, but that’s not drifting, he’s doing donuts. drifting requires more precise handling than donuts, which would be hard to achieve with the weight of a rotary hanging out the back .


Steve

Agreed this rotary bug is doing doughnuts and not drifting - but with that much power it could be easily drifted in the right hands. Drifting is merely a balancing act (controlled oversteer). Admittedly a Beetles rear weght bias requires alot more skill than a front engined car - you still need heaps of power to maintain and control the oversteer and Beetle requires more skill - others have done it successfully.

Pros: Great to stick it to the ricers in a Beetle

Cons: Expensive to set up - power, suspension, lsd diff etc, High level of driver skill required.