Whats the best pan option if building a basic drag car?

I have several pans as options for a basic drag (semi streetable) VW.....so to help narrow down the selection I have two main questions.

Do they make aluminum beams for ball joint pans or only early pans ?

If you had a choice, is it better to have IRS or swing rear setup for a drag beetle?
I can see pro's and con's for both, but I'm not a drag racer so I'm probably not looking at the complete picture.

Cheers
CT

Best option is DONT!!!! There an addictive money pit!!!😀
as far as i know k&l are the only option for alloy beams.
IMO swing axel is better. Less parts to brake.
What have you got planned????

Craig , Aluminium beams are only available for the early K & L beams . For the rear , the weight of the swing axle is the lightest and most effective way to transmit the power . The down side is that when the trans is out , the car is hard to move . All of this is a factor in the build . I have used both and there will not be any start line advantages from one particular set up . ROD.

IMHO I would say that it depends on how much HP and Torque your engine is going to produce. Under 200 HP I would say swingaxle because it takes less hp to operate it, over 200 I would say IRS with a bus box. To really confuse you I have a swingaxle transmission in my IRS car with 366 rwhp. Mike McCarthy

🤪 👍

Semi streatable... that is what i said 😂😂

Ok, so it seems my early pan is the best option then.

Cheers to all 👍

early bug's are way cooler to 😀

will be a 76 shell 😂

ok i see you must be desperate so run with it then 😀

Craig Torrens wrote:will be a 76 shell 😂

If you're going swing axle, is a '76 shell a bit heavy, compared with a '60s shell?

hth

You're probably right, but I have a spare 76 shell so I'm just going to use what I have laying around. 👍

will it be ready by the end of next month????

and what displacement will it be ?? 😀

Probably 1908cc, and the car won't be ready for a while as I'm building another car before the drag bug.

Can't imagine you building a basic drag car Craig 🙂

well ok, maybe a little bit above basic then 😁

What happened to the drag engine Stan built you Craig

LOL, hardly a drag motor cnfabo !

My Stan motor has had major terminal issues.......do you want to buy some twin plug heads ?

I will start a build thread when it comes to the motor and car.

I'm looking forward to the sound of 48's and straight cut cam gears. 👍

Watch this cnfabo !

1908cc!! It's a couple of cc's shy of the magic number lol

cnfabo wrote:

Craig Torrens wrote:My Stan motor has had major terminal issues.......do you want to buy some twin plug heads ?

I will start a build thread when it comes to the motor and car.

I'm looking forward to the sound of 48's and straight cut cam gears. 👍

Me so broke....

Oh C'mon Chris, I'm sure you have loads of $$ laying around for VW parts !!

Nope, just bought our first house, lots to do that involves $$$$$$$$.
What was the terminal issues??

When I first read this post I automatically geared my mindset toward building a pure race car that could be improved as time went by into a full fledged race car , after reading it again I think a better choice would be to build a " Hot " street car that you can occasionally race . You already have a newer style body and if you are going to do more driving on the street than racing I would think about using the IRS pan. The car will ride smoother and can be made pretty durable costwise when you are on a tight budget . If you already have a single sidecover trans you ( at least over here ) probably have a 3.88 R/P and a 3.78 first gear, both of which are pretty tough if you keep your clutch setup reasonable pressure wise . There are some very talented transmission builders over there , seek one of them out and ask them about improving your transmission because it is the weakest link . With a bullet proof trans you can have alot of fun racing a lower HP engine without spending a fortune. The biggest differance between a 'RACE " car and a daily driver is one is parked in a spectator parking lot and the other is parked in the pit area, my point is " Run WHAT YA BRUNG ". I would bracket race and gain "experiance" and NOT get fixated on going faster. The mods I would do to the engine would be for durability ( 8 dowel crank ect...) and consistancy , not necessarily performance. I know how addictive speed is , hell I still need my fix once in awhile but it is really expensive . This is advice from an old man who made ALL the mistakes you are going to make if you decide to race. Have alot of fun, Mike McCarthy

Thanks to all the drag racers that have sent emails etc with advice..........It seems the BJ/IRS gets the popularity vote from those in the know 🙂

Lets build one of each, you BJ I swing, same weight, same engine......as an experiment with all second hand parts

sounds good.........I have enough parts here to build about 4 of them lol

so whats the plan on engines, 1776 unrestricted combination but must be NA and carb?

This could be fun.....

matberry wrote:This could be fun.....

This could be a lot of fun.... And interesting too!

fish26 wrote:so whats the plan on engines, 1776 unrestricted combination but must be NA and carb?

Go 94's 😎

1915 it is...........anyone got a spare set of 94s laying around?

Maybe we should start a whole new thread on the two builds, let have some fun and open a can of worms.

go 90.5 to keep it little, then you could make it into a budget entry class, even std valves or 40x35 as a limit, std pan and a realistic minimum weight.

Hey Matt, bugger that ! 😂

Maybe we make it that you have to use Kadrons, and standard non counterweighted cranks.......thats Budget !!!!

Hope you're not in a hurry though Benito as I'm juggling a few projects atm !

Time to start a new thread 👍

Ok so it's 1776cc let's say max 42x37.5 NA, carbureted, cooling, belt on, stinger, maybe even stock box? Std pan.

Two sweep the floor cheap ass gypsy race cars......fn awesome can you make Warwick or shoot for Sydney in Feb?

Jeez this class sounds easy..... I'm done already 😂

This is "sweep the floor" class, yours is best of the best all Berg class 😂

Yeah, I'm not interested in a rules class.

My whole purpose for building this car is to put spare parts etc that I already have to good use. 😉

that's the whole idea, are we doing this? no hurry

ooooh I like the sounds of this!

Come on Craig sounds like Ben is throwing down the challenge!
How about just cap the size at 2000cc and N/A only so what ever combinations can be used without a massive stroker showing up?

What about a running total that goes with motor/drivetrain as well so we can see where money is best spent? 😁

I've got a stock ratio 4.125 box sitting on the floor Shimmo says will take 170hp ready to go into Betty so I might join in and can the GB309/1.4 Rockers, L6 DRD's and 45 Dell's 1904cc I'm currently thinking and go FK44/1.4's, L7's and 48 Dell's!! 🙂

^^ now that sounds good, my streeter fits right in there 😉

I like the idea of an actual formula/class.

Oh Pete, you're such a follower 😂😂........and why such a baby cam ?🤓

I'm not fussed what you make the class, I'm just bolting together whatever I have lying around and going out for some fun...that's the idea !!!!

And Matt, there's already a class....its called the Gene Berg Trophy 😂

Craig Torrens wrote:Oh Pete, you're such a follower 😂😂........and why such a baby cam ?🤓

I'm not fussed what you make the class, I'm just bolting together whatever I have lying around and going out for some fun...that's the idea !!!!

And Matt, there's already a class....its called the Gene Berg Trophy 😂

That's it, it's on girlfriend!

Everyone needs to KICK SOME TORRENS ARSE! 😂

😂😂😂...you're so aggressive 🥲

He's frustrated, been out of a fast car for too long

The idea about building similar cars with different drive and suspension set up could be a good comparison between the two cars not to mention the head to head run to the finish line while giving each other thumbs up or the bird😂