I understand the earlier Beetle's have a top speed of 100KPH
what sort of top speed do the later 1600 bugs achieve?
what sort of type speed to worked Beetles, still running an air cooled engine achieve?
I tried to goggle up the answer, but only came up with drag racing cars, that had been heavily modified to look like funny cars
I was just curious, what sort of top end speed was achievable out of a Beetle, still running an air cooled engine, in some form, modified etc.. etc..
Joel ·
60mph was the old 50s 36hp engine top speed
altho they're capable of breaking that fairly easy
1500 and 1600 bugs were all up around the 80mph
but even the 60s 40hp 1200 and 1300 could pull about 75
my mates 68 bug which has an untouched 140,000+ mile old 1500 when fully loaded up coming home from valla still kept upto me doing 75mph
amazeer ·
desh wrote:I understand the earlier Beetle's have a top speed of 100KPH
what sort of top speed do the later 1600 bugs achieve?
what sort of type speed to worked Beetles, still running an air cooled engine achieve?
I tried to goggle up the answer, but only came up with drag racing cars, that had been heavily modified to look like funny cars
I was just curious, what sort of top end speed was achievable out of a Beetle, still running an air cooled engine, in some form, modified etc.. etc..
easily 180kmh
david777 ·
I've taken my 1970 1500 beetle with a 1916 motor to a track day at Eastern Creek raceway
and was doing up to 170kph down the straight. Now that I have gone to a gearbox with different ratios, I think it would be higher.
There are plenty of beetles around with much more horsepower than mine that could do alot more.
Before 100 & 110 kph speed limiits, I used to travel between 120 & 140 kph all the time if the road permitted. The best I ever did was on the Oxley Highway going West into the Yarrowich valley, when I got it up to the oil light (about where 170 would be I reckon).
Joel ·
pffft
i see your oil light and raise you a blinker light
on a private race track ofcourse
axlepressbutton ·
^^^^^In the dark -without headlights. ^^^^^
Beat that!
matberry ·
HA
I like pegged on zero🙄
trickysimon ·
Was that with the 0.82 and the 1600 Joel?
modulus ·
desh wrote:what sort of type speed to worked Beetles, still running an air cooled engine achieve?
I have some other questions about drag racing Beetle's but I'll put my thoughts together and post under the drag racing forum,
thanks guys
trickysimon ·
😉
HappyDaze ·
OK, so much for the theories and speedo readings. The beetle that I drove at Bathurst in the 1963 Armstrong 500 was a 1963, 1200, 40hp Custom or Standard. It had 60000 miles odd on the odometer. OFFICIAL speed down con-rod straight - electrically timed - was 86 miles / hour!
Cheers, Greg
Joel ·
axlepressbutton wrote:^^^^^In the dark -without headlights. ^^^^^
Beat that!
they were on, camera flash just over powered them lol
was the 1835 POS and stock SSP simon
colonel mustard ·
Joel wrote:pffft
i see your oil light and raise you a blinker light
on a private race track ofcourse
I like the positioning of your tacho....looks... well, its visable!
polak ·
hmmmmm know anyone with a radar gun? that wont put me away? i have a 1776 and it winds off the clock and bounces about 14mm past the 90mph mark very easily, id be very interested to know what its actually doing myself 😂
1303Steve ·
polak wrote:hmmmmm know anyone with a radar gun? that wont put me away? i have a 1776 and it winds off the clock and bounces about 14mm past the 90mph mark very easily, id be very interested to know what its actually doing myself 😂
Hi Polack
Get hold of a GPS, they have a built in speedo, Ive compared my GPS to roadside speed units that put up your speed and its spot on.
Ive always driven flat screen bugs until a few years ago when bought an L Bug/1303, the way this model cuts thought the air is very noticalble above 100 kph.
I had it up to 160kph on a private road near Lake George with a stock 1600 twin port, and it still wanted to go faster.
Steve
colonel mustard ·
Know of anyone with one of these private roads outside of Brisbane anywhere..... we could have speed runs! one car at a time, one GPS and record fastest speeds... whooo! but ont on public roads, cause thats darn stupid!
donn ·
Criky, sure are a lot of private roads around that are long enough to wind the little buggers out.
desh ·
1303Steve wrote:Ive always driven flat screen bugs until a few years ago when bought an L Bug/1303, the way this model cuts thought the air is very noticalble above 100 kph.
Steve
Was the L bug more stable at high speed than an older bug?
Would a later model bug, with the IRS and spring be more suitable as a high speed race car than an earlier bug?
Just toying with the idea of getting an old crappy bug and building a race car, with the intention of trying to make it as fast as possible, in top end spee
HappyDaze ·
Was the L bug more stable at high speed than an older bug?
Would a later model bug, with the IRS and spring be more suitable as a high speed race car than an earlier bug?
HOPE SO!
polak ·
oh yeah.... well derrr.... seems so obvious now that u mention it..... frikken hell... sorry i was having a blond moment 😂
1303Steve wrote:
polak wrote:hmmmmm know anyone with a radar gun? that wont put me away? i have a 1776 and it winds off the clock and bounces about 14mm past the 90mph mark very easily, id be very interested to know what its actually doing myself 😂
Hi Polack
Get hold of a GPS, they have a built in speedo, Ive compared my GPS to roadside speed units that put up your speed and its spot on.
Ive always driven flat screen bugs until a few years ago when bought an L Bug/1303, the way this model cuts thought the air is very noticalble above 100 kph.
I had it up to 160kph on a private road near Lake George with a stock 1600 twin port, and it still wanted to go faster.
Steve
Craig Torrens ·
I've done over 200kph in both early and late model beetles................all with 1916's of course 👍😂
eraser ·
I got the little 1968 with 1600TP stock up to 160ish. (autostick ratio in 3rd)
Rural Baja ·
Joel wrote:pffft
i see your oil light and raise you a blinker light
on a private race track ofcourse
Great photo Joel, told all my mates thats in mp/h too, very impressed 😂 Ah what the kids of today will beleive.
Ive got my 1500cc baja up to 60mph on the beach with big wheels and thats it. No more. 🤪
coletrickle ·
some guy in orange county back in the day got a speeding ticket in his ghia for 139mph
1303Steve ·
desh wrote:
1303Steve wrote:Ive always driven flat screen bugs until a few years ago when bought an L Bug/1303, the way this model cuts thought the air is very noticalble above 100 kph.
Steve
Was the L bug more stable at high speed than an older bug?
Would a later model bug, with the IRS and spring be more suitable as a high speed race car than an earlier bug?
Just toying with the idea of getting an old crappy bug and building a race car, with the intention of trying to make it as fast as possible, in top end speed
Hi desh
Ive owned flat screen bugs since 1971, I had driven curved screened bugs before but only on local roads, I only bought a curved window bug a few years ago, Ive got 2 now.
Ive lowered mine and fitted a Kamei air dam and some 17 inch wheels.
The lowering and air dam make huge difference not only to handling but aerodynamics.
There is many schools of thought about the best model VW to race, Greg AKA known as Happy daze showed a clean pair of heals to many more modern and expensive cars at Wakefield a few months ago, and he was running an early Beetle with 4 wheel drum brakes, king & link pin front end and swing axle rear.
The advantages I see with an L bug/1303.
Struts, better turning circle, easily tunable for height, corner weighting, spring rate changes etc
IRS rear end
Disadvantages, about 50ks heavier than other bugs.
Not many beam front end cars came with IRS standard, the beam front end is certainly very strong and effective but misses out on all the advantages that struts have.
Steve
amazeer ·
if you can get 180+ out of a kombi you should be able to do 180 with your eyes closed in a beetle.
trickysimon ·
Long driveway as well? 😂
amazeer ·
they dont come much longer and straighter than the Stuart Highway.
BiX ·
I have seen past 0 post before...... suprised me a little!!!!
Phil74Camper ·
coletrickle wrote:some guy in orange county back in the day got a speeding ticket in his ghia for 139mph
A VW 1200 Ghia (with a 1.927 m rolling circumference, 0.89 top and 4.375 diff), does 27.90 km/h per 1000 rpm. To do 139 mph (224 km/h), it must be doing 8022 rpm in top gear and have enough power to overcome the wind resistance (that increases with the square of the speed). Not saying it's impossible, but...
From period road tests, new VW models have the following measured top speeds:
VW 1200 Beetle 36-hp - 116 km/h (Wheels, Apr 1956)
VW 1200 Beetle 40-hp - 118 km/h (Wheels, Aug 1961)
VW 1300 Beetle 50-hp - 122 km/h (Car Life, Sep 1966)
VW 1500 Beetle 53-hp - 134 km/h (Wheels, Aug 1968)
VW 1600 Superbug S - 138 km/h (Wheels, July 1972)
VW 1600 Superbug L - 127 km/h (Modern Motor, June 1973)
VW 1600 Golf GLS - 153 km/h (Road & Track, July 1979)
Joel ·
geez they musta had a real fatass roadtest the LBug
all the other tests ive seen have them at 82-85mph
their road tests were pretty conservative when it came to topspeed, ive been in a bone stock 1500 bug that made 90mph with out to much effort and they list them as all being 80mph max...
Phil74Camper ·
Agreed Joel, the L tested a bit slower than it should have. I wonder if Modern Motor got one pretty much straight off the car transporter, brand new with 0 km on it, to test? If so it would have been very tight. June '73 was quite early in the L's production run.
Yes we all know that Beetles loosened up and improved their performance once they got a few thousand km on the clock. I remember pegging my old 40-hp off the clock a few times (an indicated 90 mph, 145 km/h). While the speedo was optimistic and it wasn't really going that fast, it was certainly faster than the 118 km/h that a new one supposedly maxed out at. No doubt that is why Lanock Motors chose to run race Beetles (Standards) at Bathurst with tens of thousands of km on them. Tight new ones would have been no good.
Anyway at least those road tests give an indication of how those models compared (when brand spanking new). I would think the L should have done the same as the S, or even a few km/h more, all things being equal.
Joel ·
given the number of S and L bugs ive owned and driven i can safely say a healthy example of either are on a par performance wise
the taller ratio box in an Lbug really doesnt make all that much difference, just abit quicker off the mark
but like Steve has said the curved windscreen makes a real differnce to the aerodynamics of the car
HappyDaze ·
Phil74Camper wrote:Yes we all know that Beetles loosened up and improved their performance once they got a few thousand km on the clock. I remember pegging my old 40-hp off the clock a few times (an indicated 90 mph, 145 km/h). While the speedo was optimistic and it wasn't really going that fast, it was certainly faster than the 118 km/h that a new one supposedly maxed out at. No doubt that is why Lanock Motors chose to run race Beetles (Standards) at Bathurst with tens of thousands of km on them. Tight new ones would have been no good.
Spot on. As I mentioned previously my (Lanock Motors) Beetle clocked 86 MPH - timed - at Bathurst. Don't forget, though, that the staight is down-hill! A tail-wind and/or down hill makes a tremendous difference!
Cheers, Greg
colonel mustard ·
Phil74Camper wrote:Yes we all know that Beetles loosened up and improved their performance once they got a few thousand km on the clock.
I didn't...! Thanks for that interesting fact. 🙂
Joel wrote:the taller ratio box in an Lbug really doesnt make all that much difference, just abit quicker off the mark.
I'd agree with that.... But, probably a combination of the box, and the boxer behind it (haha..funny).