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Another VW salt racer
1303Steve - March 6th, 2013 at 11:07 AM

Hi

Congratulations to Steve Muller for his record breaking run in the Roo shooter. It probably wont be long until someone, maybe from the US has a crack at the record.

Nothing has been mentioned to date about Glenn Torrens run on the salt this year in his L bug or 1303.

Glenn was the fastest VW at the event in 2013 and as far as he can see the fastest Beetle EVER at the event. Not bad for a first-timer to the event, in an untried car with an under-2-litre engine that wasn’t actually built specifically for the top-end power that fast cars need at the salt.

This was the engine that he uses in hill-climbs and was installed in Salty exactly as it is run in the hill-climbs. In fact, the day after Glenn returned home, the engine was reinstalled in his hill-climb car and run at Bathurst hill climbs on the weekend, just eight days after the salt run, three of which were spent travelling home!

He also ran a Stan Pobjoy ‘street’ 1916cc engine with Kadron carburettors in the same car. This engine achieved 100mph, a remarkable performance given the challenging conditions at the Lake where top speeds are dragged down by around 10 percent compared to bitumen.

Both engines ran with full street exhaust, air cleaners and proper cooling system.

Plenty of hot-rodders and bikers came over to say congratulations for such an impressive number with a Beetle. Some of these blokes knew his engine builder Stan Pobjoy from the 1960s and 1970s as they used to watch (or compete with) him at Castlereagh, Adelaide etc

The ‘Salty’ car made three 124mph passes with the hill climb motor. The longest of these passes involved full throttle and 7000+ revs for more than TWO MILES! That is about 10 times longer than any drag strip so it was bit scary the first time.

Steve


lohoon - March 6th, 2013 at 11:18 AM

Good job. Congrats.Why are the speeds dragged down by 10%?


farkengruven - March 6th, 2013 at 11:23 AM

Congrats to Glen, massive effort!!!.......Yes it was mentioned here, you must have missed miss that:
http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=100969&page=1#pid945...

I believe world records were broken by other VW's this year. Anyone know the results on those?
I thought the fastest VW at the Australian event was a Ghia in previous years....127 MPH???? Or am I wrong?


beetleboyjeff - March 6th, 2013 at 11:49 AM

Great job Glenn - I am glad to see you had no major dramas & all the effort paid off.


1303Steve - March 6th, 2013 at 11:50 AM

Hi

I apologise I didn’t see the other post.

I did say the fastest VW at this years event and the fastest Beetle ever, I don’t class a Ghia as a Beetle, Beetle chassis yes but not a Beetle body

Steve


bajachris88 - March 6th, 2013 at 12:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by lohoon
Good job. Congrats.Why are the speeds dragged down by 10%?


Only poking in the dark here, but possibly wheel slip with loose salt compared to a hard flat bitumen surface with no loose material and smooth.


farkengruven - March 6th, 2013 at 12:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1303Steve
Hi

I apologise I didn’t see the other post.

I did say the fastest VW at this years event and the fastest Beetle ever, I don’t class a Ghia as a Beetle, Beetle chassis yes but not a Beetle body

Steve


.......Fair enough......and I did say fastest VW also. I also don't class a Ghia as a Beetle.....but they are both VW's......No?
Is it the fastest Beetle ever? I thought there were faster ones at Bonneville.
Don't get me wrong, not trying to take anything away from Glen. He did really well.
I think what you are trying to say is, Glens is the fastest Beetle, on salt, in Australia. Jump in and correct me if I got this wrong.


1303Steve - March 6th, 2013 at 01:19 PM

Hi

I was only saying that Glenns car was the fastest VW at this event in 2013.

I cant believe the lack of posts about this event, I think the drags in Sydney kept us all looking elsewhere, I completly missed the post you directed me to

I think a 1303 went 131.29 at Bonneville

Steve


farkengruven - March 6th, 2013 at 02:21 PM

Googled around and found these results for this years event in Australia:

http://www.vdubber.com/groups/viewbulletin/10-australian-speedweek-results-un...


farkengruven - March 6th, 2013 at 03:39 PM

Unfortunatly, the GPS records are not accepted in any speed record runs.
The GPS runs record the top speed you have run, even if it was only for a poofteenth of a second.
The timed course records your average speeds over a quarter of a mile, and over a mile. From what I have read on the internet, this is done from the 2 to 2 1/4 mile marks, and the 2 and the 3 mile marks.
Maybe Muller or someone else that has run the course can confirm this.


tar76 - March 6th, 2013 at 06:02 PM

Another top effort! :tu:


dangerous - March 7th, 2013 at 06:59 AM

That is very cool!
Good to see he chose to use a 1303 for the aerodynamics.


farkengruven - March 7th, 2013 at 07:26 AM

I just read on the organising bodies website, DLRA, the following:

"Timed (long and short track) speeds shown to 3 decimal places, speeds to be confirmed by Timer.
GPS speeds shown to 1 decimal place.
GPS speeds are not recognised for records."

http://www.dlra.org.au/2013.htm 

Glens time on the Wednesday is to 3 decimal places......that means it was done on the official timed track. 124.352 mph. :tu: ;)


Kombi_Rescue - March 7th, 2013 at 09:47 AM

There were 3x 1303's running the salt this year, Mark Holioak's type 4 powered ,Glen torrens type1 big block and finally Don Kendall's std 36 supercharged . Great efforts of all those who competed and would like to mention Don's 36er achieved 92.5 mph on the gps track....that's a stck 36 with a sir godfrey's charger attached....Fantastic....it broke top piston rings ,old school cast pistons and rings wont cut the mustard......this is going to be a suprise package once modifications are done


1303Steve - March 7th, 2013 at 10:32 AM

Hi Steve

Great effort by everyone, looks like 1303s are coming into favour for their better aerodynamics.

It seems that every team is learning from the experience and the VWs can only get faster as result.

We need to be able to read more about this next time its on so we can all follow what's going on down there.

Steve


colin - March 7th, 2013 at 04:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1303Steve
Hi

Congratulations to Steve Muller for his record breaking run in the Roo shooter. It probably wont be long until someone, maybe from the US has a crack at the record.

Nothing has been mentioned to date about Glenn Torrens run on the salt this year in his L bug or 1303.

Glenn was the fastest VW at the event in 2013 and as far as he can see the fastest Beetle EVER at the event. Not bad for a first-timer to the event, in an untried car with an under-2-litre engine that wasn’t actually built specifically for the top-end power that fast cars need at the salt.

This was the engine that he uses in hill-climbs and was installed in Salty exactly as it is run in the hill-climbs. In fact, the day after Glenn returned home, the engine was reinstalled in his hill-climb car and run at Bathurst hill climbs on the weekend, just eight days after the salt run, three of which were spent travelling home!

He also ran a Stan Pobjoy ‘street’ 1916cc engine with Kadron carburettors in the same car. This engine achieved 100mph, a remarkable performance given the challenging conditions at the Lake where top speeds are dragged down by around 10 percent compared to bitumen.

Both engines ran with full street exhaust, air cleaners and proper cooling system.

Plenty of hot-rodders and bikers came over to say congratulations for such an impressive number with a Beetle. Some of these blokes knew his engine builder Stan Pobjoy from the 1960s and 1970s as they used to watch (or compete with) him at Castlereagh, Adelaide etc

The ‘Salty’ car made three 124mph passes with the hill climb motor. The longest of these passes involved full throttle and 7000+ revs for more than TWO MILES! That is about 10 times longer than any drag strip so it was bit scary the first time.

Steve


X2:tu:

Cheers Col


mactaylor - March 7th, 2013 at 05:02 PM

very cool thanks for the info. plenty of my mates went over but work always gets in the way good to get info on the dubs! thanks


farkengruven - March 7th, 2013 at 07:08 PM

http://issuu.com/offroadingonline/docs/issue_11_72/45 


lou0060 - March 10th, 2013 at 07:25 PM

we should have a VW Salt Forum......

I have a mate building a streamliner bike and I am keen on a 36hp car maybe in a year or two. (already have the Judson for it)

well done Steve and Glenn!