Hi guys

Took the car for a quick drive through the Glaston Gorge today and had trouble taking the hairpins.

On one I had to reverse to make it around.

Have others had this issue? Is there something I can do to sort it out or get a better turning circlie.

The car drives great on all other roads so far.

Hmmm... bit more info needed really.

Beetles aren't the sharpest turning cars in the world, but they're normally pretty good. Should certainly be able to do Galston Gorge no worries.

What size tyres and rims are you running, and have the steering limit stops been adjusted in by any chance ???

Rim offset, tyre width, castor, wheel alignment, even tyre pressure can affect how well a car turns...

first think would be the jacking up front and having a look and is it a narrowed front beam,also does it do it on both sides

If your car is lowered like mine the steering has been adjusted to limit the turning circle as the tyres probably hit the headlight inserts hence why mine has had its turning circle limited, i am going to lift my car about an inch so as so increase the turning circle

Thanks for the replies.

The car sits very low the tyres don't rub so sounds like someone in the past has adjusted the steering.

Running 195/50/15.

Tyre pressure was at 28 I did increase it to 34 today after the run.

Yeah, lowered and with 195's not rubbing someone has definitely adjusted the limit stops !!!

Also tyre pressures way too high IMHO... think something more like 20 front and 24 rear I'd say. I actually used to run as low 18 up front with 195 tyres without any issues (and got over 60,000 km out of those tyres)

Sorry to disagree Craig, but tyre pressures do affect how a car turns, mostly the turn-in... usually higher pressures means understeer, and lower pressure oversteer.

Dave is correct. I experimented with this on a squareback years ago and found anything more than 20psi at the front caused a lot of under steer.
the back wasn't so sensitive so I just ran under 30psi but was good all the way down to 25psi.


I ran on 185 tyres all round with 17-18psi on the front and 28psi on the back. This maximized my grip and also gave a good over/under steer balance.

Right on Sides. One more thing to check is toe-in.........a lot of TOE-OUT will cause a lot of under-steer on tight corners.

Although it is not really possible to have a VW handle well at both 'fast' and 'slow' corners, I found that running up to 3mm toe-OUT for circuit racing, and up to 3mm toe-IN for hillclimbs [and the road] seemed to work OK. Much testing is needed for individual cars, to get it 'just right'.

If you use a narrowed and lowered beam then your turning circle , ride and handling all go out the window.
The other thing is that they look stupid with a lowered and narrowed beam.

dropped spindles give you a shocking turning circle, we been down that road in roses lowered oval and didn't have any trouble.
You must have something out of whack.

Thanks for the comments guys. Drove the car today & felt like I might need to drop the pressures. Didn't give it much but it did feel like they may have been to high. I'll try lower pressures.

Lowering the pressures will do 'sweet F all' for the turning circle in the Gorge.Your front suspension needs to be sorted out, and has NOTHING to do with pressures. You are having problems going around a 1st gear hairpin, so i have NO idea why people are suggesting changing tyre pressures !!!!!!

Caster/Camber/ rim offset, rim width, steering box stops and tierod length all need to be checked.

I can pop around during the week to have a look if you like

Hey hey,

You definately shouldn't have a problem going through the Gorge's hairpins.
The only time you need reverse on the Gorge, is when the drums have faded!