Well, yesterday I was watching the sprints in Gatton, the usual range of V8s,minis,datto's and the like and to my surprise there was one VDUB entered. It was Sam Taylor in his Baja that had been modified just for the sprints. After taking the off-road wheels and tyres off and swapping them for a set of wider and lower 14inchers, fitting two swaybars and homemade suspension limiting straps, this baja was looking a whole lot more serious. With a massive homemade stinger pointing to the sky (I wondered why there was no birds flying around)and a well tuned 1916 witha bag of sand in the front end,Sam did two 47second laps which is about the same that a 750kw(1000hp)twin turbo V12 jag was running . It was very exciting to see a VW flying around at the same pace or faster than many a brocky wannabe in there V8 dunnydores, and believe me the Taylormade racing team is on a strict budget ($10 fuel + entry....well almost!) and is a first time racing team that has a very relaxed atmosphere about it ,in other words- show up,go for it,enjoy yourself and drive your part time racecar home,knowing you've kicked some V8 butt. The gatton circuit certainly favours smaller/lighter cars because the tyre chicanes are real tight and the straights are short. Sam tends to think he can shave a couple of seconds off his time which is awesome. Going again today so will have update and photo's soon.:thumb:thumb:thumb

Cool :thumb

Now I knew there was reason I needed the Type3 on the road!
Pity I missed that stormin' Baja, cause that's what it's all about, RAISING EYEBROWS. I'm sure it filled some pants too :o
Lets face it, if you see any VL Commodore's packin' a stinger, you'll know were they got the idea! (poor fools)

Long live the cute aircooled underdog!

NOW if only i could remember where i put the 914 engine and shoe-horn?!

Luv them street races,
I went to the Leyburn races last year,
what a buzz.

What I love is the 1/4 Mile,
Stop-Go-Stop races where they have to do 1/4 Mile
BUT stop the front wheel on a line.

Ivan

After another night of rain I was beginning to worry that they could finish all of the racing but it turned out fine. I missed the bugs first run of the day but Sam went well with a blistering 46.04seconds. I got myself into a good position for some digital camera footage but I,m only learning on a new camera so I only got part of Sam's next lap which was a doozie, flying down the back straight through the chicane , a cold track a little bit too much poke and the rear end came sliding out for a spectacular 360! Seeing He'd fluffed his time I think the best thing to do was a big smoking burnout that us spectators really enjoyed. So by now I was getting hyped up about the next lap which turned out to be a lesson in murphys law. At the start again, revving up for a burnout.....and then ....nothing! Damn condenser wire had popped off the coil. By then I had to go home for the afternoon so I wasn't going to see the baja's last run. So I made a quick call to find out the last lap time....45.7. AWESOME. This time puts it in some esteemed company indeed. Fair enough a new lap record was set at gatton 34.something but that was an ex -FORMULA ONE CAR....Hello. There were many V8's that couldn't break 50seconds! So a big congratulations to Sam Taylor and his crew(family) for putting a sterling first time effort and representing us veedubbers at this event. Sam assures us that he'll be back next year, and I'm sure He'll kick some more racecar butt. I hope to post photos and footage tommorrow, watch this space!

yeah i had great fun thrashin v8s bums, bigger and better plans for next year

I was talking to one of my connections today about the sprints and mentioned 'did you happen to see a baja bug at all"? He had missed out on racing in the sprints (he owns a Rx-7 racer) but went anyway. His reply was of utter amazement, almost dumbfounded,:o, and for this guy who lives to race to act like that, wow, it must have been THRILLING to watch!

Rock On.

What an excellent effort! Can't wait for the pics/vids :thumb

1st photo-10% of original size

:thumb I like it!!!!!! esp down this way.. up urs holden duuufff duuufff boys....

That is one fast sewing machine

the bugs best time for the weekend was actually 44.432, only 2 second s slower than some of the wrxs. cant wait to do it again some time!