Hi All,

Entered my second motorkhana today on the skid pan at Eastern Creek, and Gwendolyn (74 L Bug) and I had a great time. Sadly we weren't anywhere near the fastest, and whilst I'd like to lay all the blame on her, sadly most of blame lies at my feet.

Still the competition we were up against included a current model WRX STi and a current model 911, so I figure I can't expect too much from a 35 year old 1600!!!

One other Beetle out there, a very nice looking one with a 1916 in the back. Sadly he did a clutch cable after his second run. I think it is Dave777 from here??

Did 9 different layouts over the day, and some required some nice second gear drifting. Final results will be out in a few days, but two mistakes cost me a total of about 20 seconds so adding that to the fact that I wasn't the fastest on any layout will mean I'm going to be pretty close to the bottom. I think the WRX came first, but the 911 was having all sorts of problems.

Still even if I'm last it was heaps of fun, and I'll just have to start throwing more money at Gwendolyn to make her faster. Don't know what I can do to make me faster though.

Cheers

Craig

For khanas, shorter gearing (eg: an S-Bug box) and smaller wheels - 14 inchers - on the rear will help with punch. I don't think 14s won't fit the front of an L

Hi Craig,

I had a great time while it lasted. I actually got to do 6 runs over 3 different configurations.
Fortunately I didn't have far to get home without a clutch.

see you next time!

David

Well done boys, keep flying the flag.

Cheers Col

here's a few pics of Gwendolyn's Master in action. Luuurve that body roll!

awesome - spewing to have missed out.

check yr PM. there's another one on the 14th of march run by LBMCCC. anyone is welcome to that too.

I too missed out on saturday... spewing was involved in that too.

Thanks for the photos Pete. I was pleased that you were able to stop chundering for long enough to come and take a few photos from the safety of your car.

Between the body roll and the 35 year old seats it was no wonder I was having to hang on to the steering wheel nice and tight. Oh well, eventually everything will be upgraded as the budget allows.

what's a "budget"?

Well results arrived in the email this evening. Sadly I came in 27th out of 33, with a total time of 334.78 over the 8 tests. First was a time of 249.93.

That means I was 85 seconds behind, or about one third of the total time, or about 10 seconds a test!! The easiest way to get the time down is to eliminate mistakes, and I could cut 25 seconds or so off my time without the two mistakes I made.

Still a lot of work left to do on Gwendolyn and I though.

And Pete, a 'budget' is something that keeps me married.

Cheers
Craig

Hey guys

I was at the creek yesterday there was a club doing a come and drive day. I have a 74 L bug that I plan to set up as a street registered but capable for circuit car. I saw a lot of handbrake use and as I haven't yet done any track work how do the beetles go with the handbrake turns?
I hope to start work on the beetle over christmas and trying to get a mods game plan happening.

Any help with cost efective handling mods would be great.

Handling mods will depend on the model bug you've got,

But handbrake turns go alright with a bug like any car, so long as your cables are in good nik!

I broke both mine in one go whilst I was on my P's... on the beach

Cool thanks sander288

I have a 74 L bug that I want to use it as a daily driver & set up as weekend track car.

The worry I had was my old man used to play with bugs before family came along and said that they used to roll a lot because of the rear end.

These questions may seem dumb but of all the cars I have played with I have never set up a beetle for track/handling & I'd rather have fun and get it decent first than throw money away.

Having an L bug is off to a good start, your suspension design is the same as early 911's

I'd be looking for posts by Colin who sucessfully campaigns a super bug in hillclimb, and also look up the germanlook forum as the germans are well into their supers!

I'm at a bit of a loss with supers though as I only have experience with earlier bugs, but from what I know I think bigger rear torsion bars and bigger sway bars front and rear plus a moderate height drop produce surprising results. The double joint rear end design will lean as the body leans so if you reduce the amount of body roll you reduce the camber changes and stop the rear end going into positive camber.

Anyway have a geez around the circuit racing forum and see what you can find, maybe even start your own thread as there is heaps of help available on here and the VW racers are a pretty friendly bunch!

Thanks heaps
I will start a post as I get closer to pulling the car apart

That was very helpful, you have already pointed me to a start point