I promised my kids I'd build them a beetle rally car in years to come. It occured to me that a NB might be as good or better. Fwds are very fast these days and NBs would be lower milage and in better condition than anything aircooled I could buy...then I won't have to fix rust.

VW of America built a rally NB a few years back and it went quite well. It's called "stud bug".



Anyway, my question is, how much do NBs and golfs actually have in common parts-wise?

Reason I ask is, then when I want to upspec the motor/tranny/brakes later on I want to make sure I have plenty of parts to choose from that actually came out on NBs as well as golfs.

Also, does anyone know the weight of a NB?

well Pete, i'll throw my 2 bits in for ya...these are 2007 specs from New Beetle brochure:

1.6 litre, 5 speed manual tare vehicle weight 1210kg
1.6 litre, 4 speed slush box " " 1235kg
1.9 TDi, 5 speed manual " " 1292kg
2.0 litre, 5 speed manual " " 1338kg
2.0 litre, 6 speed slushbox " " 1368kg

If you have the time, go to your local VW dealer and snaffle as many free brocures as they will allow, sorry i don't have the golf specs handy at the moment, might be a fun little number to rally, and after stripping unecessary items such as door cards, airconditioning, you won't need those awfully uncomfortable rear seats either,, plastic console ....the list goes on, i dare say, if you replaced the heavy glass with lexan, lose the heavy steel wheels and a few other mods,allowing for a welded or bolt in cage, you might get the Beetle close to 900 kg? Just a guesstimate as i've never stripped one myself. The 1.6 is a bit of a slug, the diesel goes okay, but these are front wheel drive cars.....I LOATHE front wheel drive cars...Oh well, hope that helps abit. Cheers, Adam

I too loathed fwds for motorsport until I did a khanacross in my very ancient suzuki swift in february. The car won the it's class (1000-1299cc) on nasty street tyres and toasted shocks against three other cars that are properly prepped for rallying. Two of the three didn't even finish. With rally tyres and reasonable shocks, I think I might have been a real contender for overall placings...on a motor that had done 280,000km. Personally, I didn't believe that fwds could be that good, but it was a hoot and very easy to drive really...and the air con on the way home was nice too.

A NB has a much wider track and wheelbase which would make for a nice stable car at speed. I'd start off with a stock 2 litre and then upgrade as we got better at driving. I'd be satified with a race ready weight of 1150kg including the cage. Sadly i need to have glass windows to comply with PRC rally specs.

fwd aren't all that bad.

They have better traction than rwd and when ur wheels slip out, u can aim and direct you power, giving you very smooth sideways action.

I have read alot with fwd vs. rwd, (all-wheel drives just completely a whole new playing field), and each have their ups and downs to a point fwd has the upperhand in one area, rwd has the upper hand in another. Each one covers each other's weaknesses but none is better than the other (OVERALL).

OH! and 2ltr is a good number to go by, and fwd is easier to drive offroad in the dirt compared to rear, u just spend all ur control on the fronts and let the rear wheels drag behind ya. with the direction of power and the engine weight over the wheels, its friggen awesome. the rears will fishy a little with their momentum, but if u wanna go all out u got the handbrake. Ur weakness compared to the rwd though would be your understeer. but u can do suspension work for it, u'd know all bout that anyways.

Just make sure u give us pics!

maybe i should have typed "loathe" in lowercase...oh well to each their own. good luck with it fellas... dare i mention Quattro or all wheel jive?

the only beetle that came out awd was the RSi. a tasty beast to be sure, R32 3.2l V6 and awd. unfortunately, they are not cheap at all. they only came out in LHD too from what I can figure out and VWAu only imported like 6 of them for promotional and motorsport use in 2002. I'm sure they are all safely garaged away from redneck dirtbrains like me. Be a shame to ruin one by rallying it, they were really designed for the road. I guess there is the possibility of building a replica using audi/r32 parts, but I don't know if it would qualify under PRC rules. And then there's the price of the conversion...

Aren't they built on the same platform, so therefore they share gearboxes (including dodgy manual), engines, and of course power windows that fail only after the warranty runs out.

Sounds like a fun challenge all the same.

theyre on the same platform as the mk3 golf
a vr6 conversion would be nice or the 20valve turbo

... I think Audi TT is the same architecture too

Not VW, but an Aussie 1.8 Pulsar/Astra would make a good cheapo beginner rally car