Hi

Im building a new 1303 bug and I went to have a talk to the engineer about a few things today and he told me that there are new rules coming soon for modified cars in NSW. He advised me to write down everthing I want to do to my car and submit it to him, he will then talk to me about what I want too do, file notes, and then when the new rules come in people with 1/2 finished projects will have a period of grace to get the cars finished.

These changes might also affect other states as we are moving to national road rules etc.

1302Steve

[Edited on 11-5-2004 by Baja Wes]

two weeks left australia wide I was told to day ! buy a god in the west

Shit, I better get my finger out

interesting. I will see what I can find out. The engineer that approved my car was writting the draft of the new rules. And that was ages ago. It has taken a long time for the states to agree.

I'm interested to see which new rules did and didn't make it through. There was a good one that left you run unlimited tyre sizes providing you could prove the susp and braking was suitably modified to handle it...

well there goes my plans

I read the draft of the new National rules in Jan 1996....

I think I know who you mean by the God in the west... might ring and have a chat

Hi

This is what Im submitting


Engine:

The engine is water cooled and is from a 1998 model VW Transporter, it is 2110 cc, it carries a DJ prefix and was a European only engine and was designed to use 98 RON leaded fuel and ran 10.5:1 compression.

I have been using Autronic SMC injection on this motor in another car. Inlet manifold is standard Wasserboxer/Vanagon with a Nissan Skyline throttle body and 410 cc VW Type 3 TLE injectors and a Bosch blow off valve from a Saab turbo is also fitted and is plumbed back into air filter neck.

Exhaust is a 4 into 1 extractor, 1.5-inch pipes and a 3-inch system all the way to the tailpipe and was ceramic coated by Competition Coatings in Sydney; the muffler is a Hooker Headers Aero chamber.

The turbo is an IHI RHB6 Turbo with a water to air intercooler made by Dave Stocker from LMS Engineering, a Grooco agricultural pump moves the cooling water for the intercooler to a heater core in front of the radiator.

In fitting the cooling system all of the standard Kombi cooling parts were squeezed into the rear of the car and the water is pumped to the front via 1.5 inch stainless steel tubes mounted under the floor pan. A modified alloy Ford Transit van radiator and Davies Craig thermo fan are used for cooling, the spare wheel well has been removed to allow the radiator to fit. Cool air is brought into the radiator through a factory air conditioned louvered front apron. The motor uses the same bell housing mounting as a Beetle, so no adaptors were needed.

I would like to also explore the option of fitting a 2 litre WRX motor in the future.

Rear suspension:

The rear suspension is from a 944 Porsche, it uses similar trailing arms to a beetle but they are reinforced and when used in conjunction with Porsche 944 spring plates they have adjustable height, toe and camber. the mounting points are the same as on a Beetle as they are on the Porsche 944.

The rear shocks are Koni Sports.

Whiteline sway bar on the rear has adjustable stiffness.

Front suspension:

The front McPherson struts have been shortened 4 inches to allow the fitting of Mazda RX7 Koni Sports shocks. The front struts also feature adjustable lower spring platforms, smaller diameter 150 — pound springs allow the front wheels to have sufficient clearance, these were supplied by Vintage VeeDub Supplies in Campsie.

Rack and pinion steering from 1975 L Beetle has been fitted, it only required some captive nuts to be fitted to the lower body in the factory location and the chassis to be dimpled to clear the rack.

The front sway bar was made by Whiteline and has adjustable caster.

The tie rods on the stub axles have been flipped to eliminate bump steer.

Brakes:

The front brakes use a Beetle rotor with braking surface removed, so it is now a bearing hub. The beetle rotor that was used came with a 5 x 130 mm Porsche stud pattern. At the back of the Beetle rotor, a 911 Porsche Turbo rotor has been bolted in the same manner as the Porsche part is fitted by Porsche axle hub, a thin aluminium spacer is sandwiched between the rear face of the bearing hub and the front face of the Porsche rotor to give correct positioning of the rotor in relation to the calliper. The ventilated Porsche rotor is 282 mm in diameter and is 20 mm thick, the stock solid Beetle rotor was 278 mm diameter and 9.5 mm thick. The stock calliper mounting ears have been removed from the stub axle, the 3 dust cover mounting holes have been enlarged to M 10, this replicates a stock VW factory drum brake stub axle mounting points. A custom made calliper bracket has been made from 6010 aluminium by Dave Stocker at LMS Engineering in Campbelltown (02 4625 4244), this attaches to the stub axle via 3 M 10 bolts. The callipers are fitted to these brackets in the usual fashion. Callipers are 4 piston and are from the rear of a 996 Porsche.

The rear brakes use Porsche 944 rotors with the stock Porsche drum emergency brakes. The Porsche 944 rear brakes would have widened the track considerably, so billet drive flanges were made by Dave Stocker at LMS Engineering in Campbelltown (02 4625 4244) to reduce the track increase. The 4 piston Porsche Monoblock Boxster rear callipers attach to the factory Porsche calliper mounting via a 6010 aluminium square block adaptor. This was made necessary because the Porsche 944 uses axial calliper bolt mounting whilst the Boxster calliper uses radial calliper bolt mounting.

Wheels:

The front wheels are 8 x 17 and the rear are 9 x 17, both are 3 piece Porsche replicas. The wheels use a Porsche bolt pattern which is 5 x 130 mm, the Beetle came originally with 4 x 130 mm bolt pattern.

Body:

1973 L model 1600 Beetle. The spare wheel well has been removed to allow the radiator to fit. Original heater channels were retained and warm air is directed through them to the demister and heater from a Toyota troop carrier heater core under the rear seat to the interior via an early Audi 100 brake cooling fan.

I would like to fit a single large windscreen wiper with a pantograph so that it wipes the corner of the windscreen.

I also would like to invert the luggage area behind the rear seat, this would give me more room to fit motor accessories.

Il would also like to fit some air scoops in the rear 1/4 panel to bring air into motor.


Chassis:

Chassis is from a 1972 Superbug. To get better weight distribution I would like to move the transmission & motor forward 4 inches, this would also give me extra room to fit a WRX motor in the future. To achieve this it will be necessary to cut the middle out of the centre of the torsion bar housing so that the nose cone of the transmission can go further forward. The torsion bar housing would need to be reinforced above & below where it is cut.

I estimate the finished weight of the vehicle will be between 980 & 1010 kgs.

Steve, good work! You may need to remanufacture the alloy bits in the braking system from steel

Steve,

Any idea what the changes might be? Engine size/brakes etc.

I'm putting NA 944 rears on my 61 Karmann on a 68 IRS chassis, and 944S2 brakes and rotors on the front with a bearing spacer and new steel caliper mount onto CB dropped spindles. I'm also putting widended guards on there too.

I'm trying to use as much of the Porsche brake/hub systems as possible so that I can run spacers (as they were factory items on Porsche hubs), but only if I really need to.

Cheers

Steve

Hi

Im waiting for an appointment with engineer, I hope to learn more then. Leigh called the RTA today and they said there wasnt that much to worry about, the major changes were with the engineer themselves with how they go about doing their reports.

1302Steve

The new rules should be supplied by DOTARS, as they currently supply the "National code of practice for heavy vehicle modification", and also the "Street Rod" rules.

The new rules should be called the "National code of practice for light vehicle modification".

For now you can keep checking the DOTARS website and see if it magically appears;
http://www.dotars.gov.au/transreg/vsb/index.htm

The link above will also let you download the complete "Street Rod" rules and read them (the new street rod rules, dated 1/12/2003). I must say they are quite interesting. Especially this paragraph;

Hmm good stuff Wes - looks like I will be doing some heavy researching homework in the next few weeks!

Well I have seen at least one Beetle with a front mount V8 that is regoed under the LH9 street rod section so Obviously it can be done. But there would be a lot of engineering ect that would have to go into it.

Although a VW will meet the letter of the guidelines I doubt many clubs will allow it as it doesn't meet the spirit of the street rod rego scheme.

The biggest thing was dropping of the "American Origin" ffromthe pre 49 criteria a few years ago...

Hi

If you wanted to get around the street rod club not wanting you you could start your own club, but the Street Rod federation might not let you join.

2 V8 bugs that I know of are mounted on 1930 chassis to get around the rules.

1302Steve

It's not really the spirit of Street Rod rego...

Yeh I believe that they should have left the rules as they were for the Hot Rods and just started a seperate section for street machines. It has taken the hot rodders a lot of time, effort and money to get to where they can engineer and pass their cars through to rego. It is a bit funny in a way as when my projects are finally finished I will have a buggy with about 200HP wich weighs about 800kgs and a Tbucket with around 500 Hp which weighs around the same and they will both be fully legal

Ok, so I finally pulled my finger out, and rang my contact.

He is currently preparing the latest draft edition of the new code, and if he doesn't get interupted too much he will have it out for comment in a few weeks.

So the rumours aren't quite right. The draft is coming in a few weeks, not the final version.

He thinks the final version would be more likely around the end of the year if all the states agree (an ongoing problem from what I understand).

Anyway, I asked him if there is any rules that I'd like. He said they've managed to change the engine size ruling. It no longer splits up into chassis types and number of cylinders.

For 800-1100kg cars the maximum engine sizes shall be;
* Naturally Aspirated = 4 x vehicle weight
* Turbo/Supercharged = 3 x vehicle weight

That will open the options for VW people up a little more. It will make the EJ20T a much more clean cut yes. It will mean I could turbo/supercharge my current engine. It will mean we could see VG30DETT type 3's.

Are there any changes that will negatively affect us

In particular Buggies and Bajas?

here in tassie there doesn't seem to be any rule about "street rod" rego, because you can get "special interest" rego without being forced to be a member of any club or association!, just a vehicle older than 30 years, you have to fill out a log book.
Thats how I figure it anyway.
cheers

Hi

Thanks Wes. Thats intresting, I could go
890 kg
x 4
= 3560 cc NA
or
890 kg
x 3
= 2670 cc forced induction

Cool, get a 2.5 STI from the states.

Twobus, the rules you spoke off are some of the one that will need to change for a National system

1302Steve

Fark... that sounds good! I mean the engine displacement thing if it does turn out that way. Really opens up lots of possibilites

I think you could get over the 800kg thing by swapping onto a late pan, also get IRS etc.

Hi

Wes didnt say but I would assume that it goes on stock weight for the car from the factory.

1302Steve

For the purposes of weight, I would assume that (in my case anyhow) that a 56 body on a 70 chassis allows you to assume the weight of a 70's car from the factory??

I can see a 2332 coming up

hehehe
:thumb

hehe, also I think a Semi-auto may have weighed more from the factory with a light early body, should be shweeet god bless the floorpan