what's happened to the engine blow contests?

[Jim Ratto]

If there's one thing missing from today's VW events, it's gotta be the engine blow stands. I can remember some pretty spectacular engine guts rocketing away.... but mostly the poor things would start laboring and slowly grunt to a halt.

I guess as the supply of good (?) used cases gets thinner and thinner, the common sense factor takes over huh?

[Dave Galassi]

Jim, it's just that GEX doesn't rebuild that many engines anymore.

[Jim Ratto]

 

[Dave Rosique]

Jim, it's just that GEX doesn't rebuild that many engines anymore.

That's funny!
I miss the engine blow too..
 

[flatfire]

I remember a fellow vw fan broke his neck. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a RHD buggy.
The accelerator cable runs along the passenger side as it appears outside the conduit there is a box protecting it.

The guy forgot to put the cover on. They went out to test the buggy and the driver was heading towards a load of logs.
Ian braced himeslf for the collision and put his foot where the box was supposed to be accelerating the buggy making the crash even worse.

I saw him with a big cage around his neck with sheepskin pads on his shoulders to make the support easier on his skin.
I asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to do an engine blow exacting his revenge on the buggy engine.
He fired it up and within 10 seconds was seized which I found hilarious.

I'm sure he now checks his box on a regular basis.
He is fine now

[PIMPPRIDE]

I always thought the engine blow spectacle should be a non air cooled VW engine shouldn't it?

the last one I remember was in the 1990's at Top Line... where the engine would not blow up and eventually the stinger ended up melting the scatter shield and spitting hot acrylic plastic into the crowd     

Anthony / ISP WEST

[Rennsurfer]

Jim, it's just that GEX doesn't rebuild that many engines anymore.

HAHA!! Right on, Dave. Excellent one-liner.

Jim, you're right... in addition, I miss the engine remove/reinstall at the old Bug In events. That was always one my favorite portions of the day.

[Gary Justus]

I did that with my show,,,,twice. At that time most people didn't like the idea of trashing VW stuff. So, in the early '00's I thought about a "wing slam". Pay a buck and get 3 slams at a rice-rocket wing with a sledgehammer. Couldn't figure out how to pick a winner, so I opted for an engine build....The winner went home with a lot of good stuff!

[Sam K]

The main sponsor of the Denver Bug-In is a good friend of mine and I've been trying to convince him to use a little nitrous this year to make the enigne blow a little more interesting. 

[Gary Justus]

The main sponsor of the Denver Bug-In is a good friend of mine and I've been trying to convince him to use a little nitrous this year to make the enigne blow a little more interesting. 

That sounds EPIC!!! But even more spectacular would be with a non-VW engine.

[deano]

The main sponsor of the Denver Bug-In is a good friend of mine and I've been trying to convince him to use a little nitrous this year to make the enigne blow a little more interesting. 

That sounds EPIC!!! But even more spectacular would be with a non-VW engine.

Ask Geoff Peterson about blowing up non-VW cars/motorhomes/engines/firetrucks.... These Canadians do it right!

[Gary Justus]

Yup! Geoff and friends can handle it!

[Sam K]

The main sponsor of the Denver Bug-In is a good friend of mine and I've been trying to convince him to use a little nitrous this year to make the enigne blow a little more interesting. 

That sounds EPIC!!! But even more spectacular would be with a non-VW engine.

I've sent some rods through the pan on a couple 5.0 mustang engines whilst learning about nitrous!

[deano]

One of Rick Mortensen's last Bug-O-Rama deals, the engine blow got slightly out of hand, when the engine caught fire, and melted the ground underneath it! What a mess, but a great show for the crowd. But seriously, from the million VW shows I have covered, most do not want to see an air-cooled VW blow up any longer. I like a fireball just as much as the next guy, but feelings have changed over the years.

[Neil Davies]

I've seen engine blows with VW motors, usually one prepared especially for the event with mismatched heads, rattly big ends etc. Usually they're beyond fixing, but when flames are pouring out of the carb you wonder exactly why someone spent all the effort getting such a knackered motor to run again!

I've seen a couple of engine blows with non-vw motors, but they tend to have to stay in the car so it's not so easy to see. I prefer the sledgehammer a ricer car contest - people pay for a couple of minutes with a sledge hammer and a hot hatch, and the money raised is donated to charity at the end of the event.

[bugnut68]

One of Rick Mortensen's last Bug-O-Rama deals, the engine blow got slightly out of hand, when the engine caught fire, and melted the ground underneath it! What a mess, but a great show for the crowd. But seriously, from the million VW shows I have covered, most do not want to see an air-cooled VW blow up any longer. I like a fireball just as much as the next guy, but feelings have changed over the years.

I think they still do the VW engine blow at Woodburn, which I'm particularly opposed to.  If you're going to destroy something, make it something other than a VW engine, IMO.  They had this late model Bug cut in half that had a shoddy engine in built to blow, sold guesses as to how long it would last.

I agree, save the VW parts and kill something else.  Lol.

[Fastbrit]

Just go to a VW drag race meeting...

[Bewitched666]

 

and what about the misses contests