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Title: Stability and the Beetle... Post by: dive!dive! on April 26, 2015, 11:13:59 am 30 years ago I bought 'How to Hotrod VW Engines' by Bill Fisher and read it cover to cover. It was old then, but has some really valuable stuff in it and I'd still recommended anyone starting out to read it today.
I happened to pick it of the shelf this morning and was looking at the Stability section. Its quite sobering really as it states that the Beetle is 'close to being airbourne' at 100mph. Now, any of you who have even a mildly tuned motor know, that getting to 100mph (where legal :-) ) in our cars happens very quickly, and a lot of them go much faster. For a race car of course there are things that can be done (big wings etc etc) , but for a road car ? Personally I don't like to drive mine faster than 85-90mph for a short time (again, where legal.....). And because we like 'the look' , with the dropped fronts, we make the whole thing worse! Reason for writing this is to ask - have views changed over the last 3 decades ? Have we learned better ways to improve the stability of the T1 ? What is the current state of the art set up for a swing axle T1 road car ? Food for thought on a Sunday morning ! Steve Title: Re: Stability and the Beetle... Post by: leec on April 26, 2015, 11:43:38 am My oval, adjustable beam and stock German shocks with rebuilt king and link pins.
Rear, koni red shocks and rebound stop mod to stop positive camber 115mph seen on the 1/4, and road as well to be honest and it feels good. I wouldn't do it if was scary Title: Re: Stability and the Beetle... Post by: nicolas on April 26, 2015, 13:50:37 pm My oval, adjustable beam and stock German shocks with rebuilt king and link pins. Rear, koni red shocks and rebound stop mod to stop positive camber 115mph seen on the 1/4, and road as well to be honest and it feels good. I wouldn't do it if was scary can you explain what the rebound stop mod is? pictures would also help. because except for straps i would like to look at more options. thanks Title: Re: Stability and the Beetle... Post by: leec on April 26, 2015, 14:18:25 pm Essentially you weld 2 17mm nuts in the void underneath the springplate and just behind where the torsion bar cover bolts on. It means when you jack the car up the wheel stays in place and doesn't drop down.
Night and day difference when coming off the power. Lee Title: Re: Stability and the Beetle... Post by: Rick Meredith on April 26, 2015, 16:36:36 pm I don't know that dropping the front end makes the situation worse.
It should do two things to make it better; First it rotates the angle of attack of the "wing" downward so lift should be reduced. Second it reduces the amount of air acting on the bottom of the wing which should also reduce lift. Title: Re: Stability and the Beetle... Post by: Eddie DVK on April 28, 2015, 08:10:31 am Essentially you weld 2 17mm nuts in the void underneath the springplate and just behind where the torsion bar cover bolts on. It means when you jack the car up the wheel stays in place and doesn't drop down. Night and day difference when coming off the power. Lee Lee, do you maybe have a picture of this? I am intrested in this mod. Regards Edgar |