The Cal-look Lounge

I ended last year at Bitburg with basically a good running car, that finally was giving me the confidence to drive it and the knowledge that it would go down the track, over the winter the maintenance was limited to stripping down the engine, swapping the crank & rods, along with the bearings and the rest just checked over, the clutch and flywheel got resurfaced and reset, finally the injectors went back for a service as one cylinder wasn't quite as good as the other 3.
I also had some rear coilovers made by Strange engineering to my own specs for length, compression and rebound to suit the ride height and weight etc of this car and a new pair of springs to suit.

The 1st meeting we attended was the "street nationals" at Santa pod, the rain, wind and cold temperature stopped us running on Saturday and we only got one pass on sunday, with everything set real soft it went 9.43@138mph heres the video of that


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_BuAbXEVSM

I made some adjustments after that to various things, particularly on the launch.

Next we went to the Main event again at Santa pod, rain all day Friday ruined the sportsman class qualifying, then we only got one pass Saturday, and it just blew the tyres off at the start, sunday we got 4 passes with a best of 9.24@145mph and ran a best mph of 149, although I was happy with that, the 60fts were all really bad so I decided to do the RWYB the following Saturday to just spend some time tuning it to the startline.

Here's the go pro video of the 9.24 pass looking backwards   


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU5TSqjTK0M


With the car still ready to go I left it in the lorry just doing minor maintenance and some clutch settings ready to try.

The idea was on the 1st pass to just do a 60ft and see how close we settings were, but the lanes were packed and it took about 1 1/2 hours to get a pass, so I decided if all was ok I would run it down the track to get more data, It still spun the tyres too much and the 60ft was poor but I kept my foot in it as it felt good and it ran the 8.98@151mph, It felt so much better than before that I didn't even need to pull the chute.
A quick check of everything and some changes to the fueling as it is real rich still and small clutch adjustment and we are straight back in the lanes to wait another hour or so to get a pass, slightly better 60ft but still way off what this car will do and it runs 8.91@150 again feels real good through the finish and no chute needed.

3rd pass and the chute comes out about 100ft up the track, having not used it the last 2 passes we think that it just shook itself out as the cable was right near the edge and the vibration from the wheelspin was shaking it alot, still ran 10.20 something I think. But the 60ft was much better, a 1.25

We quickly pack the chute and add fuel and get back in line, they have a classic Ford event starting at 5pm and made it clear that no other brands of cars will be allowed down the track and it is now 4.30. I add a little more clutch slip while we are in the lanes hoping to get a little more improvement in the 60ft and check the data from the last aborted run, still super rich so I make a quick change to the fuel map.
We get to the front and there is just us and one other car left, we really just did get there in time, this time the clutch is to soft and the 60ft is worse and the track has suffered from all the regular cars with road tyres and the dust and dirt that comes with that, the car is really lively moving around the lane and I peddle it a couple of times, I can feel its right on the edge spinning the tyres in 3rd and 4th gear but run it out to 9.06@152mph. Not what  was hoping for but the mph is nice to see.


the 1st 8 Video


  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6NFrmrIqa8

And a special treat the 1st 8 in slow motion, thanks to Blackett photography for doing this, he seemed as happy as us to actually see it happen ;D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv1XOVoVX9c


And the 8.91 video


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oElQo5DsamA


I have to say a few thankyou's, 1st Russell for listening to my stupid idea on the ferry to EBI 3 and agreeing with me that we should do it ;D  and all the help and encouragement since, then Kris, Jason, Molly and Scott Lauffer and all at VW paradise, when it all went tits up on the 5th pass, I couldn't have had better people to be surrounded by, they all went way above and beyond to help me recover and get everything fixed and have continued to help and support me ever since, they provide Real customer service long after they need to, something that was so missing with several other companies that were involved in the build of this car.
Steve Dalton for all the help he gave putting it together and fixing it after shit happened, a better man with a Sawsall you couldn't find ;D
Pete @ cogbox for getting me out the shit and fixing someone else's poor work when he really didn't want to touch it ;)
Mat Sanchez for giving up so much time to come help at the track, putting up with all the stupid stuff that happened and always making sure I am safely strapped in.

There's are lots more that have helped but this isn't the Oscars and I am already waffling on to much >:( ;D  Thankyou all :)


Next up the Summer nationals in 4 weeks time, hopefully sun and proper track prep, now I can finally put the proper spring in the wastegate and see if we can use the extra 400hp+ we have left :o :o 8) .


cheers Richie

Fabulous story. I can relate to the way your feel thinking back to when I ran those first two nines back in 1994 – back then I never dreamed I'd see a 'proper' VW run in the eights in the UK!

It's been a long road, but the journey was worth it. Well done the both of you. Just wish i could have been there to enjoy it with you!.

All the best

Keith

Great result and story Richie!
What engine/trans combination does this car use compared with the old vert?

Wow, well done Richie and Team! I watched the 9.24 pass on the webcam (Super Gas), I guessed you didn't set up the car for 9.90s...  ;D

Ole

The Video's look Ace, way to go Richie...!!!

Richie

If it wasn't for your persistant efforts/attitude it would never have happened, whilst I and the remaining team/supporters appreciated the thanks....

The back to back 8s plus 3 times all within a tenth on the same day is down to the guy behind the wheel keeping his foot in it when it mattered and never giving up, your patience has now been rewarded.

A massive well done to you and Jo for putting up with you  ;D

Thanks Dave

old car is 002 style bus box[type 1 gears etc] and stock stud pattern CB case, comp elims by AJ, Scat crank,pauter steel rods, wisecos, etc,  new car was 091 but we couldn't get the needed ratios and now switched to a mendy[still cant get the right ratios but its better], engine is pauter case, dry sump, paradise heads, Bryant cranks, MGP rods,

cheers Richie

Dear Richie

First of all big big congratulation !!

Please let me know how it feels to run into the 8th's ??  ;D

THX for share those technical details; if I look at those parts of your engine combo it looks like you are ready for even more..... :o

Please (if you are willing) share more details of your clutch set up and how you "add a little more clutch slip"  ???

So keep on pushin' I sure will soon see even more

MeXX

The 9.06@152mph video, you can see the difference a little clutch adjustment makes in the launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wjHTFmEJXQ

Big congrats to you and your team!  8)

Your car is looking hard core fella and now making some real serious numbers at the quarter.
Looking forward to seeing it with another 400 bhp.  :o

Respect fella!

Hi Richie,  did you ever receive my PM?

--Dan

Hi Dan
replied to you

cheers Richie

well done , great to see this , all the effort £ and time you must have put in ,
great work ,  :)

Wow.
 :o

Well done Richie, big congrats to you and your crew!!!  ;)

Cheers,

Christoph

Congrats mr. Webb.  :)

Job well done! Now taste the success and let it inspire you to push it even further. It is interesting to watch the videos and for me it almost looks like you managed the first 8 by adapting some of your driving style from the old car. Plenty of clutch, wheels up, a little sideways and pedal to the metal all the way no matter what - thats racing!

Great to watch and again CONGRATS to everyone!

-BB-

Kalle

I totally agree, it was only after I watched them at home, didn't notice watching them back at the track, but it really does look more like the other car, maybe that's what I needed, for it to feel the same car :) to inspire my confidence,  That and being at Santa pod where I have got at least a 1000 passes over the years made it feel very comfortable  8)

cheers Richie

Congrats Richie,well done.  ;)  (and there is still 400hp to come)Whowwww.........      :o

Incredible achievement my friend! Russel is right. Persistence pays off. I truly believe that to be the most ingredient in an effort such as this.

Keep after it, as we all know more is there.

Hope to see you and Jo again soon

Hey Richie, nice to catch up at the Main Event, it was a shame we missed all those runs on Friday but hey that's drag racing in England!

Fantastic result. Huge congratulations and well deserved. Really glad all the effort has finally paid off. Hopefully it'll be inspiring others to push that bit harder and keep your motivation up.
Oh and Summer Nationals you say? I think maybe a change of class Super Comp??  ;)

See you there   :)

No class change yet, still going to run Gas, figure I need to be well under the Super comp index to get anywhere, maybe after Summer nationals if it works out ok  ;)

cheers Richie

Congratulations Richie! Well done!!

It runs really nice and straight now!

I know where else is some time left  ;D except more power...

BABABABAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...!!!  SWEET PASSES....  Now, If I can just figure out what a download is..? A long time coming Richie/again, congratulations...!!   Dyno

Congrats Richie!
If I see what you are doing and the parts and partners you choose for this car, I think you're dead set on getting a european '7' down the way someday!
How cool would that be!

Walter

that's amazing,well done.
so now you have a 8 second car, 9 second car and soon a 10 second car.
what's next :)

henk!!!

I think Walter answered that question :o ;D


Right from the beginning I set out to build a car with the intention to try and go as quick as possible, with 7s the ultimate goal, last weekend we just took another small step towards that 8)  That's why I didn't hesitate to cut the rear suspension off the car last year and start again, what we had just wasn't going to get it done, I perservered with it for long enough to realise something was wrong and it wasn't going to fix itself!!

cheers Richie

cheers Richie

What a great accomplishment!! 8) I guess we all realize how much it takes to get a VW to run faster and most outside the VW world have no idea this is possible. A 12 second street car although a lot more common these days, is not easy to create but an 8 or 9 second car is an extremely high level of development.  What you (Mike Lawless as well, & Mexx )did / are doing is very cutting edge as you had to figure out how to do this (albeit with some help) yourself. Keep it going and great work!

Congratulations on your achivement Richie!
Looking forward to seeing you do a low eight later this season!! :)

Just make sure the track is good and we have a weekend of sun please ;D

cheers Richie

Looking forward to a race, I have to chase now hehe

Hey Ritchie, you never did mention what that stupid idea you had (the one in your sig line) was, and how it worked.........
 ;D

Tierp is going to be fun for sure 8)  Got to make sure my mirrors are set right so I can see you all behind me ;D

cheers Richie

Its not to do with this car, its even more stupid :o  It will be a while before I get a chance to do it, got to build the 10sec street car 1st :)

cheers richie

Fame at last ;D  Amazing what people make up when you don't reply to there emails ;)


http://www.carthrottle.com/this-8-9-second-beetle-convertible-is-the-coolest-dragster-in-the-world/

yes, too bad they noticed the wheeliebars huh?  ;D

Best pass this weekend, it is slowly morphing into the old car :o

Going the long way round, as soon as it went toward the center line I backed right off but it doesn't really look like it here, and then that wind really moves the car around near the finish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7mhumjZt2k

Nice! ;D

 :D

Yep you did use to look like that :D  Your famous again :o

cheers Richie

Was I famous before?!?  :o

Those were good times. I need to get down and see you run sometime.

Congratulations again. Come quite some way since the ol 1641.

Superb work Richie, as the owner of a 11 sec car, I can barely start to imagine the time expense and most importantly expertise that it takes to do what you've done - amazing!
Can't wait to see what another 400 hp and no 400mph head wind will do  ;D

Great progress, certainly looked like a handful on that run. That head wind on Saturday was pretty strong and gusty so to run that time was pretty amazing. I know it caught my attention going through the top end at 110mph!

Whens the next outing for the car? Bug Jam entry closes THIS Friday- would be great to see you there  ;)

Hell Yeah !!!

Well done, Richie.
 What have you done to Mr Sanchez- looks like he's put on about 40lbs. since I saw him last.

Oh dear I missed the cut off and entry is closed, never mind, nice idea but it was never going to happen, I have no interest in festivals or being subjected to all the idiots that go to them ::)
We will be getting ready to leave to go to Sweden that weekend anyway
cheers Richie

Thanks Chris


It is all self-inflicted, compliments of Heathrow canteen I think ;D

cheers Richie

Richie, I so agree, I used to LOVE Bug Jam, but it changed when the entertainment moved pit-side. My wife has been a couple of times, once for a weekend before we met, once for a single day, and it put her off so much that she has sworn never to go to Santa Pod ever again. She loves Shakey tho!
I'll never do Bug Jam again, but it's clouded her view of the Pod so much that if I want to race there I'll have to do it by myself.

I havnt been to bug jam since 2003, probably never will again, im just getting old (40 this year :o) but santa pod for the european finals is awesome, full of petrol heads there for the right reasons, not 17 year olds with their eyes hanging out of their sockets.

Ben,

maybe it is that being 40+ thing that does it to us >:( ;D

Most of the events that they put on there are excellent and as you mention Euro finals is awesome, I am happy to accept that not all the events will suit my needs, there are more races over euro during the season than I could ever attend so missing one or two that are aimed at a different crowd is fine by me.

The next event I will race at will be the Dragstalgia in a weeks time, it is a perfect event for our cars, there are a few VWs entered and they have asked us to do some VW vs V8 match ups which I am happy to do :) Isnt that what is was all about, upsetting the "proper race cars"  :o :D

Andy Raw and myself have talked for a long while about racing each other again, him in his beetle bodied funny car against the cabrio, hopefully we will be able to line up together then

cheers Richie

Yeah I know what you mean, it'd just be awesome to have your car in our pits  :D

I would come back from the dead to watch that  ;D

dragstalgia, 2nd pass today 8.85@149mph, only 1.35 60ft!!!!   :o ;D

Awesome  :)

yeah good work today mate it was a fun weekend great track and fantastic cars  8) plus a couple of great pbs for both of us  :D

That was pretty cool for us to run PBs within a couple of minutes of each other on a track that was definitely suffering from the heat and the mass of treaded tyred cars ripping up the fresh rubber surface, and hopefully going on all the positive feedback we got from people visiting our pits to check out the cars and be amazed by the VWs that we made a good impression and showed that we deserve to be taken seriously 8) VWs racing isn't all about daily driven skodas and rusty 20 second
buses :o ::) ;D

cheers Richie

you break the right lane ill dig up the left lane  :D

 :o

I can see from the photos of the track, that though one of Europe's premier drag tracks wasn't at its' best over the past weekend, it's still far better than anything we have over in this half of Europe. Watching the live link over the weekend, though I enjoyed the variety of cars and the times posted, what I appreciated most was the level of care that the crew at Santa Pod put into the track and the generally high level of everything from comentators to safety standards. I raced at Santa Pod for nearly ten years before moving over here to Poland and never realised just how good I had it. 

nothing to see here move along  ;D

the track was properly sticky and smooth as silk all the way to the end  8)

Chris

the track guys worked there asses of, and it must have been miserable for them in that heat, they did an excellent job to keep it as good as possible all weekend its just one of those events that is always going to be a problem due to the wide variety of vehicles going down it, the cars with treaded tyres had so much dust etc in the treads and didn't have enough traction to not spin them and thus lift the fresh rubber layer up!!!!
Then the bike crash did a lot of damage to the left lane up around the 1/8 mile mark and they worked late into the night to try make it good for sunday

It was difficult for me as the startline traction was pretty good but that patch about 20ft out upset the car every pass and it just turned left or right at will, I don't see it being any better next weekend, in fact with Friday and Saturdays rwyb it will most likely get worse, I would not want to be a big HP car at that event


Still was a very enjoyable weekend and as you mention the variety of cars, some that we would never see if there weren't these style events were excellent to see again :)


cheers Richie

Congrats Richie. Your making great progress with that car.