The Cal-look Lounge

i have been driving the fastback for a few weeks on end now and i have noticed something that worries me.

i have been overtaken by stock beetles that drive faster then me on the freeway  :o yes i know it is shocking.

so why do they drive faster or better question, why do i not get over a 100km/h?

well the car has the tendency to become unstable at those speeds. at first i thought it was due to the tracks on the highway were the car zigzags from left to right, but it is more then that.

it has gotten worse since i have the 185/70/15 tires at the back. the car is stable when accellerated and put under load. but as soon as you get off the trotlle or you want to corner it wants to break out or starts to 'dance' at the back.

my theory is that the car has too much rake now. the car has no camber chims at the front like a beetle would have, and not enough weight at the back. allthough the type3 is a heavy car. so what to do. i can lower the back a little, but if it doesn't change anything that will be a lot off work for nothing. it felt a lot more stable when i had the ride last year at bitburg, but it sat all too low. it was like a cart, but it couldn't clear a postcard that was on the ground. so that was all wrong, but now with getting the front up one spline and fitting the new torsion bars i have cured one thing and created another problem. or is it all in my head and is there nothing wrong with this setup.
so this is my setup as it is now.

rear: stock hight, 185/70/15 tires, long axles, white KYB shocks (bus type), 28 torsion bars, bus snubbers.

front: lowered 2 splines, 165/65/15 tires, grey KYB shocks

Are your sure that your front wheels are correctly aligned?  I know that you do it before going to SCC but you know better than me that it's difficult to find competent people to work on our old cars. The first I got my tires aligned in a tires shop, all was wrong. They use a computer to check alignment but it is not the right way to do it. More than 2.5cm (1") of differences between the wheels. :o  The car handles like crap.

I go then to my VW dealer that use a  metal bar to check alignment. And the car was much safer to drive.

don't know if the white kayaba's are the same for a beetle but on a beetle they suck big time.

I bought 4 red koni's for the whole car but there was a problem with the front shocks and the shop supplied me instead of the red koni's a set of those white kayaba's...

Man, that sucked big time!!!!!  they were hard, the car was bouncing all over the place and it wouldn't stick to the road, changed it for stock modified ones and I was happy again...    ;D   no bouncy ride anymore, pretty "soft" with only a puma beam adjusted with no dropped spindles, and the car handles like a cart!

If you ask me: the white kayaba's are the ones you need to replace.

Dem

i know what you mean nicolas. this sort of is what i feel as well...

have you checked the rear alignment too?, and yes, more caster would help, I don't know if you can fit caster shims in a type 3 though

yep that was checked as well and it was close to 0° on both sides. so that should be OK. and i don't know about caster shims for a type3, but i plan on putting bigger tires at the front and lift the car that way. too bad i have 3 new and almost new tires for the front...

nicolas, how about 155 vredesteins to match your rear tyres?

that is the plan. so i am saving up for those, but i need to check clearance as well with the wide type3 beam...  ;)