I swapped my previous dunebuggy for this car a few years ago. It's was well known-ish car down here at one time. It's about 70% original paint and has very little rust beyond some very dodgy repairs in the doors/bootlid by the previous owner.
When I got the car it had a Judson supercharger (yuck) and 1200 that was leaking oil and fouling plugs like no tomorrow. In fact, that was a microcosm of everything on the car. Literally everything mechanical and electrical on the car. 3 loose bolts held the whole drivetrain in. The wiring loom had toasted itself on the exhaust and had multiple shorts. The front end was flogged out and the front brakes were totally clogged and inoperable. It arrived "stanced" and bashing itself to death on cut bumpstops. With the exception of the beam and steering box, everything mechanical or electrical has been replaced or rebuilt.
The breif was to try and build a chassis usable for club khanas. Something around 120hp, lots of torque and reliable for street driving. So the front end got rebuilt with wide 5 discs. The back end got a rebuilt late 1300 trans/ superdiff/ moly bits/ 4:12R&P/ Kennedy stage 2 pressure plate/ daikin clutch disc, spax adjustables, camber compensator along with the wide 5 squareback brakes rebuilt. Then the real fun begins... late 1300 dual-relief crankcase with Mahle 85.5mm pots/ counter weighted crank and balanced bottom end/ stock DP heads, HD single valve springs/ turbo cam, IHI legacy B4 turbo, CB hideaway header, scavenging system, deep sump, external oil cooler and filter, Microsquirt ECU, golf coilpack, GM injectors, bosch pump, ebay intercooler/ front mount radiator/ To#¤ta intercooler pump, alternator, full new wiring loom, etc, etc. The basic idea was to build a strong, mostly stock 1600 and wake it up with a turbo. I've over-specced most of the supporting parts.
It's taken a long time to get it to where it is. It's onto it's 2nd set of pots after a few dramas, thankfully none catastrophic. Fitting everything in and around the oval engine bay has been nightmarish at times. My veteran engine builder/VW specialist was pretty impressed when he saw it all. I'm on my 3rd revision of scavenge tanks for the turbo. It's currently running 6psi of boost, but I'm planning 14psi when I get it all tuned properly. I accidentally drove it with 14psi a few months back when the wastegate line blew off. It was pretty fun. So far, all my tuning in boost has been pretty safe and conservative.
I've taken the car in a few events over the years. Most recently, I had it at a dirt time trial with my car club. Even on street tyres with just 6psi, it was a LOT of fun. One local purist got very upset with me and told me I was "ruining" the car. LOL. The current plan to get all the mods certified, more street driving and club racing. I'll keep fixing little bits and pieces as I go along. I've got a stock front beam to replaced the narrowed one and some other crazy ideas. As far as aesthetics go, I want something that looks like it might have been built as a club car in 1956-60'. I call it the "Dan Gurney" look from his early days racing with EMPI.
The Cal-look Lounge
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