Popular mods for an average early 70's Cal Looker

[modnrod]

Really quick story, that's sorta kinda related........

As a teen in the mid-70s my uncle had a little early 60s T1 sedan, and although not racing anymore, he frequented the races a bit still. He ended up living with us for a few months, and we had a REALLY steep driveway, that little lowered Beetle always scraped the rear apron in and out.
Finally one day he got the craps up, just sat and looked at it. I suggested cutting the back part of the apron off, coz it stuck out so far, then it wouldn't scrape. So we did, no scraping, problem solved, YAY!!! All we did was trim out the rear apron almost up to the engine lid, and matched the curve of the engine lid to make it look good, then ended up later running a QP muffler in the centre of it. I ended up doing it to my last Beetle too, as a sort of flashback thing, I still like the look.

Fast forward about 3 or 4 years, and we both went to visit the races again, this time in my V8 coupe, and there were 3 Beetles there........and all three of them had the trimmed rear apron mod!   When we asked why, they said some sort of crap about letting the air out the back, reducing lift, HAHAHA!!!

It's funny how trends seem to catch on sometimes!

Make the car look the way YOU want it too.

[nicolas]

and all three of them had the trimmed rear apron mod!   When we asked why, they said some sort of crap about letting the air out the back, reducing lift, HAHAHA!!!

It's funny how trends seem to catch on sometimes!

i do actually believe that this mod works...

[AirCooledCurtis]

I believe Tar Babe had a trim rear apron and fenders, looked good too.  What is the best/easiest to remove the trim? just spot welds?

[rick m]

AirCooledCurtis....

I had machine 88's with a stock counter weighted crank in this motor. Engle 120 cam. A bosch BRS 383 distributor (now in FRENCHY's split window), Dual 44 Webers at the time, dual port heads with a owner port job on them with stainless valves in the heads and dual springs, center pull linkage, single quiet pack muffler, dog house fan schroud that I took the fresh air ducts out of and modified the vanes inside. Motor had about 7.8 compression. Was a great driver motor and bracket racing motor...could drive just about anywhere. Not killer fast but fun to mess with people.  Had real EMPI 5 spokes (split rims), 135's on the front and I cannot remember the rear wheels. They had the footprint of an M&H 660 slick. Had a crazy plaid interior, dash and headliner. Had fiberglas hi-back seats on tubular seat rails I fabbed to work with the stock slider frame. Had VDO guages out of an OPEL GT that I mounted in a custom dash. I ran the large face speedo and tach from the OPEL GT, along with 3 other gauges from the same car. Guages came with chrome bezels but I sanded all of them and painted them satin black.

Gears in the trans had a 4.57 R&P, crown axles, crown close ratio 3rd and 4 spider diff. Had an old HURST flat bar shifter for VW. Ran a diaphram pressure plate and metal woven disc. Ran stock rubber mounts in the car with trans strap I fabbed.

Had a lot of fun in this car. Drove it to Bug-In 22 and sold it to a guy from Torrance, CA. and never saw the car again.

Rick M

[AirCooledCurtis]

Was anybody using drla's? Does anybody have any experiences with twin 36 dells?

[rick m]

AirCooledCurtis,

Dual 38 Dells are incredible carbs (as are all DELLS).  I ran several pair of them on motors. Had some on a 1776 with a stock cam and 1.25 rockers and the motor got over 30mpg, ran strong, cruised at 70mph on the freeway all day and was fun to drive.  Any DELL carburetor is a great street carburetor.

Rick M