Drag racing while on a road trip

[Bruce]

Would you do it?

I'm posting this from Guadalajara Mexico.  I'm currently over 8000 km into my latest road trip and I'm not half way yet.  I found the local VW speed shop yesterday and the owner told me about Wed night drags at the local race track.  He was pushing me to take my car out and make some passes.  At first I declined, not wanting to break anything while on a trip.  To that he gave me a variation on a common Mexican welcome.  Mi shop es su shop. (my shop is your shop)  I could fix almost anything, I even have a spare ZF in the car.

I think the car will be very slow.  We are at 1400m, and my car is hefty even when it's empty (950kg+).  Plus, I've got about 120,000km on the engine (2 liters, CB 044s 40x35, FK-44, 8.5:1, 1 5/8 merge, 40 DRLAs)

¿Do you think I'm crazy?

[pupjoint]

i think you should do it Bruce.  PICS pls.....you driving your yellow bug?

[Bruce]

Here's a pic at the junkyard mall in Monterrey Mexico.

[beatnik beetle]

Great photo's..I don't know about anyone else but, I would love to see and hear more about this trip...

Si

[Jon]

The story would get much better if you could say, "let me tell you about the time I drag raced in Mexico"...    compared to "the time I almost drag raced in Mexico."
Cool looking car BTW.

[bedjo78]

drag with daily engine low compression will not harm anything.

[javabug]

Conservative launch. No need for hero or zero stuff; everything will be fine.

Have fun!

[richie]

drag with daily engine low compression will not harm anything.

Conservative launch. No need for hero or zero stuff; everything will be fine.

Have fun!

You obviously havent seen Bruce drive

Bruce I say go for it, you can fix it after no problem

Can you get back up to So cal to run it at Drag day @irwindale as well?  that would be a cool thing to do


cheers Richie

[modnrod]

Really mate, if you can't fix a broken Beetle in Mexico, then we're all doomed.
 

[dannyboy]

if there is a race track .... then race  no brainer 

[Bruce]

You guys are quite generous with my time (if it breaks! )
My reservation is about trying to fix a busted Berg 5 here.

[Zach Gomulka]

I wouldn't be worried about breaking at the track, I would be worried that an un-noticeable amount of damage might be done at the track, and it would later leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere.

[Critter1]

I wouldn't be worried about breaking at the track, I would be worried that an un-noticeable amount of damage might be done at the track, and it would later leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere.... in Mexico!!

There, fixed it. 

[Russell]

Bruce

DO IT !

You will always regret it if you dont..... but take it easy on the berg  5

Russell

[70slooker]

Just don't pull any doughnuts after and you should be good show the super souths what canadians bring to the table!

[Bill Schwimmer]

Hey Bruce, if you bust the 5 spd, there should be enough parts around to make it back into a 4spd  & carry on..  don't wheel hop it.  maybe put some 165's on it, see ya when you come back.

[Frenchy Dehoux]

    Bruce it was nice to have seen you on your way down at the cruise night in Scottsdale. Hopefully you can stop by when you return home.

Frenchy

[Bruce]

  don't wheel hop it. 

And that's exactly what it did.  But it didn't break.  I tightened up the rear engine bar which helped, but did't eliminate it.  I noticed that the idle speed was getting lower.  That reminded me of what happened when I was making passes at Drag Day 13 in Irwindale.  It was due to a broken intake manifold causing a vacuum leak.  That's when I quit for the night.

The track here is run quite differently than in the US.  There appears to be no rules!  70-80km/h in the pits is ok.  Everyone was drinking either beer or tequila.  Anyone can stand where Deano gets to shoot pics, even when the 8 second cars go.  Lighting was poor, and guys were going down the track in almost total darkness.  I think I took out the top end timing lights on one pass.  Hard to tell where you are when there are NO lines indicating the lanes!

First run against a new hemi Dodge sedan.  He took until half track to go by me.
Second was with a Nissan (Sentra?) GSR 2000.  Never saw the guy.
For the third pass, I was lined up with the only other VW there.  It's a 2002 with a turbo'd 78x94 engine.  I got a better bite off the line, and he broke the hockey stick grabbing 2nd, so I didn't see him.
The last pass was the closest.  It was a late 70s/early 80s BB Chevy pickup.  He got a great launch, so he was right with me out of the hole.  We were within a ½ car length of each other all the way to 3/4 track, then he pulled away.  Back in the pits, he asked me to go again, but I declined.  It was well after midnight, and I knew it would take an hour to get back to the hotel.

Today I will check the manifolds.

[Jim Ratto]

  don't wheel hop it. 

The track here is run quite differently than in the US.  There appears to be no rules!  70-80km/h in the pits is ok.  Everyone was drinking either beer or tequila.  Anyone can stand where Deano gets to shoot pics, even when the 8 second cars go.  Lighting was poor, and guys were going down the track in almost total darkness.  I think I took out the top end timing lights on one pass.  Hard to tell where you are when there are NO lines indicating the lanes!

sounds just like my old street racing days from mid 1990's

[henk]

must have been a great experience and you didn't break anything.

henk!!!

[Mike Maize]

Awesome Bruce!

[Russell]

Well done Bruce, so cool and great story.

[Cheesepanzer]

I think that's way cool what you did Bruce.  How many people can say they've drag raced in multiple countries?

Congratulations!

[Bruce]

Thanks for the replies!  I wonder if they drag race in Guatemala?

Here's a funny little incident that happened on the way to the track last night.  Even though the track is inside the city limits, it's way at the south end, and road signs here are sadly lacking.  At one gas station where I was trying to figure out where I was, and where to go, a police pickup came in and stopped near my car. The foreign licence plates always piques their interest, and I heard one exclaim to the other that I was from Columbia.  Common, our tags only state our province in western Canada, which is British Columbia.  One came up to me (packing his M16!), so I asked for map assistance.  They showed me where we were, and explained how to get to where I needed to go.  It was quite complicated, and my Spanish is extremely poor.  Off I went anyway.  I got back on the ring road and drove for a few km, then decided to pull over to have another go at the map.  After a minute, I noticed there was another cop truck in stopped front of me.  Yep, it was the same guys.  One came back and said something I took to mean "follow me".  So, I had a police escort part of way to the track!

[pupjoint]

GPS doesn't work in that part of the world, Bruce? I know they don't really work in the place I used to work.

[Jon]

Very cool that you did it... action holiday!

[Bruce]

GPS doesn't work in that part of the world, Bruce?

What's GPS for?
I'm still using paper maps!  Even the Mexicans are surpised I don't have a phone.

[modnrod]

HAHAHA!!! Very cool man!

Racing when you can't speak the language is a blast, it's a common point everywhere you go.

I remember scooter races in Thailand one night about 20yrs ago..........
 

[Bruce]

I don't think they noticed I was a foreigner.  When I got to the gate, the guy just asked me for 150 pesos (about $12).  I never said anything to him.  Then I just watched where the cars entered the staging lanes and joined in.  No tech inspection.  Many were going down the track with windows open and no seatbelts.  CRAZY!!

[Brian]

Great story Bruce! Way to represent!