Happiness is definitely a '66 hot vw!

[nicolas]

first off, thank you Tim for the comment. I appreciate it very much. this car has grown on me lately. it has been a bit of a fight for the last ten years, but since getting it more attention in the last two years, I think we are bounding 


too bad he was at the wrong side to catch the one wheel burn out... 

so I did 2 runs. 1st was OK. a lot of wheelspin still, but no hop, due to the traction bar that I tabbed up. the tyre pressure was too high.

second run was a total mess. I bogged in the burn out and during the run it ran badly. so that was it for me that weekend. I wanted to drive it Saturday evening to the chalet with my friends and it acted up again. so bad we towed it to the site. so my weekend of racing was done. and I couldn't quite figure out what happened or why.
in the next weeks I got to work on and off on the car, with one day of really digging into it with a friend. so three weeks later, I found out the coil from the MSD failed and that caused the bogging. than I installed a regular 009 with a blue coil, to have one cylinder not firing. that in the end was due to a bad sparkplug wire. So at this point I will drive the car. for a streetcar it sure does not lives up to it's name and is trailered a lot more than it is driven. and driving it would at least give me some sense of knowing what it does (heating up, gears, brakes,...) all simple things, but in changing so much and trying to make things better it is usefull to actually see progress. hence driving. 

in a few weeks it will be Spa and I hope to bring it there in better shape and hopefully do some runs. slow, yes. improving, yes-er. having fun, yest!

[richie]

 having fun, yest!

That's the most important thing, and so many people lose sight of that while trying to impress others !!!

good to see you are enjoying it

cheers Richie

[speedwell]

Fabian you did a good job with the pictures to make it look fast

cheers Richie

[nicolas]

update for the 2025 season.

after doing 3 events in 2024 (Clastres in May, EBI in July and Spa in august) I took the engine out and fitted a 1776 I build to go on the dyno. but that went OK and now I am back with the 2276.
the changes and hopefully improvements that I made are fewer as I 'feel' a lot changed and for the better since my first outing in May 2024.
At Spa I still had a lot of wheelsman and something that I noticed in a video from EBI re-occurred, I do a burnout with one wheel... always the same wheel... so something is up. also the box had a super diff, that isn't a upgrade to control the bias in traction.
that has been tackled with redoing the gearbox again, with a Quaife and longer gears. 3,88 RP 3,78 1st 2,06 2nd 1,58 3rd and a 1,04 4th. On a first spin around the block I think it is a better gearing for this car. and hopefully with a better result on the track as well.
another thing that could be changed is the wheels and tyres. I acquired a set of Mahle space savers over the years (thanks Lee Croft) and fitted a set of MH slicks.  so this may be a big step as well. I never had anything with slicks. 
I also made a kit for an external oil cooler. this one fits over on the torsion bar and will replace the one I had above the gearbox. I am going to test it, as I have made several and I am going to sell the kit.
what also is on the agenda is a roll bar or roll cage.  but that is not done or advancing much.

again this post doen't really work without pictures, but there will be in the future. things don't look too different. a lot of it is all under the bonnet and a work in progress. but my aim is to better the 14,41 by something in the 13 second bracket, with a 13,80 being the best the car ever ran.

see you soon.

[j-f]

Good news 

looking forward to see your progress buddy 

[nicolas]

the engine



the car



this actually could make more sense 

[Glauco]

I always had a soft spot for this car and his history. I hope it will make it into the 13's and lower real soon! Inspiring enough for me to want my own beetle to play with!