Friday 9 December 2011

Rennwagen member Paul Dipple's Party Bus... featured!


Great to see Paul's Bus in the latest Ultra VW mag, it really is one of the coolest early bay's around. This 1970 deluxe kombi retains its full microbus interior, with Z brackets fitted to allow it to be used as a camper, and is powered by the 1776cc motor built by Paul Knight for his old white Fastback Type 3 - its not quite a Rennwagen machine (yet???) but gives Paul somewhere to warm to hunker down while he's hatching plans for the quickest street driven Notch in the UK.... hitting the streets in 2012.

It also gives the rest of the Rennwagens somewhere to party in the pits!!!!

Nice work Paul.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

California Look Drag Day 2012, March 31st - April 1st, Santa Pod Raceway


The California Look Drag Day.... a little slice of So-Cal brought to the Drag Strips of the UK.


Racing is open to flat four VW Engined vehicles that are capable of completing a 1/4 mile in under 15.99 seconds, and spectators welcome along. There will be a show and shine on the Saturday and some of the quickest flat fours in Europe out on the strip on Sunday.

This event is ALL ABOUT THE RACING, aimed at the true petrol heads of the VW Scene. The camaraderie of fellow racers and the roar of the flat four is the entertainment, dressing up is strictly limited to race suits and helmets. Any dancing which takes place, is from inside the vehicle and involves a steering wheel and an attempt to launch in a straight line.

The RENNWAGENS will be there.... will you?

Monday 5 December 2011

Wow, 20,000 posts!!!

Thanks for all the visits over the past 4 years!

Saturday 19 November 2011

Mark Palmer's 64 Turbo bug

Received the Jan 2012 issue of Volksworld Magazine this morning, flicked through to the "Tech Focus" article on Turbocharging, and lo and behold - a very cool pic of Mark's ride.
Check it out........



Pic courtesy of Julian Hunt

Friday 18 November 2011

"Gazifications" begin on his 65 looker

In October we reported on Gaz's new purchase and promised a few update pictures just as soon as he had the opportunity to apply a little polish.

Well of late Gaz has been spending a little time trying to improve the finish and i think you have to agree, he's doing an awesome job. Here are some sneaky pics.......


The underside is now clean enough to eat yer dinner off

after cleaning and polishing the lexan rear window it looks like glass.


Great work Gaz!

Monday 14 November 2011

Friday 11 November 2011

UPDATED CLUB ET BOARD



Well, with the race season done bar the shouting we've finally found time to update the club ET board, and its a good opportunity to take a look at the season as a whole. There's been a good few changes over this past 12 months, with some folks running more often (and harder!) than others, and some cars not managing to get out at all.

The biggest changes come in the mid field of the ET board, where there has been a sustained assault on the quicker spots previously held by those amongst us who have been using turbochargers or nitrous by those running nothing but plain old carburettors. Richie Moss, Steve Milward and John Parton have all worked hard to get to their new positions, with two of those guys now quicker than a couple of us who run turbo's - well done Rich & Steve! John has seen a good improvement in his times in his Oval after a season blighted with niggling issues with his car. Once its fully settled down we look forward to seeing him getting into the 13's and beyond....

Other great news on the ET board from last year are our two new additions, John Saxton and Rich 'Batty' Battison. Both John and Batty have been plugging away working towards club membership for a while now, with John building a new motor and Batty running his Split at every available opportunity looking for the numbers. In the end Batty's improvement came from a simple change of tyre, shaving 7/10's off his previous best time - emphasising the importance of decent tyres out on the strip. In John's case not only did he get a club qualifying time, but then he went out and beat it before we had chance to get him on the ET board with his original time! Nice work guys....

Also, this is a good point to mention this seasons casualties, as there have been a couple, Mark Palmer in particular running the gauntlet of failures managing to incur serious damage to his motor on not one but two occasions. Hats off to you Mark.... also Jamie Palmer managed to blow his motor at a static VW event of all things!

Apart from the movers & shakers on the board there were the regular team of guys on the board who were out running their cars all season flying the flag for the Rennwagens, as well as a host of ever enthusiastic club prospects and advocates, in particular Chris Lovatt who worked incredibly hard to get his lightweight 'Grey Matter' mouse motor'd bug out - although Chris hasn't yet got his Rennwagen Wings with a club time, he has paved the way for it next season with the work on his car completed thus far.

Special thanks to you all, you've made this one of the best seasons ever!

Wednesday 26 October 2011

WELCOME NEW MEMBER RICH BATTISON!

After being on the verge of running a club qualifying time for a while, we are pleased to say that his recent trip to Santa Pod with three existing members netted him a qualifying time of 17.42@74.05mph

Rich runs a 1960 type 2 which came over from Texas in 2008, providing the grunt is a John Walklett built 2110cc mota running 44 idf webers, Other mods include porsche 924 turbo brakes and IRS, a 1500 gt box, bugtech shifter and detailed ssp Fuchs.

Well done Rich and welcome to the Rennwagens






Tuesday 25 October 2011

"LET THEM EAT CAKE" Sunday 23rd Oct 2011

Invite a Rennwagen along for some Birthday Cake add some racing thrown in for good measure and the likelihood is you'll stir up some interest. This was indeed the case when the DKR Club extended an invitation to the Rennwagens to join them and help celebrate their 2nd Birthday, the DKR having enjoyed a successful first 2 years and a welcome addition to the UK scene.

For the Rennwagens it was a successful outing for 3 very good reasons, namely "2 new PB's and a club qualifying time resulting in our newest full member."

The PB's:
John "Sako" Saxton continues to impress, with hard work comes the rewards and on this day Sako was rewarded with a new PB of 14.7, in his very fine Mexi Looker. This being John's second outing to the strip since the powerplant install, it's clear that he's only going to get quicker with seat time. Look out for John making a charge on the ET Board placing's next year. In other related news, there is nice photo of John's car running hard in this month's Volksworld magazine VWAction 2011 report.

Richie Moss has undoubtedly put in the most passes for the Rennwagens this year, more impressive is that with each outing seems to come a new PB, Sunday being no different. Like the proverbial "pig at a tater" Rich tore the car from the trailer headed straight for the track and made a PB 12.27@107.1mph with a 1.66 60ft. Not satisfied and refueled for another charge a second pass was rewarded with a further PB of 12.12@108 mph with a 1.62 60 ft. A third run produced another 12.2sec pass so for his fourth and final pass Tyre pressures were adjusted and low and behold Rich found air under the front wheels for the first time. At this point side winds were getting a little to lairy and Lil Stink Hound was retired for the day.

For those that don’t know the spec of Richie's car, its perhaps worth reiterating it's a 2332 IDA'd powerplant, the very same mota which propelled his sunny commutes to work just a couple of years ago pre its current Lil Stink Hound guise. The only change to the mota being the ditched cooling!!!!!!!!

Batty's Club Qualifying time:
With Mike Riley in support a determined Rich "Batty" Battison took an early cruise down in his hard as nails 2110cc powered 1960 Split bus, arriving before the gates were even open such was his conviction to see out 2011 with his wings. Rich has literally been on the verge of running the number for YEARS, and those that read this blog might remember Rich ran hard at Big Bang2011 earlier in the year and despite best efforts was just falling short of the 17.99 sec cut off and was gutted. Well a change of rubber, and a confidence boosting run down to the pod for this outing made all the difference. Batty's first shakedown pass was a low 18, second pass clinched a qualifying 17.8sec PB, his third and final run of the day was the 17.4sec PB, the Smile on Batty's face was huge. Handshakes all round Batty headed for home a job well done, and will be handed his club stickers at an upcoming meet.

Steve Milward chose to take a break from terrorising the streets in his 61 looker and joined the guys for some fun. With a head full of cold it was never going to be his finest hour, Steve's first pass was a 13.5sec@98mph, and unfortunately wasn’t improved upon with his 2 further passes. Timing slips confirmed that traction for his street radials was proving a problem on the day resulting in 60fts shy of his target, this coupled with a heavy build up of mucus forced early retirement. Even more disappointingly Steve known for his knack at "catching a light" failed on his promise to return home with the "fastest Reaction Trophy" something he had his eye on, on the day his 0.27sec was pipped by a 0.22. A good effort none the less.

Other results.
A great day had by all, relaxed and fun with the emphasis on enjoying some friendly competition and banter. The day was well attended, Gary and Alex of the JG54's took a run over in Gary's 67, and of course the DKR fielded a good number of cars along with some new faces in attendance.
In terms of racing, at one point the top three were separated by 2 hundredths. The First place Trophy for quickest on the day was eventually taken by Andy Searle of DKR with an 11.64 with Danny second in Hembug with a PB 11.9 and Rich Followed in 3rd following with a PB 12.1 @108mph. The quickest reaction time trophy was won by Dean Erb in his Mk1 20v turbo golf.

Special Thanks go to Rennwagen Club Prospects Gary and Peach for helping on the day. Gary for doing a sterling job with the video camera, although we all can't wait for Gary to ditch the camera and bring out the car - the great news is that day is getting very close. And Peach for spotting the cars, pushing in the fire up lane and generally being incredibly helpful to anyone who needed assistance. Finally to Sako's good lady firstly for allowing him to spend all those hours in the garage and secondly for coming along and supporting with genuine enthusiasm.



Richie Moss





John "Sako"





Steve Milward


Newest member Rich "Batty"


Checking out the video footage


Club cars parked between runs


















pics courtesy of Liam "Volksbarns"

Friday 14 October 2011

NEWSFLASH!!!!!!

After 5 weeks of being sworn to secrecy Gaz has now let us in on the news AND WHAT NEWS IT IS!!! When he told us a few weeks back his search for a replacement to his recently sold 68 was over we all figured it was going to be something special but none of us had any idea HOW SPECIAL- until today that is!!!!

As for the car, here are the details...

1965 Cal Looker
Bought from the one and only Mr Keith Seume

The only British Cal Looker ever to attend a genuine Bug-In, VW Classic and the DKP Cruise Night

Quick glance at the Specs
Gene Berg five-speed built by Mike Herbert of Rancho Performance in SoCal
FTC mainshaft
Weddle 3rd/4th gears
3.78; 2.35; 1.58; 1.21; 0.89
Klinkenborg 3.88:1 ring and pinion
Quaife limited-slip differential
JayCee chrome-moly pinion bearing support
H/D pinion retainer
Sway-A-Way race axles

Flat 4 Fuchs (4.5J and 'deep sixes' – brand new, just fitted) with 145x15 and 205/70x15 tyres
Front disc brakes – new
Rear VW drum brakes fully rebuilt – all new throughout
Hurst line-lock
Braided hoses etc

JayCee springplate retainers
Sway-A-Way adjustable springplates
Axle limiting straps
CSP 'torque bar'
Berg solid trans mounts (with weld-in middle mount)
Mallory fuel pump
Restored 'Cotton Goff' licence plate surround
New glass
Lexan rear screen (lightweight)

The car comes minus the engine, and as winter closes in its the perfect time for Gaz to get busy in the garage and start to form a plan of action for 2012.

FROM ALL THE CLUB CONGRATS ON THE PURCHASE

Gaz has promised to provide some recent pictures just as soon as he's given it a polish. In the meantime for anyone who doesnt know the car - (AS IF!!!!)..................



(photo from 2010)

Friday 16 September 2011

Mr. Rennwagen 2011

Look at them pearly whites....

photo courtesy of Matt 'Le Pap' Webb

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Monday 12 September 2011

More VW Action pics







Photo credits to Darren W

Friday 9 September 2011

NEW MEMBER JOHN SAXTON!





Welcome to the club John! Here is the man himself modelling some Rennwagens merchandise....


VW Action... IN the Rennwagen pits...

from left to right... prospect Gaz Priest standing behind Mark Palmers bug, Johnny Walklett's 63 Rag (and you can just see John Parton's Oval Bug behind it), Steve Milwards bug (Steve is behind the car supping on a fresh coffee), Dave Wain's 66 and Johnny Walklett's other car, his 14 sec. Ghia. Behind the Ghia is Johnny trying to get out of shot I think.
Supervisor Archie Lovatt in the crocs and stripey cardigan, Mark Palmer and Gaz Priest working on Marks bug, John Saxton's late looker, Richie's 'Lil Stink Hound' with Steve Milward apparently molesting it in the background, John Parton fettling his carbs and Johnny's bug.
Chris 'the Chef' Lovatt, Phil Wain and again Mark and Gaz.... guess who the media whores are!!!!