54 Bug - Countdown to Drag Day

The short block is back together and various minor jobs have been done in readines for the engine installation... tick tock tick tock.

The beast lives!

John Walklett caught tuning Lisa's bay... Sounds good!

Club Meet

... this Wednesday the 22nd, the Wulstan Pub, Wolstanton, 8.00pm onwards. Club members can pick up camping passes for Big Bang too!

And good luck to Lisa Donlon who faces the MOT tester today with her bus.

Nearly Big Bang time....

Should be an exciting weekend with Paul Beardmore back out in his turbo bug looking to use some of the cars 10-second quarter mile potential. Lisa Donlon will be out looking to be the first Gal to join the Rennwagen ET board in her 2276cc powered Bay. Kev Donlon is working hard to get his 64 Bug in one piece running the 2332 EFI/Turbo motor which pushed his Bay camper to a 14.3 ET, plus another two hot buses set to join the Rennwagen ranks with fighting talk already emanating from Mike Riley's Samba ready to take on the newcomers! Significant revisions to John Walklett's bug have also been made, so watch out for a serious tussle for the no.1 spot between John and Paul! Dave Wain will be looking for quicker times in his super straight black '66, now equipped with a new close ratio box so he'll be looking to beat his 13.6 from last season.

Bring it on!!!

Club members: please contact me for your club camping passes.

My 54 getting ready for another trip to the strip

Mock up of Mark's turbo setup

Mark's Bug progress

Mark has recently imported from the USA a new turbo header & holley intake setup. Quality is spot on!

More progress on the 54

I've started to get a bit of primer on it now, and also picked a colour (RAL 6011 Reseda Green), so will hopefully be painted for mid April. I also got the wheels blasted courtesy of all round good guy Sam (whose Yellow cal look bug can be seen elsewhere on the blog), so my ugly pitted & pockmarked BRM's now look a bit less offensive. They will be receiving a coat of clear lacquer but no detailing as such.

Well its been a while...

...since I've updated the blog because I've been busy organising a UK Drag Day in cahoots with a couple of other performance VW oriented clubs - the JG54 greenhearts and the Air Cooled Eliminators. Its going to be a good day, open to Aircooled VW Sedans & Coupes capable of turning the quarter mile in uner 15.99 seconds. If anyone would like to come along to prove it please email drag-day@live.co.uk with details of you & your car.

Peach's bug

Peach has quite a bit of his parts list for the big motor ticked off now... watch this space!

Lee's diet has gone a bit wrong

After signing up to a lose-weight-fast diet Lee found that it didn't quite go to plan.

Plans for his bug have now changed slightly to include a booster cushion for the drivers seat and extensions for the pedals.

Mike Riley up to his old tricks...

Not content with owning one cool bus, Mike has recently taken on this original paint mango green bus to go with his gorgeous Samba, seen here on the strip in a picture Mike forwarded on - think the photographer was Julian Robinson.

My engine parts back from the machinists...

Freshened up and given a clean bill of health... time to put the bottom end together.

Some cool photos found trawling the web....

Photographers unknown I'm afraid... But check out the cool picture of Matt Keene's old turbo Oval and that cool single IDA on the late bug.

Steve Millwards Bug

Currently sporting solid rims and a 1600 powerplant Steve plans to pump up the power and add some wheels to give it the So-Cal flavour...

Sams bug

Sam's 1776cc powered early model bug looks cool in Texas Yellow!

More pics of Marks car

Shown here is Mark and the car's resto project manager, Mark's son, Luke.

Marks Bug in paint

Marks bug is now wearing its gulf blue paint. Major problems were had getting the paint mixed correctly, its ranged anywhere between a very light turquoise to dark blue until Mark found a paintshop with the knowledge to mix it correctly. Final coats are still to be done on the doors and bonnet/decklid. Last shot shows the work done to make the rear valance removable, a nice trick feature.

More photos from the archives...

Some old photos....

Some old photos I've found...

Gold Member

Marks car is finally in paint, and it looks awesome. One to watch on the turbo show & go circuit for sure.

My 54

My engine bits went off to the machinist this week, when they come back it will be engine build time - cool! I'll finally be able to bolt up those 48's...

Further progress on Mark's Meltdown

Hoping to be in paint by the end of this week, watch this space for the first pictures! You may be able to make out the colour he's already started shooting on in one of these pictures. Nice!