The revamp continues....

Steve's getting ready for some carpet in the newly modified rear area of the interior of the car....

Chris Lo update

Called round to Club Prospect Chris's place on the weekend to find him cracking on with the standard and making great progress
Here's a few spy shots of some fine work:

The Eagle has landed!!!!!!!!!!

Jamie Palmer bought this last week from Steve (VZI username turbo-hippy) who has done some stirling work on it - if you want to see more details of the build have a look at his thread here...

http://www.volkszone.co.uk/VZi/showthread.php?t=579547

What Jamie has wisely purchased is exactly as Steve described.....a good solid '60 bug that has had a lot of work done to get it race ready. Call it fate but the main pull for Jamie purchasing the car is that they are 'friends of old' as its one of the very first bugs that he did any large amount of work on - it was then owned by a friend locally from Rugeley, Jamie and his bro Lee repainted it Red. fitted a 1914cc motor to it and a few other bits and bobs.
BUT the other big reason is that the car has been back-halved, with a rear cage and ladder bar conversion - this gets rid of the torsion bars and spring plates, and uses coil overs and ladder bars in their place. It all adds up to a better launch,
which is good, because LAUNCH IT HE SHALL!!!!!!!!

Here is a pic of the car safely parked up in its new home



Jamie's plans for the car are quite straightforward for the time being, he'll be putting in the 2276 draw through turbo that he was running his club iconic 54 Oval - although the engine is earmarked for some mods to try and get the turbo up above the gearbox instead of hanging out the back as it does now - main reason for this is Jamie intends to fit a decklid and run on the street.

Look out for changes in the wheel & tyre dept too when funds have recovered from the purchase of the bug. Other plans are firmly around weightsaving so he'll be looking to gradually change body panels for race weight 'glass, a change to Lexan in the windows and a few other changes here and there.

Hopefully with this chassis set up and a little less weight, and a lot more fine tuning of the engine Jamie is gunning for some solid 11 second passes with the car (exceeding his pb of 12.5 in the54). The club couldnt be any more made up for him

Hazel Thomas' Trekker

Hazel's car is currently in the workshops of 'Dirty' Nige Hull, being massaged in readiness for the motor which is currently being built up by John Walklett.... Should be a ripper!

Some great news!

Kev Donlon, current #1 ET placed Rennwagen member has had a rethink about his plans to sell his bug and build a ghia to replace it... the ghia has now gone, and the dust has been blown off what remains of the Bug following Kev parting out much of the car.

Some may remember Kev had a rather large falling out with the car after he managed to completely disassemble the engine in 6 seconds with the use of no tools other than his right foot and a lean condition.

Kev will be running a N.A. 2276 this season, before going the whole hog again for next year with another turbo efi install.

Glad to hear you're back 'in the zone' Kev, and look forward to seeing you back out this year!

Chris Lo's standard 60....

Chris is forging ahead with work on the car and making some real progress.....

Gaz Priests German Looker...

Gaz has been hitting the garage hard too, trying to wrap up the welding on his 1303.... glad to say he's getting close now.

Gaz also deserves mucho respect for being the only one hardy enough to turn up to this months 'Breakfast club' in an aircooled VW.... his uncles Bay Window. Hope the frost bite was not too serious Gaz!

More work on Steve's Bug

As promised, here's an update on the work taking place to install a cage into Steve's car, and tie it into the frame horns.... its coming together nicely!

Steve Milwards Grumpy Bug update

A few mods are currently being carried out to Steve Milwards 61 bug, with the aim of making the car a bit more user and track friendly - a problem anytime any of us have stepped near the car with a spanner has been skinned knuckles and the realisation that to carry out any service work on the engine requires an additional six knuckles per finger, or lady like dainty hands and fingers such as are possessed by our very own Peach (although the only tool he gets his hands near is..... well I'll let you guess the rest).

So he and Rich (I suspect it will have been Rich while Steve gritted his teeth and kept his eyes closed) broke out the grinder, and took off the valance and two sections of inner wing. A couple of the excellent quality Hooky's HiPacs have gone and and some careful cutting with the grinder see's an almost invisible removable valance.

Work has also commenced on fitting a cage complete with frame horn braces, so look out for more updates here soon......

A visit to Richie Moss' Driveway

A few invaders to his drive space.... Jamie Palmers 73 2276cc turbo bug, Steve Milwards 2165cc IDA equipped cal looker and a surprise visit from Matt Webb in his 67 2276cc cal looker, along with Richies Single Cab project in the garage made for an eyeful for locals... shame his 12 sec 65 bug and 1776 Ghia Coupe were not on hand as well!

Rich getting right for once at york.

http://contour.com/stories/79658/embed?map=true

Club Prospect Gaz Thompson's new ride

You may remember Gary and his old ride, an awesome 67 Bug - he is a former full member of the club who had to sell his car on (it now resides in the hands of another club prospect, Matt Webb, who we need to talk into getting the 67 onto the strip!). While he may have lost his 67, he never lost his enthusiasm and his input and attendance at many club meets was always welcome. The GREAT news is he's just become the proud owner of this fine late looker.

It was built many moons ago stateside, and was imported into the UK in the early 90's. It sports many interesting features, not least of all the 2110cc flat four hanging out back! Gaz is hoping to get out to the strip as soon as possible with the car, although UK weather being what it is time is running out for an opportunity to run a club qualifying time this season. Fingers crossed he makes it, if not there's next season!

If you know Gary, you'll also know what a clean freak he is, and he's already started prepping the car to his high standards. I'm sure you'll agree from the last two shots that this is a fine looking cal looker.

BEATIFUL CAR GARY!

Another new member, another new board!

We'd like to give a warm welcome to Lee Appleby, and his beautiful 1914cc RHD 1970 Karmann Ghia, to the club, Lee's pb is 15.9 seconds, and is currently building a NOS injected 2276 ready to hit the strip again next season!

WELCOME TO THE CLUB LEE.

Action 2010 Pic's courtesy of Julian Robinson

Rich lighting em up.............

Steve Launching hard on his way to a new PB.............

Lisa doing her thing..............

John "wheels up" Walklett.............

NEW ET BOARD, DETAILS

Well as you can see we have a newcomer to the board, Paul Dipple who has slipped right in at number 8, having run an excellent 14.3 with his 2387cc 1966 Fastback. Paul isn't resting idle now he's on the board though, and has made big changes already - he's sold the fastback and has started to install the setup in his Notchback, which, equipped with a Type 1 linkpin front end should be lighter than the fastback and see him deeper into the board next season. Congratulations Paul!

Another addition to the board, although not a new member, is John Walklett, with his 'other' car, a show standard 1965 Right Hand Drive original UK Type 1 Karmann Ghia. The car runs a 2185cc Type 1 motor, based around a high quality Scat 78mm crank. Johns gone back to carbs on this one, and has posted a very impressive 14.5 second ET - amazing when you bear in mind how heavy these ghia's are in comparison to a bug. Two places on the same board? Some might say that's greed, I think everyone at the RENNWAGENS would agree its DEDICATION.

A number of personal bests of RENNWAGEN members were posted at VW Action, with an incredibly impressive 12.6 ET from Richie Moss in his high mileage ;) 65 bug. This is on carbs, no nitrous, no turbo in a car that is used in all weathers and driven hard for many many miles, usually to the track and back.

Steve Milward thrashed his previous pb, ran at DDII a few weeks back of 14.5 with a 14.2 - a full second off last years time! Unfortunately Steve's weekend didn't end on a high note, with some gearbox issues putting paid to him hitting his 'Thirteen'. Steve's put a huge amount of effort into this car, transforming it from a restocal car into the street warrior it is now, and his 14.2 is a worthy result for the blood sweat and tears that the resto Cal Gods (who he's clearly offended!) have demanded from him...

John Parton had an uphill struggle getting his car to (and from!) VW Action, with an oil cooler failure the week before the show leading to a full strip down to check for damage. Still, his efforts were rewarded with a pb, knocking 4 tenths off his previous best with a sweet 14.4 pass.

Other notable timse from the weekend were first of all John 'Sako' who ran a 17.7 in his mexi-cal look bug. The car runs a 1600cc motor, with a 110 cam and a set of twin 40IDF webers. John's building a 2110 for next years fun and games, and if he can wring a 17 out of a more or less stock 1600 I'm sure we'll be seeing him climb the board pretty quickly!

Also Lee Appleby in his Beautiful metallic grey Karmann Ghia, who has previously run a 15.9 in his Ghia, was back on the track after a few years hiatus, and ran a 16.2 - this was with his current 1914, a JMR built motor that has served him well for a number of years. Over the winter however Lee will be building up the pile of parts he has collected into a 2276 stomper, so we're sure to have not one, but TWO Karmann Ghia's on the board before long. Well done Lee!!

One final thing, I know a number of Rennwagen members were helped enormously by the club prospects who turned up to help shove cars around the pits, tow cars to/from the track, the odd bit of spanner work and spot in the burnout box etc. - an excellent display of team spirit! NICE WORK GUYS.

Not long left of the season now.... anyone up for a spot of RWYB'ing?

VW Action, NEW ET BOARD!