Brakes, Wheels and Tyres

As promised, I thought I would cover wheels, brakes and tyres this time round. These are all restricted by Historic regulations, but the great thing is that we can use these rules to get a small advantage over the opposition.

Wheels

These can be any width, so long as they are housed within the original bodywork and the diameter must be the original showroom size, plus or minus 1 inch, to a maximum of 15 inches. The only other stipulation is that the wheels are of a period (pre 1966) design. 14 inch wheels would be lighter and help lower the centre of gravity slightly, but we have chosen to stick to 15 inch rims as it enables us to run larger brakes and it gives us a wider choice of wheels and tyre sizes.

We've fitted 5x15 inch Raders to replicate the 1965 'Inch Pincher' that the car is based on. We are currently limited to 5 inch wide rims as the car is a 1970 which has quite a wide track (distance between the two wheels on the same axle) and this has been widened further by fitting disc brakes all round, having said that we are fitting 10mm wheel spacers on the rear to get the rear track as wide as the bodywork will allow.

The reason for running as wide a track as possible is that it reduces the lateral load transfer...put simply, when you corner hard, the weight of the car is thrown laterally (sideways) to the outside of the corner which upsets the handling, widening the track reduces this effect, as does lowering the centre of gravity.

Brakes

In this Championship the brakes are unlimited, so anything goes! To suit the bolt pattern of the Rader wheels we have fitted CSP 'wide 5' disc brakes all round, which are pretty much the largest that you can fit inside the wheels. The brakes will be worked hard and as a result will reach high temperatures which can reduce their efficiency, so the rear discs are drilled and the fronts are vented, drilled and grooved to provide some extra cooling. We are also using racing brake pads which are made of a harder material and operate at a higher temperature than regular pads.

To keep the costs down we will use the standard cast CSP 2 piston (2 pot) brake calipers and we will see how they perform over the season. In the future we may replace these with 4 or 6 pot aluminium calipers which will not only provide stronger braking but are half the weight of the CSP items.

To allow us to tune the brakes to the conditions, we have included bias adjustment which gives us the ability to adjust the amount of braking force applied to the front and rear brakes. In the dry, most of the braking force will go to the front and in the wet the braking force will be sent towards the rear. This can be adjusted from the drivers seat during the race.

Tyres

As with all Historic Touring Car Racing we are only allowed to use Dunlop crossply racing tyres which are nothing like a modern tyre. Firstly they are treaded but not road legal and despite being of a much softer, stickier compound than a modern road tyre, they are very tall, skinny and provide very little grip.

They come in 2 styles with various widths and heights. Style wise we have a choice of 'L' or 'M' section tyres. 'L' section tyres are an older style of tyre which are skinny and very tall and the 'M' section tyres are more modern in appearance as they are wider and have a lower profile. Despite this they have very tall sidewalls by todays standards. All the tyres have the same '204' compound of rubber and share the same tread pattern.

We've chosen L550x15 for the front and L600x15 for the rear, which are the widest tyre that we can fit on 5 inch rims. Even so, the tread width is only 128mm on the front and 135mm on the rear (told you they were skinny!) and how much do they cost?...How about £900 for a set of 4 and they only last for 6 races!! This motor racing isn't cheap.

If you want to see how great they are in the wet!!...take a look at this 150bhp Ford Anglia at Silverstone on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks7WP1xJI7o&feature=channel)

Now how do our wheels, brakes and tyres compare to our main rivals the Mini Coopers? Well the Minis are limited to 4.5x10 inch wheels which means that the largest brakes that they can use are only 7.5 inches in diameter, whereas ours are nearly 12 inches, so baring in mind that we are the same weight, we should have an advantage under braking. The largest tyre that the Minis can run are only 120mm wide and we have 128/135mm tyres plus a larger diameter which both add up to a much larger tyre footprint, so that looks pretty good.

All this is theory of course...Only time will tell whether we have a true advantage here as there are so many other factors which can affect each cars performance.

The Beetle is currently having the custom made dampers and suspension linkages, fire bottle plumbed in and the brake lines fitted. Once thats done its off for final wiring while the engine is being finished. Currently we are looking at testing in early June with our first race planned for the 14th June at Castle Combe near Bristol.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog...we're nearly there!

ian

Brakes, Wheels and Tyres

As promised, I thought I would cover wheels, brakes and tyres this time round. These are all restricted by Historic regulations, but the great thing is that we can use these rules to get a small advantage over the opposition.

Wheels

These can be any width, so long as they are housed within the original bodywork and the diameter must be the original showroom size, plus or minus 1 inch, to a maximum of 15 inches. The only other stipulation is that the wheels are of a period (pre 1966) design. 14 inch wheels would be lighter and help lower the centre of gravity slightly, but we have chosen to stick to 15 inch rims as it enables us to run larger brakes and it gives us a wider choice of wheels and tyre sizes.

We've fitted 5x15 inch Raders to replicate the 1965 'Inch Pincher' that the car is based on. We are currently limited to 5 inch wide rims as the car is a 1970 which has quite a wide track (distance between the two wheels on the same axle) and this has been widened further by fitting disc brakes all round, having said that we are fitting 10mm wheel spacers on the rear to get the rear track as wide as the bodywork will allow.

The reason for running as wide a track as possible is that it reduces the lateral load transfer...put simply, when you corner hard, the weight of the car is thrown laterally (sideways) to the outside of the corner which upsets the handling, widening the track reduces this effect, as does lowering the centre of gravity.

Brakes

In this Championship the brakes are unlimited, so anything goes! To suit the bolt pattern of the Rader wheels we have fitted CSP 'wide 5' disc brakes all round, which are pretty much the largest that you can fit inside the wheels. The brakes will be worked hard and as a result will reach high temperatures which can reduce their efficiency, so the rear discs are drilled and the fronts are vented, drilled and grooved to provide some extra cooling. We are also using racing brake pads which are made of a harder material and operate at a higher temperature than regular pads.

To keep the costs down we will use the standard cast CSP 2 piston (2 pot) brake calipers and we will see how they perform over the season. In the future we may replace these with 4 or 6 pot aluminium calipers which will not only provide stronger braking but are half the weight of the CSP items.

To allow us to tune the brakes to the conditions, we have included bias adjustment which gives us the ability to adjust the amount of braking force applied to the front and rear brakes. In the dry, most of the braking force will go to the front and in the wet the braking force will be sent towards the rear. This can be adjusted from the drivers seat during the race.

Tyres

As with all Historic Touring Car Racing we are only allowed to use Dunlop crossply racing tyres which are nothing like a modern tyre. Firstly they are treaded but not road legal and despite being of a much softer, stickier compound than a modern road tyre, they are very tall, skinny and provide very little grip.

They come in 2 styles with various widths and heights. Style wise we have a choice of 'L' or 'M' section tyres. 'L' section tyres are an older style of tyre which are skinny and very tall and the 'M' section tyres are more modern in appearance as they are wider and have a lower profile. Despite this they have very tall sidewalls by todays standards. All the tyres have the same '204' compound of rubber and share the same tread pattern.

We've chosen L550x15 for the front and L600x15 for the rear, which are the widest tyre that we can fit on 5 inch rims. Even so, the tread width is only 128mm on the front and 135mm on the rear (told you they were skinny!) and how much do they cost?...How about £900 for a set of 4 and they only last for 6 races!! This motor racing isn't cheap.

If you want to see how great they are in the wet!!...take a look at this 150bhp Ford Anglia at Silverstone on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks7WP1xJI7o&feature=channel)

Now how do our wheels, brakes and tyres compare to our main rivals the Mini Coopers? Well the Minis are limited to 4.5x10 inch wheels which means that the largest brakes that they can use are only 7.5 inches in diameter, whereas ours are nearly 12 inches, so baring in mind that we are the same weight, we should have an advantage under braking. The largest tyre that the Minis can run are only 120mm wide and we have 128/135mm tyres plus a larger diameter which both add up to a much larger tyre footprint, so that looks pretty good.

All this is theory of course...Only time will tell whether we have a true advantage here as there are so many other factors which can affect each cars performance.

The Beetle is currently having the custom made dampers and suspension linkages, fire bottle plumbed in and the brake lines fitted. Once thats done its off for final wiring while the engine is being finished. Currently we are looking at testing in early June with our first race planned for the 14th June at Castle Combe near Bristol.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog...we're nearly there!

ian

I was going to cover the wheels, brakes and tyres, but with the racecars debut at the Volksworld Show last weekend and the first round of racing this weekend on the 5th April at Donington, I thought it was time for an update so you know where we are.

Firstly the car still isn’t ready. One garage (not a VW one!) let us down, which has put us 7 weeks behind, plus we’re still waiting for parts from the states. Donington this weekend will have to go without us, which is a shame as there are seven Minis and a Ford Anglia 100E in our class.

No way am I entering a race without testing first, the opposition will skin me alive! So our aim is to start the season at round 3 (Silverstone 9/10 May) or round 4 (Snetterton 30/31 May) after some testing sessions at Silverstone or Snetterton to set the car up and for me to get some track time under my belt.

The Volksworld Show was a bit frantic as 7 days earlier the racecar was reversed into at a junction while being towed and we had to quickly paint and fit a new rear wing, which turned out to be 15mm narrower than the original wing, so the tyre didn’t fit! Then while towing it to the show on an A-frame on the friday, the retaining pin or bolt sheared off which resulted in a lot of metalic noises from the rear. I looked in the left mirror and there was no car. I looked in the right mirror and saw the racecar trying to overtake me!! We hit a bump which pulled the Beetle back in line, so I (gradually) slowed the van down and steered the van and Beetle onto the grass, suffering just some small damage to the front wing. I got passed by quite a few VWs on the A31 while drumming my fingers on the dash, waiting for the recovery lorry (if you saw me...Hello!)

Two damaged panels and we haven’t been near a race track yet!

One big lesson to learn from this is, don’t trust the bolts and retaining clips on your A-frame. I’ve been towing Beetles on A-frames for over 15 years with no problems, but adding chains or straps as extra insurance wouldn’t be a bad idea. I’ve used some seatbelt material and made some straps for future trips. Learn from this...it could have been a lot worse!

GAC (www.vwracing.net) are reworking the twinport cylinder heads as we speak and I’ve been told we should expect at least 132bhp and perhaps up to 140bhp once we’ve got the engine dialled-in....Not bad for a 1300!!

Next job...send the car off to get re-wired then back to GAC after Easter for hopefully the final few jobs. Then we start testing proper.

Next time its wheels, brakes and tyres...I promise!

Ian

Medical and Racing Licence

In order to race, I need a race licence. This requires passing a medical, written exam and driving test.

(Medical)
This involved a blood test, urine test, blood pressure, weight, lungs, heart, eyesite, hearing and lots of general poking and proding. Luckily I don’t smoke, hardly drink and because I cycle 100 miles a week to Just Kampers I sailed through this...apart from they said I was too fat!!!

(ARDs test - Silverstone)
With the medical passed, it was off to Silverstone for the written and driving tests. This was held on Silverstones south circuit which is basically the back half of the Grand Prix circuit.
First was the written test which is a multiple choice paper covering race procedures and safety, one of the most important being memorising all eleven flags that the marshals hold up and what each one means. My endless revising payed off, as I passed this, no probs...Now for the fun bit.

Now came the driving test, this is where it got interesting (and tough!) First we had a classroom lesson in the basics of driving, then it was off to the skid pan. The task here was to drive an Audi round a set of cones. The Audi is mounted on a hydraulic frame, controlled by the instructor. By raising the car on the frame the instructor can cause the car to skid as the tyres lose contact with the road, this was made worse by the fact that it was raining and the car had 4 adults in it making it a bit of a handful. A couple of the other students were clueless at this and just could’nt get it right...I span twice..It was hard, but soon it was over and then it was onto the Caterhams.

Car control once again...So we had to drive round a set of cones (on our own this time) as fast as possible. At the final cone we had to donut round it twice, then back to the start. I didn’t think I would like the Caterham because it’s too small..I am lanky and have size 13 feet! But it turned out to be a hoot to drive. It had a motorbike engine and no grip in the wet. I loved it..apart from every time you turned the wheels you got a face full of water (front mudguards were rubbish) But I managed to go round the cones perfectly. Sliding the car, balancing it on the throttle and doing perfect donuts round the final cone and back to the start. My confidence was now sky high....This was a doddle!

Then we had to drive the Lotus Exiges on the track. This is where it went a bit wrong! I was given the oldest instructor and he looked very serious. We got in the car and the first thing he said was “I DON’T WANT TO BE IN THESE...I WANT TO BE IN THE SKID CARS” (nice one...he’s in a mood!) I’m having trouble with my belts...they are different from the ones in my drag Beetle. “PULL THE LONG BITS” he shouts. “there are two long bits” I said. He shouts, then pulls one of the belts so tight I can hardly breathe (that’s comfy!)

Now we are off and onto the track for a 3 lapper. Now during the classroom lessons we were told that we could hold the wheel with our hands at the 10 to 2 position or the 1/4 to 3 position, I used the 10 to 2 position. “GET YOUR HANDS TO 1/4 TO 3” the instructor shouts! I suddenly decided that I wasn’t going to enjoy this. And to top it off, I didn’t even like the car. It was such a different driving experience from my crossply shod left hand drive splitty that I just could’nt settle into it, and amazingly it didn’t feel that quick! The Lotus is a plastic car with a supercharged 1800cc engine, but my 2007cc 13 second Beetle was, for sure quicker.

Anyway, one more lap. Now the rear visibility in the Lotus is rubbish and we were sharing the track with Dodge Vipers and Ferraris, so the instructor said he would watch the mirrors, I just had to consentrate on the things ahead of me. Fine, but coming down towards Vale, which is a tight 90 degree left hander, just as I turned the wheel to enter, I saw the rear mudguard of a bright orange Caterham in the instructors mirror. This meant that the Caterham was right next to me!...I quickly straightened the wheel and let the Caterham go, which then left me totally off line and I had to hit the brakes before running out of road. Damn...now I can’t find second in this stupid 6 speed box and I’m down to 10mph! “DON’T PARK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD” the instructor shouts! “IT’S THE MOST DANGEROUS THING YOU CAN DO”. I finally found the right gear, explained to him about the Caterham, checked the road was clear and then endured another half a lap of ear ache before getting back to the pits (The instructor wasn’t looking in his mirrors and my quick reactions avoided a big crash...but that didn’t seem to cut much mustard with this guy!) Get me away from this psycho!!

Once back in the classroom it was someone elses turn with psycho, so I was quite interested to see what this student says when he gets back. When he came back after his 3 laps he was white as a sheet and close to tears. “are you alright” I said. “blokes an a***hole” he says. We asked for a change of instructor for the remainder of the day.


All we had to do now was 6 more laps in the Exige, 3 laps of instruction followed by 3 laps which was the test itself. Success or failure hinged on these last 3 laps. My new instuctor was Colin Elstrop, he was great. My driving on the other hand was rubbish! I just couldn’t get into a nice rhythm. I was still having trouble with the gearbox and needed to pick up the pace (you have to lap reasonably fast otherwise it’s a fail) Thankfully after 3 laps I settled down and started getting a feel for the car. My pace was much faster despite the wet track and the driving exam began. The only scare came on the final lap when I approached farm bend and found a fellow student facing me. He’d spun it in the wet and I slipped by, greatful that I’d spotted the parked car early enough to avoid it. (wonder if that was psycho??) Colin then said “That students just failed” Can you imagine going through the whole day and blowing it on the last lap!

Finally it was back to the classroom to swop stories with the other students and the long wait to see who’s passed and who’s failed. Out of 15, 3 failed, fortunately I wasn’t one of them. I got my pass...just!!

I thought after 22 years of driving this ARDs test would be a piece of cake, but it wasn’t. I’m sure many people sail through it...I didn’t! While I wasn’t driving at anything like race speeds, I found it a big ask to drive an unfamiliar car on an unfamiliar track fast and accurately after only 6 laps of tuition. As you can see from my grades, ‘on the day’ I was average, in fact I couldn’t have been more average!! But I’m through. I’ve got my licence. Now I just need to finish the car and get some racing miles under my belt. Will I be a good driver? Only time will tell!

If you want to have a sniff around the racecar, it’s on display at the Volksworld Show on the 28th/29th. You can’t miss it..It’s the Coral Red thing with stupidly large tyres!

In the next installment we will cover brakes, wheels and those crazy tyres.

Bye for now.

Ian

(Part 2) Bodywork

First job is to strip the car down. This is where you usually find that you’ve bought yourself a rotbox. This is the second Beetle i’ve owned with a steel sunroof and both of them featured floors that Fred Flintstone would be familier with. The problem is caused by the drain tubes in the sunroof draining onto the carpet instead of the road.

I knew this one needed work and to be honest I’m happy we’re replacing the floorpan and heater channels because I know the car will be strong and safety is a big concern. After stripping the car it was whisked off and media blasted back to bare metal...Not cheap, but it removed all the rust and soundproofing, making the restoration simpler.

The restoration was entrusted to Andy at Farnborough VW (01252 521152) where the aforementioned floorpans and heater channels were replaced. The area above the gearbox was paper thin and Andy replaced this with a second hand panel he had lying around. I then made some roll cage box section mounts which were welded in and the Rollcentre cage from my old Drag Beetle was test fitted. This is where we hit a problem! The sunroof lowers the ceiling by around 3cm which meant the rollcage wouldn’t fit!!

While this was going on the media blasting had uncovered something interesting....The roof had been replaced at some point (I guess to add the sunroof) and Andy pointed out that it wasn’t fitted straight...The windows where smaller on one side than the other! So guess what we did...we cut the roof off again and replaced it with a plain roof that Andy had lying around. (He has a lot of stuff lying around!) This time it was fitted straight.The sunroof wasn’t wasted (before you complain) It went to a good home. All this work was unexpected, but worked out well in the end as the rollcage fits and the car is a good 15kg lighter. Final job was welding up the fuel filler, dash and prep it for paint.

Originally the car was going to be a Herbie replica (I had the graphics and everything!!) But then I felt it would be a bit corny and decided to style it on Darrell Vittone’s Beetle that Grand Prix driver Dan Gurney circuit raced in 1963 and 64. This  car went on to become the ‘Inch Pincher’ Drag Racer that we all know and love. The Just Beetles racer will be a mixture of the two with the overall feel of the 1963 circuit racer but with the Rader wheels of the 1965 Inch Pincher.

Now you may remember this Touring Car Championship is for pre-1965 cars and mine is a 1970. This isn’t a problem. The Beetle (as a model) was manufactured before 65 and changed very little over the years. The organisers just require the car to resemble a 65 or earlier car and be built to the same spec. The 1965 Beetle has the same large windows as my 1970 and the suspension is of the same design (torsion bar front and swing axle rear) So it’s just a case of bolting on early wings (which we already had remember) plus an early bonnet and ‘half w’ deck lid...Job Done!

The painting was handled by Tracy (who is a guy by the way!!) at St Georges Coachworks in Camberley (01276 686826) This is a crash repair company and the employees (who spend their days painting doors and wings on Ford Ka’s and Vauxhall’s) love nothing better than having a few classics in the shop to break up the boredom. When i was there they had a 1957 Chevy station wagon, also a tiny Pro Street Nash which was one of Tracy’s projects, plus a carbon fibre bodied GT2 Porsche that had crashed on a circuit the weekend before.

They were under strict instructions to keep body filler and paint thickness to a minimum. (This is a racecar after all) Despite this, the car came out looking great! and here is the finished article.

...Well that's the car body....Next it’s MY body!! I’m going for a (gloves on!!) medical,then it’s off to Silverstone to get my race licence.

Bye for now.

Ian

Its the 50th Anniversary of the British Touring Car Championship and we thought it was about time there was a Beetle in it! Now a Beetle doesn’t qualify for entry into the modern BTCC, but it is legal for Historic Touring Car Racing, its just that knowone has ever tried...that is until now.

Over the next few months we are going to take one unsuspecting Beetle, get it race ready, then complete a full season of racing...which also happens to be MY first season of circuit racing (No pressure there then!!) we will cover the whole season, warts and all, here on the Just Beetles website and we will also install an onboard camera so that you can watch the racing from the comfort of your own living room.

My name is Ian Brown and I’m the Graphic Designer here at Just Kampers and Just Beetles. After 8 years of racing (and beating) Porsche’s, Ferrari’s, Skyline’s, Impreza’s and the like on the drag strips, I’m keen to see if the humble Beetle is able to hold its own on the countries famous circuits as well.

The first job was to find a suitable Championship and this proved to be harder than I thought. Most allowed only limited modifications which would have left me with a very uncompetitive car. For example one in particular enabled me to enlarge the engine to 1835cc but I had to use the standard Solex 30 PICT-1 carburetor! Then just as I was losing the will to live, I came across the Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) Historic Racing Saloon Car Championship (www.hrsr.co.uk and www.hscc.org.uk for more info) This sounded perfect! The cars have to be of a model produced before 1966 and the engine is limited to the production capacity for that year (for us that’s 1300cc) but other than that the rules allow endless tuning, so for me it’s twin 44 webers, close ratio gears, disc brakes all round and serious speed.

So what are we up against? Each race is split into 5 classes depending on engine size. To put it in simple terms, up to 1150cc is all Hillman Imps (around 115bhp), 1151-1300cc (my class) is all Mini Coopers (around 130-135bhp), 1301-1600cc is Ford Anglias and Lotus Cortinas (between 150 and 170bhp), 1601-2500cc is Alfa Romeo and BMW (170bhp+) and finally 2500cc and above is Jaguars, Ford Mustangs, Ford Falcons and Ford Galaxies (Jaguars up to 300bhp, US Muscle Cars between 300 and 550bhp).

All these cars race together, but you only earn points for the position you are in ‘in your class’. For example a Hillman Imp may finish in 20th place, but because it is the first car in the under 1150cc class he gets maximum points. This way, anyone can win the Championship regardless of what they drive. This does nothing to stop the David and Goliath battles though, as we all have to run on the same style of Dunlop crossply tyre which makes for a lot of sideways action and evens up the power difference...It’s great watching 1300cc Minis running rings round 7 litre Muscle Cars.

Well thats the racing - Now it’s time to build the car, and here it is....A 1970 1200 with an identity crisis. 60’s wings, 70’s bonnet, 50’s engine lid, early 5 bolt drum brakes and Ghia or Type 3 ‘Bullet’ indicators. Doesn’t look much...but bear with me, when we’re done it’s gonna look hot!

Next time we will cover the stripdown and build, so keep visiting the site for regular updates on the www.justbeetles.com racing effort.

Time to get my hands dirty...bye for now!