Whoops!

we just received this picture of the ex-Paul Knight squareback, which took a dive into some bushes trying to avoid an oncoming lorry. we're told it's soon to be repaired... let's hope so!

eye candy

see anything you like? i do!

Car crash!

OK, so not really, but Mark Schley of the famous Schley Brothers drag racing team from the 1970s had time to fool around for the camera when he should have been helping brother Paul build the new Lightning Bug. That's Mark on the right...

push me, pull you!

check out the metalwork involved in this double-fronted Split... insane!

Amazing home-made films!

How about these amazing stop-frame film deals!

VW shows on Google maps!

VW shows are now on google maps. check out the location, get directions or even scope out the area for a nearby campsite!

thanks to VZi's Dezz for putting this together!

hillclimb 1303

this is something a bit different - racing with corners (and up a hill!)
watch for the in-car footage in the 2nd half of the clip - awesome

Some abandoned VWs for you...

Amazing what you find on the Internet late at night after a glass of wine or two...

The strangest of VWs...

Well, strictly speaking, it's not entirely VW – just the floorpan is. The Morelli M-1000 was a prototype design for Fiat and used the chassis of a 1954 Beetle, along with a Fiat 1000cc engine. It still survives and was recently on display in Turin. Amazingly, it had a Cd figure of just 0.29.

The shortest 'shorty' Bus ever?

Certainly the coolest, with its American Racing mags and that great metallic brown paint... Another pic from the KS files...

Shore thing! VW makes a great scavenger's ride!

This guy was making the news this week in his Bay-window camper as he collected wood washed up on Ramsgate shore after the Russian-registered Sinegorsk transporter ship shed its load, off the Sussex coast. We're not sure if the police are there to stop him, or just next in line with an estate car to fill with free shed-building timber!

Don't miss the Jägerbug website - better late than never!

www.jagerbug.com
following the monster build series in Ultra VW, team Jagerbug have finally completed the long awaited website. Keep it as a favourite and you can watch their progress through 2009 (with the new, big cc motor!). Watch out for an update of progress in Ultra VW, too.

Top Secret! New look for an old car…

Snapped at Ron Lummus's race shop in California - Ron Fleming (on the right) and car owner Mike Hunsaker have decided to chop the top on their Super Street race car – the one which our KS raced at Bug-In33 last year. It's on a new chassis, too, with all the latest Lummus-inspired mods. Nine-second times, here we come!

From the archives!

Just came across this photo of KS's old 'No Mercy' race car out at the preview to the Dragstermania event at Montlhery, France, back in 1991. This was only the second time out for the car, but it won its class. This early photo shows the car with the untrimmed rear fenders and old Moroso wheelie bars, plus a rather dubious oil catch-tank tucked behind an equally dubious fake US licence plate! By the end of the first season, the car had run a best of 10.08 – not too shabby for 17+ years ago.

New Old Stock BRM wheels

Somebody made a boo-boo by printing that one of the last remaining brand new, boxed sets of BRM wheels had been sold to a collector in Belgium – or was it France? Well, our man KS was right there when the deal was being done and can report that they are, in fact, in the hands of our friend and arch-enthusiast Russell Ritchie from Scotland!

KS's car slowly getting there…

Well, Keith's been doing quite a bit to his '65 Looker over the last year or so, but work has got in the way of fun, and progress has slowed a little of late! The last job was reinstalling the 2332cc motor after fitting a Berg five-speed transmission and a remote fan-assisted oil cooler. The aim is to make this a car that can be driven – a true street car with enough performance to embarass the local Barry Boys in their Novas and Scoobies.

The next job is to shave the front turn signals and fit Lucas 488 indicators – the classic Cal Look touch – followed by a review of the interior. Not made a decision on the seats yet, but KS plans to change the stockers for something a little more sporty (and in black, too). Got various ideas in mind, but nothing's written in stone. Watch this space…

Vote for your Ultra VW feature car of 2008 today!

Check out the 28-car shortlist over at www.ultravw.com

rain stops play

it was too wet to play outside today, so here's a quick pic of the car with the bodywork assembled - it does have a front-end, see!
watch out for the possibility of a more race-inspired paintjob later in the year.. ;)

testing the front end for 'bounce'...

watch out for a better quality clip soon - and some proper launches (with the bodywork replaced!)

a day on a friend's racecar..

here's what we started with. a type 3 notchback dragcar with a type 1 framehead grafted on. the problem was that the front end was solid - no travel at all! this obviously made the car skip all over the road (or track) and was just plain dangerous!
the ideal would be a nice, springy front end, which would help transfer wait to the rear on launch, which would hopefully help the car hook up rather than breaking traction as it had been...

here's the driver/owner - jolly jim warner... and that's about his entire tool collection in his hands! this is why we were there to help!

we started by removing the shocks, fearing they might be too firm or even seized, but that didn't help. so, after removing the spindles, steering etc. we could finally remove the arms - that took some brute force as they were seized solid... clearly our problem!

this beam had been narrowed about 5.5-inches - quite a lot. note also the lack of leaves.. i know that should reduce the spring rate, but it's not going to help the car land smoothly if it does end up pulling the front wheels!

leaves replaced and trimmed, bearings greased and everything freed-up, the car was re-assembled and ready for a test drive. watch out for the upcoming vid clip showing the newfound 'springiness'. new dampers really helped, too. more on that later...
oh, and we'll post a proper video of a 'street' launch as soon as the weather improves. hopefully we'll see some improvements... hopefully!

February 2009 issue out this week!

here's a sneak peek at the latest Ultra VW cover!



Check out the awesome Diamond Green ’59 Resto-Cal belonging to Grayson Price from Wales - yep, that's right, this is a UK car, not a West-Coast creation... to find out more about the latest issue or to buy a single copy online (with free postage!), click here

who is the stig?

are you still wondering who the stig is (come on, there must be a few, at least!)
click here for the full story...

2010 New Beetle

AutoBild (and many other sources) are punting possible images of the 2010 New Beetle right now. With Golf VI running gear, could we have our first 200bhp+ Newbie? Let's hope so! Note the styling changes - it's generally lower (screen height etc) and a bit tougher looking all round - general concensus here is that we like it. Let's wait and see what VW turn out for us next year...

spotted on vzi - is the worst herbie rep you've ever seen?

can you guess what it is yet?


yep, it's a nissan micra!
good spotting scotty b - that's the worst excuse for a herbie-wannabe yet! whatever next, subaru vans ;)

single port tuning - ported heads pt 1

we've been throwing around the idea of a tuned single port motor for sometime now. check out these ported single port heads. note the lip is machined down to accept a normal type gasket (in place of the copper sealing ring) and also the repositioned inlet manifold mounting points. that's a whole load of work!

more groundscraping

bodydropped t25 - awesome!

what scrubline?

now that's what i call panscraping!

new 4-lug rims

these are cool for 4-lug (post '68) VW owners...

http://www.mamotorworks.com/acvw-iron-cross-volkswagen-wheels-1-145-8505.html

ok, ok, it's not aircooled...

but i just love the modified vw touareg driven by Carlos Seinz in the current Dakar rally. check youtube for vids of this beats jumping the dunes - if only VW sold this one at the dealerships!

fully adjustable IRS springplates

OK, it's for a 911, but it wouldn't be out of the question to make it work on an IRS chassis, surely.
it's gotta be the easiest way to dial in your rear-end (!) to suit big rubber etc.

check it out
http://www.elephantracing.com/suspen...pringplate.htm

hardcore. they do a lot of cool stuff for porsche's, inc. 944 and 914s, too.

is it snowing where you are?

the pops is still using his 356 as his daily ride, even in the snow. he's glad we fixed the heaters last month now... it even demists the screen pretty well, unlike my type 3!