Sportsman

Bye Bye Rookie Hello Quater Pounder

Steve Parfitt — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:19:01 +0000

Well time has come to start the evolution from rookie to Pro car with the engine back in the hands of Daz at Aircooled Performance.

The gearbox sold to Craig Allen and all four corners off with a stance rejig, the front now houses disc brakes with stock spindies and 10 spoke ET'S with MH front runners, the rear now has T3 drums and 6" erco's with Phoenix slicks, between the wheels there is a pro drag ex Paul Hamilton ex Glynn Morgan box.

The engine will have a CB dial a tune fuel injection with a SA2 turbo and custom header all done by Daz's fair hand, with a digital 6 MSD unit supplying the 2 step launch I should get in to the early 11's fingers crossed with a possible 300bhp on tap.

The shell has been flatted off ready for paint and the doors have been sign written as you can see I've got my work cut out but hopefully it will be ready for the VolksWorld show in March.

Here's some pics...

Introducing VWSP163 - Shiftin' Ghia

Russ Weir — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:40:12 +0000

Well hello everyone.

As a new member I thought I'd kick things off by introducing myself & my car.

My name's Russ & I live in Gillingham, Kent. I've been into VWs most of my life, but didn't own one until 3 years ago.

I joined Harvey Smith (VWSP162) as his 'pit-bitch' at Big Bang 2007 and was totally hooked, so I have him to thank, but also the camaraderie amongst the other racers was clearly evident. The easy entry & low cost of Sportsman has been the main appeal, and I will be keeping a full financial account of this 2008 'Rookie' season to demonstrate this.

So, the car. Her real name is Miranda, but when the stinger's bolted on she'll be known as Shiftin' Ghia. She's a LHD 1974 Karmann Ghia Coupe, originally a 1500. She's fairly stock. Engine-wise, there's a 'TES' 1641cc unit using a new case/B&P's/heads etc. Bolted to this is a 36DRLA, 009, 8mm leads, breather kit, Empi exhaust and I'm hoping Santa shops at Pertronix and sends me electronic ignition.
As far as the body is concerned, she had some light resto work this year; a heater channel, sill, wheel-arch and rear wing repairs. The front end is balljoint with discs, sitting on a -1" to -5" adjustable beam with 2 sets of castor shims. A 3" narrowed, -1" to -5" beam is currently sitting in my back garden awaiting fitment, together with anti-bumpsteer bushes.

She wears 4 early Riviera wheels which are 5x15", covered with 135/70 Continentals up front and 195/65 at the back, however I'm awaiting delivery of some 185/70 Fuldas to allow a little more clearance as I want to lower her a couple of inches at the back.

Inside she's totally stock save a dash-fitted tacho. I'll be pulling out the seats for a little weight saving when I'm racing though, together with the bumpers and decklid (+spare wheel & jack!).

Oh, and I'll be over the moon if I get an 18, I'll reward my fellow competitors with the contents of my beer stash if this happens.

Here's to a great 2008!

Update - Race stickers have arrived from Slook Designs. I'm very happy with the results

ok it's time I started to blog again

Polly Naylor — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:28:36 +0000

RNJ motorsport has finally moved so work can start on the wizard project again :D

the tube bender we ordered seemed to take forever to arrive but now it's here we can get on to it.

Hopefully it will be done by mid January so I can shake it down in Feb at the RWYB at Santa pod.

there are plenty of build pics here

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v290/polly75/wizard/

will keep you updated :)

Chasing Numbers....

Abi Tether — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:02:23 +0000

STILL Can't find a 16...

Went to Open Sports nationals looking for the ever elusive 16, and came away without one, but got as close as we've been yet on the track.

Managed to run a 17.02 on my first run out in qualifying on Saturday, which was nice, except we'd dialled a 17.5! haha!

Y Then, as these things happen, the harder we pushed, the further away we got., but I also managed to cut some 0.0n lights which was a good feeling.

Then came VW Action and the USB Vs. BWA shootout, we'd taken some extra measures (including a splash of some 'Cool Blue') to get us closer to the 16s, but in the end, the headwind proved to be our undoing, only managing fairly consistent 17.2's, although I managed a PB 60' time of 2.18s

So onward to the National Finals, lets pray for good weather (and a slight tailwind).

Project Rookie - Early Season Review

Steve Parfitt — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:07:05 +0000

Well after an early exit from my first round it was time to head to Shakespeare County Raceway for the Spring Speed festival.

Click To Enlarge
Pic By Gwynn

Two full days of qualifying and one day of eliminators, with the threat for rain on Sunday night through to Monday meant we had a non stop schedule which was very hard on the car due to the fact that I had no cooling on the car!

Click To Enlarge
Pic By Gwynn

So day one was fantastic I was number one qualifier after the first run!!! I was still there at the end of day one, what a result. Day two looked good, I was in a good position but others were upping their game, pushing me down to 3rd, all was not lost however as after a little tune up I managed to run a personal best of 13.3 at 100.05 mph.

Click To Enlarge
Pic By Gwynn

Unfortunately the bad weather came early and qualifying was rained off Sunday evening. Monday saw more bad weather an the eliminator rounds were also called off, but every cloud has a silver lining with no eliminators the qualifying positions were kept as the final result great!!

At least the car's looking good, as evidenced by this excellent picture and video taken at Santa Pod!

Click To Enlarge

Out For The Season

Chris Bray — Sun, 13 May 2007 18:01:58 +0000

Look like I'm out for the year :(

Exactly a year and a day after the last one :(

Thanks for a great start to the season, sadly it doesn't look like I'm gonna be at any more races.

Taken from http://www.chrisbray.co.uk

Front wings trial fitted

Ben Pascoe — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:22:06 +0000

Bolted the front wings on this morning as it's the easiest way to store them:D

the body is sitting flat on the pan now and i just need a hand to get it in position to bolt down:D

And some more

Ben Pascoe — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:06:31 +0000

few more updates, it's far too cold to work on the car at the moment, just making some adjustments to the body mounts so the pan can be bolted to the body

The Story So Far

Ben Pascoe — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:03:54 +0000

Here goes

The plan is to build a street/strip bug with a 1776cc normally aspirated, fire breathing mousr motor and 'built' box. it will be built to full MSA spec so i can run in the VWDRC 'Pro' class which has an index of 12.99 or quicker. there will be no flip front and the car will have all the road equipment such as wipers and lights. It will run a full 6 point cage and be a 2-seater. I live 50 miles away from santa pod, this is the driving distance i have given myself in this car ;D I also weigh 15 stone, I am also planning to loose a few pies to aid my targets!!

I've already collected some parts for the project such as, a pair of hoosier quick times, NOS 145 XZX's,Jamar Hydraulic pedal assembly, vertex magneto and pro-control.

The car will run race weight ERCOs, Standard width beam and drums all round for the moment.

Toyo Tyres Offer Sportsman VW Contingency Sponsorship

Chris Bray — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:50:12 +0000

As reported recenly on Eurodragster and Toyo Tyres website Toyo have offered up £25,000 of contingency sponsorship for UK drag racers, including our own VW Sportsman class!

Toyo are offering £300 to the winner and £150 to the runner-up in all seven rounds of the UK Championships at Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceways.

I've spoken to Paul Cowland at Toyo today who confirms that the prize money will be availiable to entrants in VW Sportsman running Toyo decals on (a minimum of) both sides of the car (contact me for details of obtaining these) and using 4 (four) Toyo tyres, DRR slicks or Proxes T1R, T1S or R888 street tyres.

Excellent news I think we all agree :D