Shiftin' Ghia 1974 Coupe VWDRC.

[RUSS74GHIA]

Hi,

Newbie here, thought I'd introduce myself. Actually scrap that, this isn't chat, I'd rather introduce the car.

This is Shiftin' Ghia. The name was originally tongue in cheek as she ran a 1641 motor and ran the 1/4 in mid 18's, but following an engine failure and a 360 spin on the motorway a few months later, she's a bit racier and more likely to live up to her name.



This pic is a couple of years old. It was taken at National Finals at Santa Pod fresh from a semi-resto and engine rebuild.

Here's the spec:
Front suspension
Balljoint
3" Narrowed beam
Adjusters - set to approx. 6" drop
Anti bump-steer bushes
Empi short oil shocks
3 sets castor shims
ARB deleted

Rear suspension
IRS
Stock height.
KYB Gas shocks
Type 2 snubbers

Trans
AM code IRS 4.375 R&P
Eurethane nose mount
Internediate strap
Solid rear mount
Kennedy Stage 1 cover
Uprated disc

Motor
1915cc
Stock VW 69mm crank
94mm Mahle pistons
Balanced bottom end
Match-weighted pistons/pins/rods
Engle W-125 cam
1.25:1 rockers
CB double springs
35.5x40 valves
Flowed VW 043 heads
9.3:1 CR
Uprated guides.
Remote filter
1 5/8 merged header
Custom stainless twin silencer
Dual 40 DRLA, 34 vents
Custom breather
Facet Silver Competition Pump
8mm lines, Holley regulator & gauge.

Wheels & tyres
Fr. 4" Steels, 125/80 Continental
Rr. 5" Early thin-lip Rivieras, 6Wx26 Phoenix slicks

Brakes
Stock Disc/Drum
Line-lock

Body
One piece fibreglass flip front with cantilevered hinge mech
Wraparound indicators deleted, Mini replacements
Bumpers deleted.
Custom one piece rear clip, 71-72 tail lights
Removable rear valence
Shaved trim
Pacific Blue

Interior
Kirkey ali seat
Sparco steering wheel
8pt cage built to 8.50, tagged to 10.00
VDO tacho, oil press & oil temp gauges
Coil,regulator & battery relocated to rear seat/luggage area
Rear seat platform deleted
Wiper, washer, horn deleted.

Performance
16.01, however this was with a fuel issue as off the gas at 1000ft.
Estimated 125bhp@fly, made 115bhp before fuelling dropped-off.
Now that the fuelling has been resolved with the larger lines I'm estimating 15.50 @ 84mph, but with other mods since then this could possibly be less. Probable 0-60 8.0 secs

I'm entered into VW Sportsman at Bug Jam this weekend, so hopefully some last minute tweeks and testing.

[david58]

NICE

[juki48]

nice ghia! can you tell us more about the rear clip? never seen one before!

[RUSS74GHIA]

nice ghia! can you tell us more about the rear clip? never seen one before!

Thanks. You've never seen one before because it's a one-off

When I had the accident, all 4 corners were damaged. As the cost of panels for Ghias is high I had to be clever or the car was going to be unsavable.

I sourced a flip front and as luck would have it the guy had a pair of rear wings that he threw in. These rear wings were for a KG kit car that would be assembled around a bug floorpan. As such they were really heavy, twice the weight of a steel wing. They were full wings B-pillar to tail-light, and were full width, ie included the decklid recess.

So, my bodyshop laid a replacement decklid over the wings and attached it all together, then took a mould off that. This created a buck/mould for the rear clip. The new one weighs a little more than a standard steel decklid, and the lights are all connected by a trailer plug/socket. (you can see that to the right of the engine bay in the second to last picture). It attaches on 2 pins that you can just see coming out of the rear engine tray members, the top edge is located on BMW bonnet sliders. With the removable valence, engine removal is a doddle. I had the motor out last week to refit the header, and had it back in place while my coffee was still hot.

The shop still has the mould should anyone need rear clip made

[sideshow]

Wow, never seen a race car style removable rear done so nice and kept the engine compartment seal.

[RUSS74GHIA]

Wow, never seen a race car style removable rear done so nice and kept the engine compartment seal.

Cheers.

Cutting it up was the easy bit, getting it back together being functional, practical and tidy was the challenge for the shop.

[FJCamper]

Hi Russ74Ghia,

You have a really impressive race car.

I know the rear clip catches everybody's attention (and should) but I like your engine. Very sensible collection of parts, and I know they have to be working together well.

Tell me about your fuel delivery problem, and your engine breather system.

Thanks, and again, you have a beautiful Ghia.

FJC

[RUSS74GHIA]

Hi Russ74Ghia,

You have a really impressive race car.

I know the rear clip catches everybody's attention (and should) but I like your engine. Very sensible collection of parts, and I know they have to be working together well.

Tell me about your fuel delivery problem, and your engine breather system.

Thanks, and again, you have a beautiful Ghia.

FJC

Hi FJC, and thanks for the compliments.

The motor has been put together to give a modest hike in performance without costing the earth to either build or maintain (no 1.4 rockers, FK cams, interstellar CR etc), and to be streetable if required. It ran consistent 16.2s @ 80mph all through the 2009 season.

The fuel issue wasn't exactly an issue as such. I ran a similar spec motor previously with a W-120 cam, 8:1 CR and a single 40DRLA, this ran with the stock 1/4" main fuel line and facet cube pump, and it worked well. The newer motor was struggling with power runs at the dyno, with pressure dropping-off at high rpm.
On the track my 60' & 1/8 mile times were vastly improved, getting into the 2.0s & 9's respectively for the first time. The problem was that the carbs were emptying at about 1000ft, which still netted a PB of 16.01 (from 16.16 on the old set-up) despite being off the pedal for about 300', so the upgrades were working much better than anticipated. The diagnosis was volume delivery, so the cube was swapped-out for the silver-top, and the main line upgraded to 8mm, also plumbed the carbs in parallel rather than series.

The breathing is very simple. A 1ltr can with 4x1/2" unions, 2 from the rockers, 1 to the fuel pump block-off and 1 to the stock oil-filler baffle. There are 2 x 3/4" mini filters for venting. It's not baffled and the fuel pump and filler connections simply act as returns when off the power. It suits this application well, not sure how it would cope with anything more than 15 seconds full throttle in a straight line though . I'll upgrade the unions on the breather and remote oil filler to AN fittings over the winter, just for added security.

Russ.

[RUSS74GHIA]

And here she is from this weekend at Bug Jam, Santa Pod sporting her new decals.

Shame I didn't get to run, fly has come loose and damaged the crank

[Chris V]

If that thing isn't too heavy it could easily be in the 14's once sorted, what are you dealing with for weight? Thought about some 90/10 front shocks?

My old`77 Beetle with 7.6:1, stock-valve 1775cc, ran 15.6 @84 w/3.875 on 195/60s. Then I moved to a combination just-about like yours is layed-out, but in a `67 and went 14.2 w/stock gears on radials...I've heard of guys in the 12's on stock main fuel line.

How do you like that exhaust note? Looks sharp!

[RUSS74GHIA]

Unfortunately Chris these things aren't very light.

A good buddy of mine has a 1776cc bug with a mid-tune, and it runs consistent low 15's. He weighs in at 670kg.
Mine has had a fair amount of metal removed, but with the 8pt cage it still tips-in at 803kg.

Over the winter I'm going to cut the inner-wings back to the rear tank flange mount, remove the last small part of the rear seat support and the rear shelf. I'll also trim back some of the door skins and replace some of the glass with lexan/margard.

[Chris V]

803kg is 1770lbs...which happens to be what my `67 weighed, w/me in it.

100lbs is supposed to be worth something like a 0.1-0.4 sec in reduced ET.

[RUSS74GHIA]

803kg is 1770lbs...which happens to be what my `67 weighed, w/me in it.

100lbs is supposed to be worth something like a 0.1-0.4 sec in reduced ET.

Now add 192lbs for little old me.........

[RUSS74GHIA]

So the rebuild is underway.

The 69mm crank was damaged beyond repair. The dowels had pulled so severely that I couldn't use oversize ones.

I was offered a used stock 69mm crank, but after I's priced-up the cost if first grind, 8-dowelling I decided to use that to offset the cost of a 76mm counterweight crank giving me 2109cc. I could have gone for a 74mm crank giving 2054cc, but the 76mm was cheaper.

This way I can still use all my existing components - Case, B&Ps, rods, heads, cam, rockers, carbs etc. Had a gone for a longer crank I would have found my heads & carbs to small, and if I replaced those, I would have found myself paying for another cam, rockers and probably B&Ps.

I'm going to raise the CR slightly from 9.3 to 10:1 as this will still be in keeping with my head/carb/rocker/cam combination.

I'm hoping this will keep me neck and neck with my good friend Dean with the 1776 bug who recently ran it down to 15.1 with a 1.97 60ft.

[RUSS74GHIA]

Here's my Facebook group if anyone would like to join.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/227502126922/