Why Road Race a Karmann Ghia?
Porsche did not want VW to build a sports car that might compete with the 356, and VW owed Porsche royalties, so contractual agreements was central between these two legally separate but historically related companies. Porsche did not want VW building a discount Porsche. Treading lightly, when VW introduced the Ghia in 1955, it ran no ads for the sporty-looking car for six years. The truth was, the 356 Porsche engine and brakes bolted right up to the Ghia. Slap a set of Porsche factory-option Konis (also interchangeable) on that upgrade and you could ambush a 356 at will.
We race a Ghia to prove it can hold its own against the so-called "real" sports cars, including the 356's. Even if the Ghia was despairingly called the Common Coupe instead of Karmann Coupe in the 1960's. The Ghia got no respect until Car & Driver magazine discovered it in 1972.
Our Ghia's Details & Specs
We have a stripped out 1970 Ghia with a six-point roll bar. The brakes are upgraded to disks all around, aftermarket VARGA copies of the original 1972 OEM dual 40mm piston ATE's, and stock except for braided steel brake lines and Porterfield AP-30 R4 (full race) pads. No hand brake. 20.6mm "disk brake" master cylinder. Drilled rotors in front and solid in the rear. We use Wilwood 570 fluid, but DOT 4 works for us just as well. Our Ghia is a sprint racer.
The wheels are 5.5x15 steel, classic VW and 356 Porsche design, held down with 14mm studs and 19mm ball-seat open-ended lug nuts. Our tires are race-only Hoosier Speedsters, 185x65's. For rain we use 185-60 street radial Falkens.
Shocks are Koni adjustables (hard-medium-soft) on a suspension where all the rubber has been replaced by urethane. Torsion bars, front and rear, are stock. The front sway bar is 19mm and the rear 16mm, both nonadjustable. We do use a quick steer kit, front axle tube spacers to add caster, and no drop spindles or adjustable spring plates. The 185 tires lower us just enough.
There are racers and there are waxers. The Ghia has to shine as bright as the rest of them. This photo was taken the night before the race.
We do have an 8-gallon FIA-sanctioned fuel cell and twin electric fuel pumps, a hand-held fire extinguisher, quick release steering wheel and a fiberglass dash cover with a big 8000 RPM AutoMeter tach, VDO oil temp and pressure gauges, and bright warning lights for oil pressure and fan belt. Being a race car, we also use an engine hour meter and a wide multi-panel NASCAR style rear view mirror. The door mirrors are the classic bullet type and need convex lenses to be useful.
Finally, we use a ProComp 3.88 transaxle, a 3-gallon dry sump oil system, a cheap quick-shift adapter on a stock lever, a lightweight plastic rear window, no side glass, and a strong transmission girdle. All this comes to about 1800 lbs or less. The doors are hollow, the driver's seat is aluminum.
Our engine for this race is a stock 1600 mag case with forged 85.5mm pistons, chromoly stroker I-beam rods, 74mm stroke, and an Engle 120 cam on 1.25 lift rockers. The heads are hand ported AJ Sims specials, with 40x35 valves at 9.5:1 compression. The carbs are 44IDF Webers on 36mm venuris.
The Ghias' markings. In honor of our 2007 XXth aniversary run in the 2000-mile Carrera Panamerica in which we finished 3rd overall in Historic A class in a 1965 silver Ghia, our 1970 Ghia carries la Carrera markings. The Made In Hueytown decal is an inside joke. Back in the 1970's, when I was with Brumos Porsche in Florida and Brumos was factory supported, we ran a Made in Jacksonville decal on a few of our cars.We were treated like parts changers by the factory, and the Made in Jacksonville logo was our bit of rebellion.
16May19; Thr. 1300 hrs.
HSR Show & Tell for the kids at Glenwood Autism and Behavioral Center. Five HSR cars display, including us. Barret and Jamie sign caps for the kids, let them sit in the Ghia and generally act like celebrities to the crowd. The kids love it. The most touching thing is how the kids who have some ability escort those around who have less. Then we tow to Barber and go through registration in the late afternoon.
Vintage open-wheel cars were on every tier. Barret learned to give them space. They can stop really quick.
17May19; Fri.
The weather is clear and hot. The event officially begins. We miss our 0800 practice session going through tech, because the schedule was off and there was no tech Thursday night. This is not good. Every minute on the track counts. At Barret's request, Jamie adjusts the Ghia's brake master cylinder push rod out a millimeter for shorter pedal travel.
Barret takes the Ghia out for our second practice session after lunch. The 1699 engine now feels underpowered to him and was unable to exceed 6000 rpm, somehow now weaker than it had been at the Talladega Gran Prix track day back on March 14th where it had easily run to 6400.
At about 1130 hrs, near the end of the practice session, the a cylinder bank's rocker arm assembly shaft broke in two at the exhaust-end stud mount. The chromoly stud itself snapped off there as well. We're both bummed and puzzled. At Talladega, the rocker arm assembly, same side, had literally worked itself loose unscrewing on one stud. We'd replaced both rocker assemblies and put two hours on them with no further problems. On Friday night, Jamie makes the repairs.
Retro Racing paddock on the third tier
18May19; Saturday. 0730 hrs.
The morning is clear. We have the Ghia fueled and ready. Barret is suited up and on track for practice by 0800. The engine is running strong, the brakes are good, the clutch is good. Oil temps and pressure are good. We realize we're giving up some power by using a cherry bomb style muffler instead of our usual stinger. The muffler which was a gesture towards Barber's noise limits. Everybody is louder than us. Now it's too late to change.
The 44IDF Webers setup is same as Little Talladega: 36mm venturis, 160 mains, 200 airs, F11 emulsion tubes, and .50 idles
My stars and little comets. Near the end of the session, our 009 distributor begins to pound up and out of its billet clamp, and the engine begins misfiring, but Barret is able to drive back to our paddock.
Valve adjustment check shows OK on both banks. On further inspection, we discover the distributor will not stay engaged with the drive, no matter what clamp type or different 009 distributor we use. We pull the spring and distributor drive gear, expecting to find worn distributor tang engaging slots, and discover there is only one drive gear washer. So we add a washer and refit the shortest of our spare springs. The engine now starts and runs normally and the distributor stays down -- for now.
Doing this detective work, we have missed our after before lunch 2nd practice session of the day and with any further delay, we would to miss the after lunch one hour enduro. A plug check shows bone white danger-lean burning. We discover we do not have the Weber jet kit at the track (my fault) and the carbs are so dangerously lean on 160 mains we decide to forgo it all until tomorrow.
18May19; Sunday
The day dawns cool but matures soon after sunrise to sunny and hot. (85° - 90° F) Jamie gets the Ghia out of the trailer, jet stacks removed, and fuel tank topped off. Barret and I arrive at 0900 hrs and I rejet the Webers to 170 mains and .55 idles.
Just warming up, we see the distributor is still trying to lift. The stock stamped type clamp's 6mm screw is stripped. We have one old used OEM clamp, a hammer, and after considerable blacksmithing, get the distributor resecured. We now have a 6400 RPM Bosch rev limiter in the 009 after discovering our other OEM Bosch rotors don't fit down far enough. TP is 20-24 psi on the Hoosier Speedsters.
The HSR Vintage Production field (VP1 to VP7) making up Group 2 is big. Our Ghia is VP5. There is only one other VP5 car, a 1959 MGA Roadster, besides us. The rest are Porsches, Coopers, Elvas, Lolas, other MG's, Triumphs, Sprites, a Lotus 15 and Europa, BMW 2002, an Austin Healey Sebring Coupe, Alfa Sprint Zagota and Spyder, even a Corvair Yenko Stinger. The only VW other than us was a Rabbit GTI.
The Group 2 race begins at 1030 hrs. It is a sprint, intended to last no more than a half hour. Barret was gridded last, because we had no qualifying times. When the green flag goes down, Barret charges hard. The Ghia has good power. but Barret is feeling the rear tire pressures (24 psi cold) are too much and the rear end is a little tail-happy. Still, the Ghia is much faster through the mid-track hairpin than our Falken high performance street radials would be
The Ghia passes the various exotica marques one and two at a time. It might be some owners of these beautifully restored race cars are afraid to really go balls out and break something, or maybe a high percentage of them are just less than average drivers. Whichever, the Ghia is cutting deeply into the pack by the third or forth lap, VW's sporty car against Europe's "real" sports cars.
Then a yellow Lotus Elan gets hit by the Rabbit GTI, spins and smashes into a wall, crashing hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guz7yin6ya4
From our paddock on Tier 3, all we can see over the treetops and shrubbery are the yellow flags and emergency vehicle lights. What happened, and who did it happen to? Was it us? The announcer is saying the black flag is out and all the cars are to come in. These are long, quiet painful moments. The pennants on the race tower snap in the breeze.
I finally catch a glimpse of our silver and red Ghia as the cars regroup down on the grid. We're still in the race. That's a relief. It's 90 F. now in the sun. Our oil temps on track before the black flag were 220ø- 240ø F. Barret idled all the way through the reorganization, and the Ghia with no oil fan saw 260ø F (or more) after the restart. We still had a fighting chance. The distributor had stayed planted, the brakes were great, and the clutch was great.
As the race restarted, Barret went for win or break. We are held back by two major things, our 6400 RPM rev limiter, and the "cherry bomb" style muffler we have fitted. Barret is bouncing off the rev limiter in third gear of course, and a couple of times in 4th. 6400 RPM in 4th with our tires and gearing is about 125 MPH. The muffler was severely hampering our top end. We'd used it this time just to stay within Barber's decibel levels. Big deal, there were Minis out there louder than us.
Then Barret ran up behind a rolling roadblock. A vintage rally Volvo 544 was trapped behind a British racing green Sprite. Barret was faster than either one, but the Sprite was all over the track, and Barret and the Volvo were in each other's way trying to get around him. We would discover later our transponder failed and we registered no official times, but we ran with the Sprite who was clocked at 1:59. For our class of cars, 1:59 is good, but average in class. We have to estimate our Ghia was running somewhere in the 1:5x times. The 356 did a 2:01. The 912 (which broke down before this last Group 2 race), ran a 2:05 in qualifying.
Then, too soon, the checkered flag was suddenly out and our race was over. A Lotus Super 7 timed at 1:45 for best lap won.
Back in the paddock, the Volvo driver ran over to congratulate Barret as Jamrod did a plug check. 170 was the right main jet size. We had burned a nice even tan.
The racing gremlins had tried to pull us down but we overcame and put our little Common Coupe into the fray and it gave as good as we got. Now all we need a "Yes This is A Real Sports Car" bumper sticker.
