A quick VW split windows Bully

[MrHijet]

I just saw a nice video of the Type 1 VW Bus from the Switzerlands.

I know it's in German, but that picture says everything.



and a second drivers view only video:



Cheers,

Daniel

[bruce]

That ain't right!! LOL Can you imagine being those other drivers he passed? ???

"Gee Joe, I got passed by a VW bus . . . I don't know what happened!!"

[slracer]

That is too cool! When I worked for VW (local dealer in Kansas in 1961-64), they weren't quite that quick. I drove a 36hp double cab pickup to another dealer to pick up an engine and a headwind slowed me down 20mph (and it was already slow). :O Thanks for posting! -- Doug

[106-1194218389]

Boy Doug,
You give me De-Ja-Vu all over again. I had a 65 VW that should have had a 40HP in it and somebody had put a 36 hp engine in it. I worked in an auotmotive machine shop that specialized in VW aircooled engines.

I rebuilt it using a Porsche cam, Okrasa dual port heads with webers, a header and fly cut the heads .125" inch. For a 36 hp it was fast. I sold the heads and carbs off of it for way more than I was in the whole car.

John

[106-1194218389]

Here is a link to show what I had and it was Solex carbs not Webers. After I saw the link I remembered better. That is one reason the setup brought so much money was it was a complete excellent kit.

John

[racehead-1]

[color=#000000]I know that the type1 VW with the 2000cc motor, with the right cam, carb and of course with ported heads, the the American muscle cars couldn

[106-1194218389]

In the mid '70's we were sand drag racing and had a little a/fuel dragster powered by an aircooled VW engine. I looked like a mini-top fuel dragster and everybody said it would never work. We called it the "Bench Racer" because everybody also said we were dreamers and never did anything.

Went to Bakersfield, California in 1977 and set a new national record right off the trailer. In 100 yards on the sand the record was 3.71 seconds and we went 3.48 seconds at 107mph.

We ran Hilborn injectors, 90% nitro and lots of compression. We were one of the first to try a 2 speed trans.

John

[200cfm]

Wow, that was a top fuel sand run!

[106-1194218389]

That was just an a/fuel, lower than top fuel. I did the engines on a Top Fuel Funny Car Jeep for a while. We ran a Rodeck all aluminum Chevy with a blower etc. and dual paddle tires.

That car ran 2.85 seconds in a 100 yards on sand. He would finish the run before the sand from the rooster tail was coming down. It was awesome racing!

[106-1194218389]

this is not anything I have to do with, just a stock photo from the internet. I just wanted you to see how fun they are.
John

[106-1194218389]

Here is the current record for the class we were running in a/fuel.

A/Fuel dragster, ran a record setting 2.768
e.t. @ 115.00 mph

John

[MrHijet]

Wow,

As I see there are many VW experiences here. The Okrasa Stuff are very very rare, but still one on the most loved accessories. The Dragster is breath taking!

Cheers,

Daniel

[WPH]

[106-1194218389]

On this engine we had an Okrasa stroker and 90 mm bore to get thicker cylinders. We had small block Chevy Crower rods. Of course we had good case inserts to give the more area to hold the studs in.

On the heads, we made a special fly cutter to do a circular bevel cut so it would be similar to a Hemi but with squish. We had special pistons made to match the head. Welded the ports up both intake and exhaust to move the ports some.

We had a VW Vertex Mag on it. We made a starter that we could just twist to lock in place, start the engine and then remove the starter. The mag was locked at full advance and that turned out to be a problem as we blew the heads and cylinder up right in my face. I was very lucky and did not sustain permanent damage to me, although I could not hear crap for a week. That prompted us to make a mechanical retard for starting and then once started cranked back to full advance and that solved the problem. We also made a girdle to squeeze the heads and help them stay on.

The first time we ran the dragster we spun the flywheel off. If you are familiar with the air cooled VW you know they had one big gland nut and dowel pins to hold flywheel on. We ended up having heat treat removed from crank, machining the flywheel end to accept a bolt on crank flange. We welded the flange on and ground the crank. Then we went it back and had the heat treat redone. They did not offer bolt on flange cranks at the time.

Trans was a late model bus one with the removable bell housing. We made a special stainless steel input shaft that was longer so we could move the engine away from the trans so we could suck the tires in closer to the frame rails. We had to make a special tube to run between the bell housing and trans for the extension. Then in the trans we used Webster gears, like Hewland Trans dog clutch gears. We modified the dog clutches by grinding the front edge straight vertical and a bevel on the trail edge so we could shift full throttle no clutch but as long as we had power applied it would stay in gear. Had a small block Chevy valve spring to shift trans. Would cock the trans and slide a small slider plate under the mechanism to hold in low gear. We had a pneumatic shifter we made using a solenoid to pull the slide out when we hit the trigger and it would shift full throttle no clutch. It was a two speed. The trigger mechanism was just that, a trigger setup from a CO2 BB gun. And our air bottle was a CO2 cartridge. It lasted two runs.

We won Best engineered car at that Bakersfield race where we set the record. I think it was 1977. Things sort of melt together when you get older.

John

[WPH]

What was the girdle like? Did you use extra head studs?