Peashooter drag racing

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[catbox]

[toxicavenger70]

Looks like a great time. Thanks for posting pics.

[b-man]

Love the grass roots competition and comraderie in this thread.

My very first foray into racing was with a car similarly equipped to the more stock entries, a 1961 sunroof bug given to me at age 15 with a seized 1964 1500 bus engine by my father. Before I could drive it I had to rebuild that 1500 that burned one rod bearing after being run low on oil. After having the heads professionally rebuilt and replacing/refurbing only what was necessary, still retaining the original 83mm P&C set i got it assembled and running again in time to get my drivers license at age 16.

Those first 1500 bus engines had heads with essentially 1500 ports and 40 hp valves and no cam bearings, it was equipped with a 28-PICT carb and big cap vacuum distributor. I had a newly rebuilt stock ‘61 transaxle that of course had the 4.375 R&P and the nice 1.32 3rd gear used up through 1966. I installed solid transaxle mounts, I had drag racing on my mind.

Running 1200/1300 gearing along with the light weight early body made for a quick little 1500 bug. The only real performance mods were a 4 into 1 extractor I found orphaned hanging on the wall of a speed shop for $15, a spun aluminum velocity stack and a 130 main jet in the 28-PICT carb.

Best time with stock 5.60-15 bias plies was 18.65 @ 68 mph. About 6 months later I threw on a pair of 13” chrome wheels with I think A60–13 bias tires to drop the gearing down. Ran 18.04 @ 72 mph, all my racing was either at a Hot VWs Drag Day or a Bug-In in 1976 at OCIR.

Back then they didn’t put 60’, 1/8 mile or reaction times on the hand written time slips, but we did know who was sleeping at the line or eating a sandwich.

The best of times.
_________________
1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

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9/24/22 PIR VW racing update

Goals, PR's, and learnings were achieved Saturday night at PIR peashooter drag racing. Here's the rundown, pictures, and videos. I'll edit in more pics and videos to this post as they come in.

- SteveMarriott, MonsterBuggy, and the FR team made it out and had a great time. Coach 67RA was not able to make it unfortunately.
- SM set a new PR in the yellow buggy
- FR2 achieved his goal of an 0.010 RT without any redlights. Consistent low RT's all evening.
- MonsterBuggy made it out again and made several clean high speed passes
- FR1 was not able to to break the car's 19.381 record but managed a 19.450.

Last week the car was feeling a little boggy so I blew out the idle and aux circuits and it cleared the problem. The 125main, 55idle, and 65aux jets felt perfect so I tried a 127.5 main and a 60idle to make it more perfect (no wide band yet so have to go by feel). Well, that didn't work and the car was actually slower and choked off the line. One theory is that the exhaust is the main constraint now and am probably getting as much air and fuel as it can use but can't get it all out before the next charge comes in. MB had some proven ideas on stock exhaust modifications that I'm going to try before the next outing in October. I ran 1.21 ratio rockers on the intakes last night and plan to run them on the exhaust if I can get the exhaust modified. I cleaned up casting defects in the exhaust ports but otherwise they're unmodified so there's room for careful improvement over the winter. The PR 19.381 was with the stock 1.1 rockers so the 1.21 rockers haven't kicked in yet again probably due to the exhaust constraint.

The car is probably getting as much air as it can use now with the stock SP manifold. I tested the SB airbox on the flow bench and it flows 4% more than the oil bath cleaner. This is probably due to the 32mm vs 30mm snorkel opening. With the SB snorkel removed, it flows 6% more than the oil bath. The oil bath air cleaner is original to the car and in perfect condition so I don't want to cut it up.

The SM yellow buggy continues to be a crowd favorite. One fan stopped by to ask questions and let SM know that people in the stands we're "losing their s___" over how fast it is and were surprised it is vw powered.

Video: MB vs FR
https://youtu.be/Tuwo1Av-GcE

SM and MB making the final main jet change prior to the record run

MB has a peashooter on the wastegate. The rules committee met and agreed this qualifies Monster Buggy as a peashooter.

FR2, MB, FR1 strategizing

[67rustavenger]

Looks like ya'll had a great time last night.
By the time I got your and SM's text. I was covered in white latex paint from refreshing the ranch entry area. It was messy.
Made it home around 7pm, thought, then unthought about going to see you fella's.

The Oct date, I'll make that one as a spectator/coach/ extra pair of hands around the pits!

I've spent the last couple days, in my free time, drinking form the EFI Fire Hose.
There's allot to learn on that subject! But the understanding is becoming clearer.
_________________
I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!

[Xevin]

I had a great road-trip down to Santa Cruz. I’ve been watching from afar. Good times. Anyone object to me racing the stock 76 EFI Westfalia? I feel he might have a couple passes in him

_________________
Keep on Busin'

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[67rustavenger]

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More 9/24/22 videos from the stands

FR2 (64mph) vs Chevy powered RX7 (126mph)
https://youtu.be/XNLEkMq4zww

SM vs Chevy
https://youtu.be/4Mem4DlN6RY

FR2 vs Dodge
https://youtu.be/NzvvnpqZ7AI

[stevemariott]

Had a great time last night with the peashooter gang at PIR!

Lots of cars last night - many vintage musclecars, some pro street vehicles, a number of modern Mopar musclecars, some mercedes, subarus, and hyundais, but only 3 VWs.

Made passes, made changes, made passes, made changes, made more passes . . .

A new best time of 13.10 @ 98mph:

Given the changes in weather, I'd say there are realistically only 1 or 2 more race nights left in the season. Super friendly crew at PIR - support your local track!
_________________
1963 Manx copy
1968 Bus

[stevemariott]

[frenchroast]

We're having epic weather this Fall in the PNW and racing is on for tonight. Getting the bug cam ready and found this video of the SM yellow buggy rocketing away from me two weeks ago.
https://youtu.be/Y6RtK7Ey8J8

[frenchroast]

10/8/22 PIR VW racing update

We had a warm, clear evening and a full moon last night at PIR. SM and FR were there with their cars and 67RA was there to hang out, enjoy the racing, and talk vdubs.

-Steve Marriott got his new shocks dialed-in and broke the 100mph barrier
-FR set a new 19.304 ET PR and a new 66.49 mph PR (on different runs)

I didn't get to the stands to take pictures or trackside videos but I did get some bug cam videos (links below). Car-wise, I made some exhaust and timing changes and went back to 1.1:1 rocker arms. I also used SM's shift light. I think it helped me hit the top of the torque curve more consistently but I've got a little learning to do still. I'll do a separate post on the exhaust changes.

There was a big turn out with long lines and lots of interesting cars including a junior dragster.

When I was ten, we were jumping our bikes off a plank not driving a dragster like this girl! Dad and Grandpa of the year award for her pit crew for sure.

Bug cam videos:
FR 19.304 ET PR run. I like the challenge of RT's, too. This is a .027 RT but the board reads it as 0.27.
https://youtu.be/62WPpoZpy8o

SM's yellow buggy speeds away. Oops - I red-lighted at -0.002.
https://youtu.be/SSLA5ox7nIY

SM vs FR in opposite lanes this time. It's fun to watch the buggy from this perspective. At 0:44 you can see the new shocks doing their job on the shift to 2nd. Got a good 0.031 RT and didn't red light this time.
https://youtu.be/M0vKXWjkl38

[frenchroast]

Here are pictures of modifications I made to my Leistritz exhaust. I'm not 100% convinced these made any difference in my ET's with my current heads (single port, 8:1 CR, .055 DH, 3 angle valve seats, stock springs), stock cam, 205T dist, and stock manifold. MB did say he saw a 5hp increase on the dyno just by opening up the 1/3 inlets and flared tailpipes though. I took it a step further and opened up the 2/4 perforations as well. In my case, I think bumping the total advance from 29° to 32° was the biggest factor last night, not the exhaust changes. Also, no observable change between resonator and non-resonator tailpipes. The peashooter exhaust challenge has almost run it's course and the header on my shelf is probably going on next year.

Summary:
- the Leistritz exhaust tubes are not equal length. Does this matter? Were they purposefully designed this way for some super scientific reason or was it just more economical? I don't have an answer on that. The 1/3 length including heater box is 27" and 2/4 up to the perforated chamber is 17".
- the exhaust is one big chamber, no tubes flowing from one chamber to another like a 911 exhaust.
- the perforations are plain, punched holes
- the question I had is does the stock exhaust hold back flow in favor of sound quality and torque? The goal I had was to open up the flow but not negatively affect torque or make the sound too terrible. Without a dyno, my only way to judge this was by my 60ft and 1/8 and 1/4 mile times. Even then, too many factors to know for sure.
- the 1/2 and 3/4 tubes have different perforation surface area. Not knowing if this was by design, I tried to keep the differential the same when opening up the perforations.
- the classic fweem sound is still there when running tailpipes with resonators and it's overall not much louder.

1/3 inlet before and after. These inlets are ~31mm long and have 20 4mm holes each. I couldn't drill the holes so I put a 12mm hold in the end and used a chisel to open up the seams giving it the same approximate opening area as drilling out the holes to 6mm.

Each 2/4 exhaust port had a perforated chamber with 18-5mm holes on each side front and back (72 holes total). I drilled these out to 7mm.

My junior high school geometry is a bit rusty and if I can read my scribbled notes correctly, this increased the total perforation surface area from 1933 sq mm to 3102 sq mm or 38%. The differential between 1/3 and 2/4 was still ~33%. I should reread the notes and re-do these numbers.

[67rustavenger]

[frenchroast]

[Xevin]

What day is the next race you all plan on attending?
_________________
Keep on Busin'

[67rustavenger]