1756 to 1835 in 1978

[b-man]

The year was 1978, I was 18 years old. I was building an 1835 using the heads, crank and rods from my previous hot VW engine.

I wanted a bigger engine than the 90x69 1756 I had completed in the summer of ‘77 just after graduating high school. A new ISS 90mm piston/cylinder set, some ISS racing rods (heavier copy of a stock 1600 rod), a 69mm welded counterweighted crank and a line bored case already bored for the 90mm barrels were all sourced from European Parts Warehouse on PCH in either Redondo or Huntington Beach, been too long to remember exactly. One stop shopping at its best, I bought the new 1600 dual ports already bored for the 90mm barrels as well.

The 1756 was equipped with my own home-ported brand-new dual port heads that retained the original 35.5/32mm factory valves. The heads were flycut by .100” and I did my best to unshroud the valves as evenly as I could by eyeballing. I never cc’d them, compression was around 9.5:1 I figured at the time.

An Engle 110 cam I picked up slightly used for $18 at a swap meet, some stock 1.1:1 rockers on solid bolt together shafts, chrome moly pushrods and new Engle lifters rounded out the valvetrain. I scraped together a pair (a $5 used one and a $75 new one) of 40DCN-14 3-bolt Weber carbs (32mm venturies), $45 new manifolds from Tayco and early angle iron hammer-tone blue painted Gene Berg fan shroud mounted linkage. Dual Webers for my first hot VW engine, the only way to go I thought.

The low-buck exhaust was a discarded 1-3/8” competition header with J-tubes that needed the muffler flange replaced. I fitted a cone to the collector both to repair it and extend it, it sort of resembled a merged collector. Next I fashioned a twin quiet pack muffler setup long before they were available, I was able to tuck both mufflers neatly up high amost hidden under the fenders for excellent ground clearance. A cast iron Melling oil pump, full flow oil filter and a used 1.5 quart sump completed the oiling system.

The transaxle was a ‘61 with a 4.375 ring and pinion, stock 3.80/2.06 1st & 2nd with close ratio 1.48/1.04 3rd & 4th. Had a super diff with screw-in side gear retention, a heavy duty side plate and stock short axles. Bought a new set of wide-5 15” Centerline wheels that summer, 3.5” & 4.75” wide shod with 135s and 165s. Paid $44 each for the fronts and $48 each for the rear wheels through Mackenzie’s Off Road, man was I riding high with those new Centerlines which had only been introduced a few years before then.

The original front beam was modified with a Select-A-Drop, properly installed to allow a full 5” drop. The front end could still be raised up to stock height within a minute using a 90 degree lug wrench so a tow bar could be used without denting the bottoms of the fenders.

The engine and trans were installed in my stripped down ‘57 oval. With no head liner or anything else upholstery wise or any sound deadener it was a noisy tin can, the transaxle was solid mounted and I was using a homemade heavy wall square tube traction bar to support the engine case and eliminate wheel hop.

The car weighed in at a scant 1450 pounds on the scale at OCIR at one of the Bug-In events. Best time was a 14.36 at 92 mph on 165 radials and a 14.32 on some dried up M&H 6X26” slicks which were a good inch taller and surely killed a little gearing. Good enough to win a lot of street races back in the ‘77 - ‘78 timeframe, street cars running in the 13s really weren’t all that common at the time.

I wanted a little more muscle so I decided to move up to 92s and a new Engle 130 cam. At the same time I sold my old 40mm Webers and bought a brand new pair of 48IDA Weber carbs (37mm venturies) from Small Car Accessories on Sherman Way in Reseda CA, they were about $110 each. I was ecstatic. I picked up some $60 crossbar linkage from Tayco and some $50 tall Race Trim intake manifolds from Auto Haus on Sherman Way in Van Nuys. Those manifolds came with the port roofs cast a bit too high and there was almost a 1/8” step/mismatch, but that really didn’t seem to affect how it ran.

I further opened up the roofs of the intake ports on the heads to try to take better advantage of the 130 cam and 48s, so much so that I broke through in a couple of places which weren’t much more than pinholes. Nothing that a few small dabs of JB Weld wouldn’t fix, that stuff never failed me and I never had any issues for the year I ran that 1835. The heads were flycut another .040” for a total of .140”, compression guesstimate was 10.5:1. Union 76 95 octane leaded was available at the time, soon to be superseded by 93 unleaded.

Ignition was a Bosch 010 distributor set at 32 degrees total, NGK B6HS plugs and new Bosch wires.

I moved my transaxle along with my wheels and tires to a ‘66 bug that I had acquired from a high school buddy for $150, his dad bought it new and always kept up on servicing it. I wanted something with an interior of sorts, something that was quieter inside and better suited for taking girls out. It was a bit old, dirty and oxidized but otherwise it was a straight car that had close to 300k on it, the original F case 1300 ran and ran and wouldn’t die.

I used that F case for my 1835 build, not knowing that it had the smaller oil passages and pickup that aren’t favored for high RPMs or big power. The stock 1300 pump was plugged and the case tapped for full flow. What I didn’t know didn’t hurt me.

I shifted that 1835 at around 7000 from 1st into 2nd, wound out 2nd to 6800 and shifted out of 3rd at 6500, going across the finish line at close to 6000 RPM. On 165 radials (Continentals almost down to the wear indicators) it ran 13.79, 13.77 and another 13.79 with a best mph of 97.19 during time trials at the Bug-In.

I usually ran stock heater boxes for winter comfort but I swapped on the 1-3/8 competition exhaust with a stinger for drag strip events. I’m thinking this car likely weighed in at around 1550 pounds. With both the ‘57 and the ‘66 I never had a back seat or a spare tire, too much weight for daily street battles. Never ran bumpers either, maybe those aluminum T-bars some of the time.

Back when all that mattered was street racing, when all I really had of value was one car that I both raced and used for daily transportation. My best guesses for realistic horsepower would be 110 for the 1756 and close to 130 for the 1835.

Back in the late ‘70s all we had to go by were a couple of books, what we could glean from a few magazines and whatever advice we could get from the local ‘experts’, some of whom weren’t all that willing to share. I did get some good carburetor jetting advice from Bill Taylor (spot-on best I could tell, I never deviated) and showed my hatchet-job home head porting to Dick Knuss and he said I was on the right track. Tayco was a good place to go for go-fast parts and transaxle work back then for the guys I ran around with.

Common sense, ingenuity and the willingness to get your hands dirty got it done. All the older guys (in their 30s) in my VW club (California Volksmasters based in Simi Valley) told me I’d never get into the 13s with stock valve heads.

_________________
1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[QRP]

Cool story b-man
I got a few parts from that Auto Haus back in the day.

[b-man]

[Cusser]

[stevemariott]

I love stories like this. Effort, a do-it-yourself attitude, and basic hot rod parts in a lightweight car gets results. Thanks for sharing!
_________________
1963 Manx copy
1968 Bus

[horatiocaine]

B-Man
You were my guiding light/expert in those days. I still have the Italian 48 IDA's you loaned my, which I then replaced with a new set from John Pillar, I recall the set of 2 new in the box 48 IDA's to replace the ones I had borrowed, cost me less then $350. In the photo, I have on the second generation California Volksmaster's logo shirt, the 48"s on the car are the borrowed set.
Andy

[b-man]

Thanks Andy, the bond we formed as fellow VW fanatics will never be broken.

Our club in the pits at an early ‘80s Bug-In.

I’m the guy in the blue shirt.

In the staging lanes on that same day. By this time I had put together another race-only 1835 that ran in the mid-12s. Had gone back to running my lighter ‘57 oval.

Heading to the line.

At the big end against a chop-top bug.

Time slip.

In the pits seeing if anything fell off.

Pretty much all I have left of that ‘57. Hopefully someday soon I’ll find another one to try to relive those wonderful days of my youth.

_________________
1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[67rustavenger]

I'm sure that somewhere in those pics. I can be found.
I miss the old OCIR and BUG-In's. Loads of fun back in the good old day's of So. Cal vdubbin.
Fastest engine pull I ever saw was 3:05. Very impressive.

I remember one year. On the way to the track. I was passed by one of my hubcaps from my first 67

Thanks for posting these memories.
_________________
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!

[Rome]

Thanks for the recollection, engine build details and photos from that era! Also, great to learn that your home-ported stock-valve DP heads got your car in to the 13's . I'm about the same age as you, but growing up in the NorthEast I never attended a Bug-In; only followed them in the Dune Buggies & Hot VWs articles.

[b-man]

[b-man]

One of my friends from my old car club (California Volksmasters) recently posted on Facebook some pictures he took at a Bug-In our club was participating in, 1978 timeframe. I don’t often visit Facebook but a couple of old friends told me some pictures of my old car were posted in one of the Cal-Look groups there.

Was very happy to a couple of rare shots of my daily driver ‘57 getting ready to race, I was 17 or perhaps 18 years old at the time. Not many of us had decent cameras or the money for film and developing back then, I have very few pictures of the cars I built back in those days.

The car was running my trusty 1756 that consistently ran in the mid-14s. It was my only car at the time, I remember having about $2500 invested in it which included $1100 in the engine, $400 in the transaxle and $200 for the new Centerlines.

Here’s the same car right after purchasing it for the princely sum of $200 in March 1977. Pictures taken right after cleaning it up and pulling out the split case transaxle that had a broken first gear. The previous owner told me a big truck had backed into it while parked at the curb in front of his house, breaking the first gear.

I told him I was going to restore it, if he knew I was going to build a hot rod out of it I don’t think he would have warmed up to selling it at all. The car hadn’t been advertised for sale, it was just languishing in a backyard in Northridge or Chatsworth CA. Kinda one of those deals where you mustered up the nerve to knock on the door and ask if it was for sale.

I found out about the car from friends who had peeked over a backyard fence while riding their bikes through a back alley. They told me it was a split window which got me pretty excited, but finding out it was an oval window was still a fine consolation prize.

_________________
1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[b-man]

I posted most of the Bug-In racing photos of my ‘57 racing in its 12-second configuration (reference the first post in this thread) in the Facebook Cal-Look group.

Soon one of the group members responded to one of my posts saying he thinks that the same car was being stored at his friends home in Oregon. One of the tells to identify the car were the blue plexiglass side windows.

Here’s the picture he posted:

Here’s how it looked about 20 years ago when I sold it to a friend, sadly my friend died suddenly 15 years ago.

Most definitely the same car.

So it turns out that my late friend’s oldest son transported the car up to Oregon. I thought the car had been sold and lost forever.

I made contact with the current owner and negotiated a deal to buy it back.

I’ve owned many cars over the years, this was my second one ever. I’m quite lucky to have the chance to buy it back. Glad I made one of my rare visits to post some pictures on Facebook that day.

Merry Christmas to me.
_________________
1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[ArnoudH]

Now that's a cool story!

I hope you enjoy it as much as you did then.

Cheers,Arnoud

[catbox]

Very cool story indeed!

Glad you found your old car and can purchase it back to relive the fun.

Thanks for sharing.
_________________
"...these cars were preferred by the racers because the strut front suspension results in far superior handling than the regular torsion bar front end..." - Keith Seume.

[vwracerdave]

My 1st Hi-Pro engine back in the early 90's was a 1756cc. I put 574 1/4 mile passes on it and 25,000 street miles. It was still running when I sold it.

It is amazing what you can get out of stock valve ported & polished heads. Today it's just not cost effective to mess with them as you can get CNC machined 40X354 heads at a reasonable price.
_________________
2017 Street Comp Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble, OK
2010 Sportsman ET Champion - Mid-America Dragway - Arkansas City, KS
1997 Sportsman ET Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble ,OK
Featured in Dec. 2001 HOT VW's Magazine page 63

Watch my racing video's http://www.youtube.com/user/okvwracer/videos

[rbucklin]

Coolest car story I've ever read.

[b-man]

After a quick road trip to southern Oregon my high school car is now back home in So Cal. Left home at 2am on Saturday morning and returned home on Sunday at 4am. 26 hours and 1430 miles round trip, 2 hours of which were spent loading the car and getting to know the gentleman who was storing the car for his friend, the car’s owner. I did all the driving with the assistance of a few Rockstars and a Monster.

_________________
1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[Wreck]

Great story . I hope you keep us updated with what you do with it it .

[b-man]

Spent some time getting reacquainted with my old friend.

Deano tube front axle setup. This particular heavily modified 1967 floor pan was acquired from a 1967 race car, the Commonwealth Motors car from Santa Ana California. The car was being parted out and my friend scored this floor pan and rare straight tube axle setup. I’ll probably end up selling the pan and axle setup after I start transforming the car back into a street car.

Italian 48IDAs on Skat-Trak manifolds and a Joe Hunt Vertex magneto that I purchased new in 1981

12:1 1835 with welded/ported 42x35.5 German heads, FK87 cam and Gene Berg 1.4:1 ratio Swiss steel rockers. This car was never raced with the alternator setup shown.

The car has most of a nitrous oxide setup on it but was never raced with the juice on it.

Gene Berg wheelie bars, never raced with those either. My friend added a lot of neat stuff in anticipation of running the car with them but unfortunately he passed away before finishing up the car in its current configuration.

Now ready for some much needed attention and looking forward to being driven again after getting traded back and forth for the better part of 40 years. It hasn’t turned a tire since 1981. It was kept and upgraded over the years between my late friend and myself, keeping the dream alive.

_________________
1956 Dove Blue Panel
1966 Velvet Green Single Cab
1957 L41 Black Oval Window Beetle

[King_vw61]

very cool story, can't wait to see it. hope you take it to one of the many VW events here in so.cal. There are lots of cruises still going on monthly...
_________________
1961 Ragtop, Autocraft 2783cc for street/strip 10k miles and counting...230.84 HP to the wheels thru Muffler 13.4 to 1 on E85
https://www.instagram.com/king_vw61/?hl=en