Red - Vintage Road Racing '63 Oettinger TSV1300

[RainierHooker]

Long time lurker, first time poster...

Now that we have that cliche out of the way, I'd like to introduce you to "Red" the '63 DeLuxe Beetle that should be hitting the vintage road race circuit soon:

Of course, there's a bit of a back-story, so pull up a chair, pop some corn, and lets get going...

[RainierHooker]

I grew up in a family of racers, and in the back of a European Specialty Auto shop in the 1980s. Dad had a drag bug, his brother road raced a '65 Corvette in the SCCA and then various vintage series when it became uncompetitive by the late '80s. My first car was a '74 super beetle which was bought for the princely sum of $35 at the age of 13 during my summer job at the shop that my dad managed. First engine rebuild, first car driven, first restoration, first car related busted knuckles... all air cooled VW's. I got into other cars in my late teens and didn't touch another VW for 20 years.

Last summer, our late-model GTi died spectacularly due to a turbo failure, and my wife needed a daily driver. Her list of requirements: it had to be small, it had to be cheap, it had to be easy on gas, and she wanted another '60s car (she drove a '62 Nova in highschool). I said, why not a bug? When she answered that she had always wanted one, we started looking for just the right one. We found Red 1000 miles away, dry and rust free in Montana and schlepped it home after a deal was made:

Sara couldn't have been happier with her new Bug and I spent the early summer going through and making Red a paradigm of a daily driver bug. I un lowered it, new shocks, bushings, steering, brakes, cables, lines. New exhaust, heater boxes. Stock '67 1500 and a 12v conversion. New tires, seals, rubber. I handed her the keys to her newly freshened car and it did the daily driver deal, until two weeks later...

Sara was driving back from a drag racing event where I was running my dragster, and she was forced off the road by a truck. She went into the shoulder and went full Ralph Nader. Sara walked away without a scratch, Red was a write-off...

[RainierHooker]

Fortunately, Red was well insured and and within a couple short weeks, we were looking for a replacement beetle. I bought-back Red and her interior and other good bits would end up in Blue, a '64 DeLuxe that the wife has been driving now for half a year:

This is where most would have expected Red's story to end. But the good news is that I build race cars for a living, and with that comes a lot of good connections with a properly good collection of friends and shops. Since Red's body was knocked so far out of square and the roof was buckled spectacularly, the first step was to see if it could be made right again. She took a trip to a friend's body rack. Three days of careful pulling and a new door later, she was back in the running as a real car, square and true:

[RainierHooker]

Now that I knew she was savable, I knew that Red's second life should be worth the resurrection. My greatest earliest memories come from leaving school early on fridays to spend the weekend in the family pits at whichever road racing course my uncle was running at. I have desired a 1960s road racing car of my own for as longs as I can remember. Did I mention, that I build and restore race cars for a living? Did I mention that the shop I'm at specializes in vintage race cars? And now a had a perfectly functional but gutted '60s car looking for a purpose. Was it the Alpina 1602 that I dreamt of in my early years? No, but this looked fun...

I started by getting the rulebooks from the two semi-local racing bodies that I might be able to run in. SOVREN is a vintage racing group that runs period races in the pacific northwest. ICSCC runs a "Nostalgia Production" class in Oregon.

SOVREN is my most likely candidate for competitive fun, their "Vintage Small Bore" class would have me running against a field of Midgets, Sprites, Spyders, and 356s. The problem is that unless you have a vintage racer with provable provenance, you run into a brick wall with excerpts from the rulebook like this:

[finster]

good job on pulling that roof back into shape!
_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[Hogg]

Real happy you're telling this story and most importantly of course is that your wife walked away; what luck there. That she got right back on the horse speaks well.
My only experience with SOVREN is as a spectator at the annual hill climb at Mary hill on the Columbia river; it has a nice turn out of cars and fans. I have a couple of t-shirts from that. Well run by all appearances. Not really the sort of thing for a vintage 40 horse bug though. They don't have all day to give everyone multiple runs after all :).
I had a ruby red '62 with nearly identical patina years ago, so that photo caught my attention. Looks great with the silver wheels; I want to do the same with the '66 I have currently. And I'm very interested in where this is going and amazed and grateful for the resurrection you've accomplished.
Standing by.
Hogg.

[RainierHooker]

Thanks finster and Hogg, I work with and know some metal-working wizards. I could not have done any of this without their help and guidance. When Red came back from the body rack, it was square and functional, but still had some creases, lumps, bumps, and dents all over. Every weekend, I put probably 1-4 hours into hammer and dolly work on the body. The goal is to keep all the original metal there and not resort to welding or filler except where absolutely necessary. Bondo is for liars.

As the above picture, taken minutes ago, shows, the body is almost there but not strictly to my liking yet. I have to temper my desire for perfection with the knowledge that this is a race car, not a show car. But since I'll be putting my business name on this thing, It can't be shoddy either.

I need to get the body done in the next few weeks so I can get the interior panels finalized (part of the inner body structure had to be removed for access and will need to be TIG welded back in) so I can start installing the roll cage.

That seems like as good a time as any to take a break from the engine and homologation tangent and get to the necessary body and chassis improvements.

This car, because of reasonable and modern safety requirements, will not be a strictly period-correct thing. It will be getting a full SCCA-type roll cage and racing seats. Modern instrumentation, fire suppression, harnesses and more will be used but selected so as to not stand out from the overall feel of the car. Subtitutions of parts in the engine, driveline, chassis, and body will be made, within the limits of vintage racing rules to make the car faster, safer, more competitive, and more reliable wherever possible. Probably the largest amount of time taken to date on this project has been spent with rulebooks, old parts catalogs, and pursuing the internet trying to reconcile period correctness with a realistically usable car.

The FIA records for the 1961-63 VW "Type-11 Oettinger" are extremely detailed in some areas and rather lacking in others. For example, nearly one page of the packet has entry space for every measurement and spec that has to do with the brakes. At the top of this section is simply typed, "wie Volkswagen oder Porsche 356", and the remainder is left blank. That gives plenty of latitude.

For the brakes, I'm currently hunting for some 356B drums, but in the meantime will be using the stock VW units but with a dual master cylinder.

I purchased a 6-point roll bar kit from Rhodes Racing mainly just to save time on the main and halo hoop bends. Virtually every bar and bend will be modified and tubes will be added within the constraints of current SCCA production car specs. It will end up with 8 chassis attachment points after adding foot bars to the front firewall and will have additional door and rear down bar bracing. This should stiffen up the chassis as a benefit but get a pass from the scrutineers for the sake of safety.

A camber compensator and an adjustable front beam come with the justification of old EMPI ads and added safety.

The original low back seats are being replaced with Kirkey aluminum racing seats. They will mount to some modified original seat sliders as well as having mounts that attach to the door and shoulder bars. The idea is to allow placement of more period style seats should the need arrise for a show or such.

[RainierHooker]

I pulled the interior all out in order to start prepping for cage and seat installation. A simultaneously happy and sad realization was just how clean and un messed-with red was before the accident:

In addition to hammer and dolly work, Ive spent the last few Saturdays in tar-and-soundproofing-removal purgatory. The 60 year old original stuff came out okay, the knock-off dynamat installed by the previous owner in the luggage area is still killing me slowly.

[RainierHooker]

Okay, so how do you make a plucky little 40 horse VW competitive in a racing setting?

Well, thankfully, Gerhard Oettinger addressed that problem a long time ago. In 1961 the Swedish rally team Scania Vabis approached Oettinger Kraftfahr-technische Spezial-Anstalt, otherwise known by its shortened form: OKRASA in an attempt to create a package that would make a competitive car out of the VW Beetle. Working with the tuning company, VW, and the FIA, they finally came to an agreement that if a minimum of 100 cars were built/prepped by Oettinger, those cars would be homologated as a Grand Touring car in the FIA group 3 class. Oettinger created his VW “Type-11 Oettinger” with a “TSV1300/34 Einbaumotor” and a series of other refinements with production starting on January 10th, 1962 and the 100th car rolling out of the shop on the 31st of March, 1963. The FIA blessed the car with official recognition as a production grand touring car in August 1963. Here’s the first page of the official FIA packet from their records:

Specifically, the TSV1300/34 motor was a standard 40 horse block and cylinders with specific Okrasa dual port heads, 77mm pistons, 69.5mm counterweighted crank, intakes with dual Solex 32PICB carbs and a few other small details. The combination gave a 1295cc displacement (the FIA allowed an overbore of up to 1335cc) and 50 hp in “stock” form. The Scania Vabis rally cars reportedly made 70+ horsepower and did well enough on the rally circuit to garner several in-class wins and podiums during the 1964 season.

Of course, this homologation also meant that any person the world over, in rallying or on road courses, had an official recipe to make a warmed-up, track capable beetle. Oettinger offered both factory assembled engines and kits to create TSV1300’s and these crossed the Atlantic, offered in kit form by EMPI.

Most importantly, to this topic at least, it means that in the spirit of the following quote, I can make a SOVREN-legal race car as long as I follow the recipe…

[RainierHooker]

With the recipe in mind, and the FIA records in hand I set out to create a TSV1300/34. Initially, I thought that originals would be too scarce or too expensive to acquire, so I figured that I could make my own with modern commercially available parts modified to the specs found within the homologation form (the FIA recorded almost every major and minor dimension in the heads and rotating assembly). Benefits of being an engine builder with off-hour access to a machine shop. I reached out to Joe "Mr Okrasa" to see if he had any pertinent info on the engines and it turned out that he had more than that...

As it would turn out he had all the major components: the heads, the crank, the intakes and the carbs from an original TSV1300/34. Almost as importantly, one of the intakes still had the original builder's tag from Oettinger. I am 99% sure that this lot is from one of the original production TSV1300/34 motors, rather than the more typical (but still super rare) EMPI-supplied kits.

After a lot of phone conversations, and a lot of un-prepared-for money changing hands, I had everything to make this dream come true.

[RainierHooker]

And with that, we are fairly well caught up to present with the build.

Ive got a nearly bodyworked body.

Ive got a nearly complete chassis with fresh everything.

Ive got a nearly ready to install roll cage.

Ive got nearly all the parts to build a TSV1300/34.

I'll be dropping a March of '63 engine case at the machine shop this week. Hopefully it gets a good bill of health and will be a good candidate for a full-flow, case-saver, and freshening-up job. Ive got a second 40 horse motor (that came out of Blue) that will be providing parts and pieces as needed and a second full case if needs be. The current plan is to build an as-correct-as-possible TSV1300/34 with the original parts and 78mm pistons (NOS 1mm overbored pistons) for use as the "real" motor and a second 40-horse-based engine with an 83mm big bore kit and (probably) reworked single port heads as the "practice" engine while I figure out this road racing thing. I don't want to lunch the expensive Oettinger mill the first time out.

Since these will be the first ACVW engines I've built and prepped since I was a teenager, I'm sure that I'll have a million questions to ask and I'm sure I'll make a million mistakes along the way. Hopefully the last few years of building other motors and other race cars doesn't lead me too far astray...

[cricketseed]

Everything about this is awesome. (Other than Red's accident, that is. Glad your wife was okay.) Thanks for the writeup. Looking forward to following along.
_________________
'66 Beetle

[vwfreek61]

I like where this is going. I drive my '64 regularly, so I've been adding "period correct" modifications to make it handle better. It will never handle as well as my Porsche 924S, but it's still fun to toss around corners.

[TRS63]

Now, that is a cool project ! Will be following the progress !

Bests

Antoine
_________________
Antoine
My 62 ragtop daily driver:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728873
My 914 restoration&lightweight project :
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9698432#9698432
Resurrecting a 60 ghia : https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=713906
My 52 Standard Zwitter :
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10086685#10086685

[AlteWagen]

Ive reached out to the group and have received a little info. Hope to see how it goes for you as other than the FB guy they did not seem very inviting. One mention of boomer and all hell broke loose.

I thought the peashooter group would be interested but no luck from them so Ill be following closely and maybe see you at the event as a spectator. Id love to see a VW on the track as there are none currently

I was told Id probably race group 1

_________________
Grapes of Wrath $200 Engine Rebuild
Official Dual Carb Thread
Cylinder Head Quick Reference Sheet

[RainierHooker]

Thanks all,

I hope to have some proper progress to post in the next few days. I'm dropping one engine case off with Tim's ACVW to have it checked and probably line bored as well as full flowed and case savers installed. I also started disassembling the '64 40-horse engine so I can harvest it for whatever good parts it has. Tonight, I should be fabbing the racing seat mounts so I can finalize the roll cage clearances and placement. I'm really close to the bodywork being done enough to start buttoning up the parts that were removed for bodywork access.

I have a somewhat self imposed deadline of early May to have the car track, but not race, ready. The ICSCC is having a novice/licensing/training event in Portland later that month.

[RainierHooker]

Got the driver's seat all fab'd and tacked together...

The seat is a Kirkey Racing Aluminum seat, and its mounted to a stock seat riser and slider mechanism via some brackets I cut out and bent up. Its all just tacked together so I can mount it in the car to check position, clearances, and sit in it and make vroom-vroom noises...

Once it gets the seal of approval, I'll make up another one for the passenger seat (also a Kirkey, but a low-back) and do all the final welding before blasting and painting.

[RainierHooker]

Spent some time calling around and discussing and ordering parts for the "practice motor".

So far the recipe is...

New old stock 78mm Kolbenschmidt pistons in bored original VW cylinders
Rebuilt 40HP Rods
Original Oettinger/Okrasa crank with a lightened 8-dowel flywheel
Engle VZ-15 Cam (whole kit with their lifters/springs/etc)
Engle Straight Cut cam gears
OEM 1.1 Rockers
Kennedy Clutch/Pressure-Plate
...and all the other nickel n' dimes to build the engine

Still haven't fully decided on heads. We might be "making" some "Okrasa" heads out of some later dual ports with help from a TIG welder, a mill, and a whole lot of grinding. Or I might just do warmed over single ports and play with carburetion (I have access to dual Solex 28 PICs, and a couple of NOS Bugsprays, or I can try to hunt down another set of 32PICBs or PBICs)

I'll be dropping a case off at the post office this weekend. Its going to Brothers for a cam-bearing modification and lifter bore sleeving as well as the normal going through.

Hopefully before it gets back I can have all the other parts assembled/ballanced/prepped for assembly so that I can get this 1328cc "monster" ready to be installed in the car.

The seat fits in the car and is at a comfortable height/angle/position. Hopefully I can get the driver's side final welded and the passenger side put together this weekend.

[AlteWagen]

Wonder how difficult it would be to create another class for us broke dicks. One that would allow SCORE rules bringing a 1600 based engine to use saving the rare 40hp stuff from destruction. A stock 165 class, 1600 single port 30 pict restriction, maybe an outlaw class with dual port and Solex EIS or PBIC since they are now reproduced. Unlimited class where all aftermarket parts up to 1980 (end of beetle production). Many race to race and could care less about points and stuff.

Ive seen promoters of shows/drags with the same attitude. It was great when there were 'masses' to cater to but those days are long gone. It seems like the same few guys with the same old cars, telling the same old stories, the vultures keeping up the small talk in hopes to score the car after they die. The shows and races got smaller, the admission got higher, they got even smaller. No one wanted to listen and when the easy money was gone they found some other market to work. Now all the tracks are closed with only a few remaining.

Being you are a shop owner, I would think organizing a vintage event would be great exposure with the bonus of not having to play the game to have a good time.
_________________
Grapes of Wrath $200 Engine Rebuild
Official Dual Carb Thread
Cylinder Head Quick Reference Sheet

[maplesyrup]

Awesome, can’t wait to see this built and driven, well done
_________________
Bugger