So, having owned the car for 27 years, and being the right age for a mid-life crisis, I decided it was time to thrash it round the track. I've never been turned on by straight-line stuff - corners are far more interesting to me. I have some previous history with track racing having been involved as crew in the UK's "Beetle Cup" in '93 & '94. The Beetle Cup died some time in the late '90s I think, and there's been nothing similar since then. However in the last few years the "Beetle Challenge" has been trying to resurrect the spirit of the series, with slightly relaxed rules. It was Simon Sergides's Orange Bug I had a go in around Castle Coombe - 2165cc, IRS, Quaife - it got me hooked. Sadly the recession bit and the Beetle Challenge is struggling to get decent numbers on the grids, but the regs are there. So I have decided to build to the regs, and enter in maybe the MSV Trackday Trophy and mix it up with Golf Gti's & Porsche 944's.
So, first step was to haul the car out of long-term storage and tear it down completely.
Once it was a bare shell it was sent off to the bodyshop:
A promising start, but sadly it was not to continue... Basically i was not happy with the work being done, and after a few months hauled it out of there :-( Cue 8 months of depression before I found someone else to pick up on it. There's obviously a big gap between above and below, but this is how the shell is today:
Last few mods to the shell to do, and then next week should be in paint!