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  #346  
Old April 18th 2012, 13:15
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Been a while since the last update. Nothing much really happening with the bug lately. I sorted out a cold start problem that ended up being a bad starter. Weather here had been very rainy, which is good because we needed it badly, but it has prevented me from getting work done on the bug. It also kept me from taking the bug out to the previous event and instead I took my mazdaspeed 3 (my rain car). Long story short, despite my rain dancing, the sun came out, dried the course, and left me in the wrong car. I still managed a very fast time in the MS3 and had I been in DS instead of OSP I would have pax'd in the top 10 so I was still proud of the result.

Here's my latest autox in the bug on 4-15-12. It was a fairly quick course with a slow finish but was very active at the end. I'm still having a couple problems with the bug, boost issues and rear suspension hopping with high grip tires. I managed to pull out a 52.3 and the fastest time in the morning was a 50.1. I finished 2nd in class, but beat my points competitor, though I think I trail for class lead by 8 or 9 points after 5 races.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jjk6SSvzl4
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  #347  
Old April 19th 2012, 22:53
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nice Run..sounds real nice too
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  #348  
Old April 23rd 2012, 20:28
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Good run.

You made it look too easy.
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  #349  
Old April 23rd 2012, 20:44
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A fine drive. Looks like a blast.
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  #350  
Old April 24th 2012, 12:52
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Here's a couple pics from the Kelley Park Spring Meet on sunday. I was safely the fastest car there at least until the battery died. All the time spent idling with the oil cooler fan running waiting to get in killed the battery. I ended up getting a jump so I could leave, such is the life of a race car, they don't like going slow

Here's a few shots with the semi-complete airdam in place. The splitter isn't on yet and the front suspension needs to come up about an inch or so but It looks good all blacked out.





Finally, I got the official results from last weeks autox. I did finish 2nd behind a nationals driver in my main competitor's Flyin' Miata turboed miata. He's really fast and knows his ****, and the miata he was in was a very capable car. But, he only beat me by .18 sec and without the boost issues the race would have been even closer. That was a huge ego boost for me and I could wipe the smile of my face all weekend. Ian, my main competition finished 4th, while a shelby cobra split us in 3rd. I managed 13th overall at the event, and I now lead the points race by 1. This has been a fun and exciting season so far
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  #351  
Old April 24th 2012, 13:04
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Nice pics, looking great! I like that you added the running boards. Looks almost like a normal beetle now ;-)
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  #352  
Old April 24th 2012, 23:49
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I've have the running boards on it, just hard to notice them with the huge fenders I think the running boards with be next to get a refresh along with the door and hood handles.
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  #353  
Old April 25th 2012, 09:01
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Good result at the AutoX. I like the airdam. I am working on one for my car but it will be a bit more "Curb/speed bump friendly" as mine is a street car. I just have not had time to get very far with it.
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  #354  
Old May 7th 2012, 13:52
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Race #6 this year, super nice weather on sunday and a large turnout to the event. I wasn't really happy with the bug's performance this time around, and I know I could have gone nearly a second faster. The turbo seals have pretty much given up and I tried to get one more event out of it. It did okay but not great and I smoked out the grid after each run. The boost issues are killing me the most and that will be one of the next issues to get sorted. We're now on our summer hiatus and don't have any more points events until mid-august, so I have plenty of time to re-work the bug. The good news coming out of this event is that I came in 2nd again and beat my points competitor so I stretched my lead to 10 points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=steFWDnuVy4
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  #355  
Old June 19th 2012, 14:11
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Quick update...

Haven't done much with the bug recently, I've been rather pre-occupied with moving my boyfriend 3000+ miles across the country to live with me in CA. It was kind of a crazy adventure, flying to Philadelphia, exploring NJ, PA, and DE for a week, buying a new tow rig and race trailer, then driving them home to CA. The coast-to-coast drive is one that everyone should do, and one that I want to do again. Though next time I want to do the traditional LA to NY route.

The much needed tow rig (I haven't had one since I sold my truck in '09) is a 2000 Ford Excursion Limited V10. It's fully loaded, leather, dual A/C, 3rd row seat, and for a PA truck has almost no rust. It has 180k on it now and performed flawlessly on the trip. The trailer is a custom built low-deck, steel 21' car hauler. It's got a tire rack, secured battery box, brakes, tons of tie down options, and (my favorite part) a winch. Because the Excursion is a V10 gas, I got both for less than 7k, and we managed 11mpg-21.4L/100K for the entire trip.

Here's the new tow setup with the BF's track toy miata on the trailer. This was in Wendover, UT after surviving a 60 mile stretch of perfectly straight road through the salt flats.



Now that we're back home I've already started collecting parts for the bug, so expect a rash of updates soon
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  #356  
Old June 19th 2012, 14:45
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Cool he likes to drive track days too!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Humble View Post
Now that we're back home I've already started collecting parts for the bug, so expect a rash of updates soon
Yes please!
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  #357  
Old June 19th 2012, 19:50
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wally View Post
Cool he likes to drive track days too!

Yes please!
Ditto! Now that my first stage is finished I'm itching for some thread updates while my bank account recovers :P

-Dave
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  #358  
Old July 25th 2012, 00:16
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This past weekend the bug went up on jack stands and I started pulling parts. First to go was the dead turbo and the header responsible. There is so much play in the turbo it's a wonder that it didn't blow more oil when the car was running, it is obviously done.






Here's the new unit from AGP, another t3/t4 hybrid to get me through the end of the season. I tried to get a rebuild kit but it was cheaper to buy a new turbo than to rebuild/rebalance. Also new is the tial 38mm v-band wastegate, with a base spring pressure of .5 bar/7 psi, I plan to keep this around after the future motor swap.






Got the DRD header on for a test fit. I'll need to modify the lower oil cooler support to give more clearance for the header and wastegate, but the fitment is good. I was worried it wouldn't clear the oil sump, which it cleared just fine, but it actually didn't clear the bugpack kafer brace. The brace didn't really work so it's coming out and getting replaced.






Next up was the front suspension which has needed new struts for a a shamefully long time. How long? Long enough for the blown out shock oil to have dried into power and collected at the bottom of the strut tube. These inserts have been in there since 02/03 when I had the struts fabbed up. They are sectioned 944 n/a struts with about 4" cut out of them to use a rabbit gti strut insert. After 10 years of racing they still look good, but I did find one problem. Weld on the inside of the tube kept the new koni adjustable inserts from going in. New long reach bits for the die grinder are on the way and should be here tomorrow.














I had to stop there for the day, kind of frustrating hitting blocks with everything but that's the custom fab life. Still in the mail is header wrap and ties, a new Mendeola stiffy 5-bar kafer brace, and some exhaust bends. I've also got a new berg mid-mount that needs to be welded in though I'm not sure that will get done in time.
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  #359  
Old August 1st 2012, 12:18
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More progress since Friday, though not enough. Everything so far has been 5 steps forward, 5 steps back. Finished the front struts fairly quickly once I had the extended die grinder bits, so quick that I forgot pics until they were both assembled.



I swapped out the front 7"/300# springs w/ helpers to a 10" 300# spring to get some height on the front. I should be able to fit a splitter under the nose now




Here's where things started going less than perfect. Pulled out the old bugpack kafer brace that didn't work and started putting in the new mendeola stiffy brace. The mendeola piece is very nice, and money well spent but I found a problem with it once it was 90% installed. If you have a high torque starter the top cross bar that goes between the shock towers won't fit. I had to pull the tower plates out, re-drill new holes 1" forward and then put it all back together. It barely clears now but everything mostly fits...










Next it was time to weld up the waste gate flange on the drd header. Fair warning: all I had was a flux core welder which isn't the prettiest thing but it got the job done. I went through a few weld-grind-weld processes just to make sure it wouldn't leak. I also had to do a little cleanup on the sealing surfaces from the spatter.








Finally some easy small projects to make me feel better. First was a new lower brace for the oil cooler to push it out a couple more inches to make room for the new wastegate. Second, I had to turn the oil sump 180 because the oil return fitting was uncomfortably close to the hottest part of the header. I also replaced the brass oil drain fittings with some nice AN hardware.






That's it for now but I'll be back under it today. The goal is to drive the car tonight if possible, but we'll see. Race day is sunday bright and early so I'm counting the hours now.
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  #360  
Old August 2nd 2012, 13:01
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Didn't get as much done as I wanted but I also had to make a quick trip to the local speed shop for more header wrap. Got the wrap finished and spent too long getting the header in the bug. I had to pull one of the kafer brace bars to get the header in and once it was tight I could put the bar back in with barely any clearance.





Next up was the new turbo, wastegate, and a new -10 AN turbo drain line. The gold piece on the feed line of the turbo is the new .065" oil restrictor. Originally I was going to run a 90* -10 AN fitting directly on the bottom of the turbo but that made the fitting the lowest point on the back of the car. I ended up re-using the old 90* drain pipe piece, put a second 90* AN fitting on it and run the line to the passenger side of the sump so it tucks up a bit nicer now. The new turbo has a different "clocking" on the exhaust side so the old exhaust had to be cut up. It might remain a loud downturn until after the next event while i figure out how I'm going to route everything.












Lastly got the new manual boost controller in place until I get the megasquirt control figured out and put the wideband back in. I still need a small ntp plug for the turbo and put some new oil/filters in then it's ready to make some noise.



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