New Blog Site!

So to make things easier for updates and the ability to do more from my iPhone I have started a new blog importing this blog with it. This blog will no longer be updated!

The new blog address is

http://vintageair.wordpress.com

Please come and visit us there!!
Steve

Finally back together!

Well kind off! Finally got the rusty A Arms off, cleaned up and fitted to the '59! Its only took a week :D To be fair i've only had a couple of hours on it at a time but still! So there on the car with the new stub axles in and brakes on. Just need a pair of rear wings and some slicks for the new wheels and it's ready to be sent off to Wayne. Cannot wait for that!

Rust, Rust and more Rust!

I managed to get hold of a back end cut from a late beetle last week. I thought it would be a little easier to remove the parts than this!!! So far every single nut and bolt has fought me! Getting there though slowly in between work..

So before work each morning I have been able to get in the workshop and start some work on the car. Not a massive amount of progress but some nonetheless and it's nice to feel pro-active in getting it rebuilt. We are nearly ready to send the car to Wayne Allman's Intergalactic Custom Shop!

Up on jack stands ready to start stripping the rear end down..

Couldn't resist a trial fit of the new rear wheel ;) Looks good!

Comparison between new and old stub axles, Porsche 944 on the left and new Porsche 930 on the right.

The rear end is now full stripped and waiting for some stock A Arms to be re-fitted in order to get the car rolling and we'll use the bearing housing from the stock A Arms for the custom set-up.

The complete brake system and pedal assembly has now also been totally removed in preparation for the hydraulic set-up. I re-made the front brake lines as we'll no longer be using a line-loc just a staging brake.

We're back..

We're now back from California and what a trip it was! For once we managed to just chill out, chat shit and buy parts! Oh and then head to Vegas for the bugorama! Unbelievably we had rain which caused some disruption but it was a great race day. We managed to bring some parts home with us, the rest is being shipped soon! We bought our new rear wheels and 930 stub axles along with a few fittings. The rear wheels are 15x8 Billet Specialties and are SFI rated. Still to come is a full Jamar hydraulic pedal assembly and Jamar staging brake and some Mickey Thompson 15x26x8.5 Slicks.. :D

;)

California and Vegas

Well as a last minute decision we decided to fly out to So-Cal on Sunday to catch up with friends and then head to Vegas this weekend for the Vegas Bugorama. Hopefully along with chilling out we'll be picking up some parts for the re-build! I have a big list so we'll see what we can do!

Norway and end of season..

So yet again I've been a little slack in updating the blog! I must try harder!

We have not long returned from a fantastic trip to Norway for the the Scandinavian Cal-Look Classic (SCC) which was simply superb! We met some amazing people from all over Scandinavia including Christian and Søren from Team Angora Racing (Denmark)who were gracious in allowing us use of their worksop on the way to SCC! We then all hooked up Anders and the guys from Men In Bugs and convoy'd from Denmark to the track. We owe a huge thanks to Anders for arranging our Ferry from Denmark to Norway and for introducing us to a great bunch of friends :) Then when arrived at SCC we met so many people and we really felt 'welcome'! A great trip and we'd definately like to go back.

We got back into England on the Thursday and set off for Avon Park on Friday for an MSA round and it was a weekend of high's and low's. Our good friend Bernard Newbury finally ran the elusive 9 and it was celebrations all round, then the low came... Adele, due to non car related issues, crashed at over 100mph hitting the armco 3 times, thankfully she was not hurt but of course the car sustained some damage. It was mostly limited to the engine and box (and of course the wings/fenders) but having assessed the damage it could have been alot worse. So we want to move forward and not dwell or post everywhere about the accident so I will leave this post with, we will be back next year, stronger and faster ;) Oh and some nice photo's from Norway! Keep checking the blog for (hopefully!) more updates!

We also owe a huge thanks to safety crew at SCR for looking after Adele and all the Outlaw Flat Four guys for helping us with the car!

Taken at the last race, Summer Nationals, it's our new Hazet Assistent tool box which is available to order brand new again. I'd always wanted an original one but there a bit hard to find and then I found them new! For anyone interested we can supply these now, including all the Hazet and Vigor ranges. See www.vintageair.co.uk for details.

Outlaw Flat Four - Adele Woodbridge at Summer Nationals 2010

New PB

Last weekend we were out for a test session on Friday and the Summer Nationals event on Saturday and Sunday at Santa Pod Raceway. It was a great weekend making more progress on our suspension settings resulting in a new PB of 11.23 @ 118mph. We came away from the event having learnt alot and with more ideas for improvements. We managed to get some video clips of a couple of passes which is always good for tuning uses! I'll try and post them up soon!

New Sponsor

We are very pleased to announce a new sponsorship/partnership deal with Damar International Ltd. Damar is one of the UK's leading tool distributor importing from over 30 countries and exporting to over 50. Amongst the many brands in stock Damar are the UK distributor for Hazet and Vigor automotive tools. http://www.damar.biz/

The Hazet brand of specialist tools is known throughout the world for it's superb quality which is why the leading automotive manufacturers themselves use and approve Hazet in their dealer networks. See http://www.hazet.de/en.html for more info.

Vigor Equipment is a relatively new range of tools engineered to DIN standards by a major German manfacturer of premium quality tools specifically to address the needs of the hobbyist mechanic and professional alike. The Vigor automotive tools range has been assembled with typical German obession to detail, there are tools for virtually every task, including sockets, wrenches, spanners, combination ratchets, adapters and screwdrivers as you would expect. The range also extends to more specialised but extremely useful tools such as pullers for trim and cap removal, oil filter wrench sets and LED lights for awkward places. Along with the fantastic tool range there are, of course, a great range of tool cases and trolleys available with or without tools in capacities of 74 to 204 pieces. See http://www.vigor-equipment.com/vigor_en/index_e.html for more info.

Through our business http://www.vintageair.co.uk/, we will be able to supply every tool from both ranges with special deals on the Vigor range and will be carrying brochures and information at this weekends Summer Nationals event. Look for us in the Outlaw Flat Four pits.

Thanks to Brian and David Martin of Damar Int for their support of our racing program and the opportunity for us to supply these fantastic tools. We look forward to a successful partnership.

EFi

I realised I haven't posted pictures of the new EFi set-up we're running for this year. It was built by Marco Mansi and features Mikuni throttle bodies more commonly found on a Suzuki motorbike with custom made linkages and stacks. The ECU is a MegaSquirt 2 and is a dream to use. All fuel and ignition is controlled by the ECU, the coil pack just sits in the stock location with a machined piece of ally that slides into the dizzy location (with the drive removed) a plate then bolts to it and the coil is bolted to the plate. It makes for a really tidy set-up.

Site Update

While I was posting the last update I decided to update the blog site! It will be re-named to OFF621 as I feel it's a more suitable name to send to potential sponsors. The car is still named StripTease III.

Getting there slowly..

Well since the last update we've been out with the car twice and we're still finding our feet with the set-up. The car itself is working great it's just been us figuring it out! The engine is making power and we've ran a string of 11.3's and an 11.27 and there is definately a little more in it, from testing we found we need to make a pass when the engine is warm because otherwise the ECU goes into cold start and overfuels. I've also been working on the suspension tune-up and so far we've managed to get the 60ft times down from 1.50 to 1.46 and i'd like to see a bit more! We're back out again June 18/19/20th at Santa Pod so hopefully we'll get to make a few laps and work on getting things down.

The season has started!

Well yet again I have been really slack and not updated this as much as I should have. The EFi conversion is now complete. We finished the install the night before the Volksworld show and then a few days after we had the car on the dyno to map it. We were extremely happy with the results, it made 196hp at the wheels which we believe is more than what we had previously as English dyno's read much lower than our American counterparts!

Just last weekend we took the car to Avon Park Raceway to put in a few test laps and we were over the moon to record a new PB of 11.26 at 117.5mph confirming our thoughts on power. There is still some more to come so we can't wait for the race season to start in 2 weeks.

More pics to come but a quick one from the Volksworld show..

New sponsor for 2010 season

Over the off season we have been working hard on our race program and our sponsorship program and we are pleased to annouce Opie Oils have signed up as a sponsor for the 2010 season. Opie Oils are the UK's No 1 performance oil specialist. Opie Oils supply an unmatched range of engine oil, gear oil, brake fluid & lubricants from Silkolene, Castrol, Fuchs, Motul, Mobil, Amsoil & Redline with recommendations from the oilman. Check out http://www.opieoils.co.uk/ for great deals!


Febuary has been a busy month for us again, the engine has been fully rebuilt thanks to Richie Webb and this week our friend Marco Mansi is due at our workshop to install the new EFi set-up we have changed to for this year.

Also this month we were honoured to recieve a fantastic award from the Santa Pod Racers Club 'Best Appearing Racecar' for 2009. We were nominated by the club and then thanks to Eurodragster.com the public voted for their favourite car and ours was chosen! This is a huge accolade for us as no aircooled Volkswagen has ever been nominated before so to win is incredible. Just some names on the trophy are Andy Robinson, Danny Cockerill, Graham Ellis all with Pro Mod cars and now there is us with a little old Volkswagen!!

We can't wait for this season to start!

Happy New Year and update..

Happy new year everyone! It was a superb 2009 so we look forward to another great year and 2010. Our plans for the car have been coming together slowly, the engine has been stripped down and is in the final stages of being rebuilt with hopefully more power for next year. We can't rest on our laurels so we continue to asses our options and look for more reliable power. We have just come back from another trip to the states and picked up just a couple of bits for the motor from Jaycee and Vee Dub Parts. Some pictures below are of the motor going back together and new bits! I'll try and update more often with our progress too!