Hot VW 2010 - White Goose Bar

BY BURLY BURLILE
Photos by Eric Allred, Burly Burlile, Ben
Cowen, and Dennis Zuber
xtI'eme sports are commonplace in
today 's society as we try to push the
envelope in every direction possible.
Volkswagen owners are no exception, and
the sport of land speed racing is catching
their attention with more and more
Volkswagen racers heading down the lon g
black line on the salt at Bonneville and
other courses across the U.S. as well as
Australia and South Africa. Land speed rac­
ing is one of the original extreme sports, as
man has always tried to go faster and faster
with automobile speeds now reaching the
470-mile-per-our mark , and jet cars break­
ing the sound barrier. Okay, I know VWs
are not going to achieve speeds anywhere
near those numbe rs, but doubling the origi­
nal speed of your Volkswagen is a pretty
lofty goal none -the-Ie ss . and a great
achievement when you are successful.
This past year saw many VW speed
records being broken with both air- and
water-cooled racers se tting new marks. The
high mark was the outstanding success
Jeremy Freedman enjoyed when he took his
Tony Palo tuned turbo VR6 1997 Golf GTI
to a top speed of 208.194 miles-per-hour,
with a two-pass average of 207.022 mph at
the TEXAS Mile in Goliad, Texas - the
fastest average speed ever recorded by VW
production engine-based racer. What was
special about Jeremy' s record was his car
was not just a racer, but a legal, street driven
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DUNE BUGGIES AND HOT VWs
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production bodied GTT that routinely sees
street use around his home in Dallas, Texas.
That 208mph pass has to qualify as an
extreme ride, any way you look at it!
In Australia, Mark Ho lyoak broke the
VW barrier by becoming the first man put a
VW on the salt at Lake Gairdner. His very
streetable 1973 Super Beetle was fitted with
a healthy 2.0-liter Type I engine equipped
with Weber dual carbs and a magneto that
hel ped . the car turn a respectable
117.772mph, even though it was experienc­
ing some minor tuning problems on their
first visit to the D.L.R.A. Speedweek.
Racing in land speed down-under requires
extreme dedication since the only available
venue suitable for extended high speeds is
located in the south central part of the contiMAY 2010
requires
of off­
road driving to a
desolate area in the
outback lacking all
amenities
and
facilities. Not only
does your racer
have to be fast, but
your tow rig off­
road durable! By
the time you read
this story, the 20 I 0
Aussie Speed week
will have taken
place with Mark
attempting to up
his current VW top
speed,
36hp
Challenger Steve
Muller going after
the 36hp records with his Okrasa powered
VW, and Vdubber Mick Percy putting his T­
4 turbo powered Oval on the salt in his inau­
gural effort.
North of the eljuator, Jeremy's Texas
speeds, combined with solid efforts in
North Carolina by Bruce Cook, Talor
Bums, Tom Bruch and Roger Jones, saw
both the east coast and the midwest well
represented in these high speed contests.
Talor, a seventeen-year-old high school
cheerleader from Tennessee, upped her last
year 's efforts by taking her orange Ghia to
a I 17.71Smph top speed. In 2010, Tal or,
along with her family, will race on
Bonneville's famed salt for the first time
and hopefully find even more speed in the
19 14cc motor tuned by her brother, Zach .
Roger Jones brought his Peanut Special
Ghia to the ex-WW2 air base powered by a
Jake Raby engine and saw a new class
record of 128.648 mph. Gaylen Anderson
pulled last year's 36hp top speed turbo
engine out and replaced it with the Tom
Bruch built Super Stock Single engine, the
36hp Challenges equivalent of a NASCAR
restrictor plate motor, in which Tom ripped
off a healthy 90.203mph. The SSS category
lets you do any internal engine mods, but
requires the use of a single original 28 PCI
manual choke carburetor. Bruce and Cody
Cook returned in May with last year's Stone
Stock 36hp record holder, a concourse qual­
ity Canadian '51 Split Window Bug, this
year equipped with a Whitey Worsham
developed big bore, dual carb 36er and pro­
ceeded to break the long-standing DSS dual
carb record of Johannes Gosvig and Mel
Ellis. Just before heavy rains hit the Maxton
airfield track, the duo recorded a top speed
of 99.8J5mph, falling hundredths short of
their goal of J OOmph and membership in the
new 36hp 100 Mile Per Hour Club. Not giv­
ing up, additional work on the carburetion
through the fall allowed the father and son
team to gamer the big silver One Club decal
with a top speed of 101.772mph in October.
69
I
ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT, cool weather and perfect salt allowed Mike Manghelli to set a new record of 165.989mph; Kevin Winders
drove his VW diesel powered streamliner to a new 128.691 mph record; The Chilson Lakester of Bob and Dan holds the fastest
one-way record of any 4-cylinder.
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DUNE BUGGIES AND HOT VWs
MI
ABOVE, the salt flats of Australia's Lake
Gairdner mirrors Bonneville in so many
ways - including having several VW
land speed racers in the competition!
The family of Joel Wolcott put together a strong ll8 mph run using
a mildly modified Rabbit Pick-Up, a body style very popular in land
speed racing.
Early August saw a new one-and-one-half-mile track come on­
line in Limestone, Maine. Under the auspices of the Loring Timing
Association , John Finn took his '84 turbo Rabbit from his usual
haunt at Maxton and the Solo slalom tracks of the SCCA on the east
coast and reached a new top speed of 129.047 mph. Two weeks later,
the salt of Bonneville fell under the wheels of longtime Volkswagen
land speed racers Jim Bradshaw and Larry Monreal, Kevin Pedersen
and Mike Manghelli, and Bug driver Bob Stahl. Driving Larry's new
Old Volks Home racer, Jim took the 1497cc water-cooled turbo
Rabbit powered Ghia to a record above 150mph mark and then
returned two months later to reach a new top speed of 165.7 14 mph.
Keith drove Mike's turbo 2.0-liter front wheel drive Cyber Racing
Rabbit pickup to a new high speed for the car at Speed week achiev­
ing 141-plus miles per hour, and then Mike climbed into the seat durMAY 2010
ing the October World Fi nals and saw a healthy 166.337mph run
along with a new two-way record of 165.989 mph. Bob's '65 bug
has been running the Bonneville salt and EI Mirage Dry lake dirt
since the early nineties, and is the fastest non-turbo ' d or super­
charged air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle in the world. Fitted with a
huge 2914cc fuel injected Type 4 engine, the winged Bug runs con­
sistent 150mph passes and saw a top speed in 2009 of 153.639mph.
The fall of each year brings the U.S.ER.A. (Utah Salt Flats
Racing Association) September World of Speed trials, and has
become the largest Volkswagen racer supported land speed event in
existence. In addition to the regular long course (3- to 5-mile plus
track) for full spec racers, the association provides a special 130
Mile Per Hour Club course standing start one mile course to aHow
street driven daily drivers the opportunity to race on the salt. The
130 MPH Club is ideally suited to both air- and water-cooled
Volkswagen street cars,
Continued on page 102
71
MAX SPEED
Continued from page 71
and has become the main venue for 36hp
Challenge participants. This year's racers
included both a diesel powered streamliner
and Rabbit pickup from the Winder family,
a pair of late model Golf GTIs driven by
Robby Olsen and Gary Fergus, Cody
Johnson's Baja Bug from Nebraska (which
topped out at 100.509mph), Alan Johnsen's
Formula Super Vee, the slammed and tur­
bo'd splittie Bonnevi.lle bus from Derek
Campbell at Volksarama who set a new
fastest LSR top speed for an air-cooled VW
bus at 94.891 mph, along with the fastest
VW racer ever, Danny and Bob Chilsons
2.0 Passat powered Lakester.
The 36hp contingent was headed by the
Beaver Geezers Stone Stock entry that was
inspired by the classic Bonneville movie
"the World 's Fastest Indian," and included
driving stints for each of the three Oregon
State University fraternity brothers. Team
Ireland's Britt Grannis brought a SS com­
petitor in the form of a '74 Type I with a
Stone Stock 36hp engine, and the now infa­
mous Blackline '57's ultimate two-barrel
carb 36hp engine was fitted to Chip Birk's
daily driver patina Bug after an unfortunate
pre-race testing accident destroyed the
McAllister brothers '57 Oval. Driver Justin
McAllister is apprenticing under the tute­
lage of longtime HVWs advertiser and car­
buretor guru An Thraen of A.C.E., who
guided the young brothers in their effort to
create the most sophisticated 36hp engine
ever assembled. Their effort was rewarded
two-fold with both a 103.056mph run that
netted them the new DSS-36 record as well
as membership in the 36hp " I" Club.
Richard Troy brought his rare 36hp Denzel
powered '59 Ghia from California, arriving
the final day of the meet, and together with
help from other 36hp Challenge racers and
support crews, he made the" 1" Club with a
top speed run of 10 1.l63mph. Additional
tuning will surely see higher speeds from
thi s amazing vintage high performance
Volkswagen based engine!
Having competed at the E.C.T.A. speed
trials in May, Tom Bruch and Gaylen
Anderson removed the 36hp engine used to
set the new SSS-36 record and replaced it
with a revised version of last year's
Bonneville turbo engine to try and beat their
a.l1-time high 36hp Bug speed set in 2008.
They were rewarded with the amazing
speed of 106.514 mph. Is double the origi­
nal design speed of 62 miles per hour with­
in reach of these mighty mouse motors?
Time and development will tell! The other
end of the spectrum is Stone Stock, where
refined but stock 36hp engines attempt to
exceed their original design speed of 68
mph. Blueprinting has seen these engines
now reach speeds exceeding 70mph, and AI
Leggitt driving the Oregon orange '58 Bug
of the Beaver Geezers set a new aU time
stock high speed record of 73.492mph.
In the extreme sport of land speed racDUNE BUGGIES AND HOT VWs
ing, sometimes the most extreme race veh icles are not the fastest or have the bigge st
motors. In this case, the most extreme
VoLkswagen racer on the salt was not on Iy
one of the slower cars, it wasn't even a
Volkswagen (at least the body wasn 't i).
Jacob Straub brought a true hot rod to I he
salt in the form of a 2000 Honda Insigh t,
one of the small aerodynam ic Hybrids so Id
by Honda early in the decade, but fitted wi th
the engine from a different manufacture r.
He wanted to create a fuel efficient dri veable street car with good performance. So
he acquired a 1000cc three-cylinder lur­
bocharged diesel engine as sold in the
Volkswagen Lupo in Europe and installed it
lock, stock and oil barrel into the sleek
Honda. The end result was a very clean ,
very fuel efficient car that got 92.94 mile s
per gallon on the highway and saw a to P
speed of 97.740mph on the Bonneville Sa It
Flats. Jacob achieved extreme in a goo d
way, and used Volkswagen technology I 0
accomplish the task.
We hope you will have the opportunit y
to visit one of the four U.S. land speed rac ­
ing venues this summer and see what to p
speed racing is all about. And if your inlel ­
est is peaked, and you would like to see how
fast your Volkswagen will truly go, check
out the sites listed below for safety require ­
ments and schedules. It is a good way to go
fast Without having to build an out-and-ou t
race car, and you will find the camaraderie
of land speed racers unmatched in any othe I'
form of automotive competition. Until then
ftYllmay the Speed be with you!
~~J~~J1
..~. e"gmes & t"msm'$s,ons
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LAND SPEED CONTACTS
All Classic, Street rods, Cl
UTAH SALT FLATS RACING ASSOCIATION Bonneville Salt Faits, UT
www.saltflats.com
sfra@saltfJats,com
Friday nigt
Satu rday: Fearless Flores; De,
Saturday evening: "Kentuck
Saturday and Sunday: Cal
Sunday: Church service at 10:4f
EAST COAST TIMING ASSOCIATION
Maxton AFB, North Carolina
http://ecta-Isr,com/
ALL F
LIMESTONE, MAINE
e-mail­
[email protected]
Contact FOlmtain of Life Bible Chur
TEXAS MILE, GOLIAD, TEXAS
www.texasmile.com
DRY LAKES RACERS ASSOCIATION
Lake Gairdner, South Australia
www.dlra.org.au
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TIMING ASSOCIATION Bonneville and EI Mirage
wWW,scta-bni.org
VERNUEKPAN, SOUTH AFRICA
www.speedweeksa.co.za
36HP RACERS
www.burlyb.com
MAY 2010
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Ancmeim, Ca. 92806 Ph: 714-630- 8371
CHICO PERFORMANCE RACING
High-Performance Street Engines Anibal Chico (626) 390-5107
(626) 359-5144 steelbugln.com [email protected] Aracadia, California, USA