I want a good track car
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Steve Rock
- Posts: 48
- Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:07 am
I want a good track car
I have a 63 Bug and I know that I'm cursed with a swing axle but i want to make it handle the best i can. I want a good track car. I have 2" drop spindles and adjustable coil overs on empi 5's. I just want to know what everyone else is doing and what works best.
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rsrnate
- Posts: 161
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2003 11:07 am
my last race car was a 63 and it was alot of fun, i had a 3/4 sway-a-way bar in front and a camber compensater on the back along with limiting straps. The car was a little bit lower in the rear than in the front for better turn in and less push. you can make it handle worlds better but the link pin front end and the swinaxle rear will always be a handycap in handling.That being said you can still have alot of fun and out corner alot of other cars. Heavy duty spring plates and urethane torsion bushings are a must to keep the back end stable at speed, the stock rubber will deflect enough to cause the torsion bar to rub on the retainer. Hope to see you at some local auto-x 
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ericsbracer
- Posts: 601
- Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2000 12:01 am
A 63!
Steve - my first Vintage racer was a 60 Bug - 40HP and all stock! rsrnate is dead on - I had a adjustable link pin front end (with drums due to rules) and all poly bushings, a larger front sway bar, and a camber compensator for the rear. I had to modify the mounts for the CC a bit to keep it from coming off, but I had a Very Nice Handling car! Ok - so a pump gas 40HP 1192 isn't the fastest thing around, but when handling mattered, it held its own! 
Eric "Plum Bug" Roberts
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Paul Illick
- Posts: 824
- Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2000 12:01 am
Re: A 63!
Cool, mine too! I autocrossed it around northern California 35 years ago, so it wasn't Vintage at the time, and my first motor was only 36hp.ericsbracer wrote:Steve - my first Vintage racer was a 60 Bug - 40HP and all stock!
Eric and Nate's suggestions are exactly right. You can make the swingaxles handle OK, more than good enough to have lots of fun, just DON'T leave out the camber compensator and limit straps. You're going to spin it eventually, and you don't want to end up upside down. VERY uncool. If you want to refine the swingaxle setup even more talk to some of the vintage 356 guys. You know the myth of Sisyphus? Those guys have been rolling that rock up the hill for decades now.
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gerico
- Posts: 672
- Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2003 9:12 pm
[I autocrossed it around northern California 35 years ago, so it wasn't Vintage at the time, and my first motor was only 36hp. ]
Paul...you must be almost as old as me.
My first autcross car about 35 years ago in So. Cal was a 40 horse also...except it was in a Formula V chassis. It was called slalom racing back then and not many guys had ever seen a SCCA legal F-V. Those that did weren't happy about it because that little car beat a lot of really high $ machinery. Most of the corvette guys thought it was some kind of soap box derby car. Always got laughed at a lot...until after the first timed run.
Paul...you must be almost as old as me.
My first autcross car about 35 years ago in So. Cal was a 40 horse also...except it was in a Formula V chassis. It was called slalom racing back then and not many guys had ever seen a SCCA legal F-V. Those that did weren't happy about it because that little car beat a lot of really high $ machinery. Most of the corvette guys thought it was some kind of soap box derby car. Always got laughed at a lot...until after the first timed run.