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After damaging my 1600 turbo engine over winter I put in a 1.8 20vt engine from a passat in the back of my beetle,

its a APU engine from a 1999 passat using some parts from a mk3 golf tdi sump oil pump alternator etc, with a set of aftermarket con rods and some N/A 20v Cams (higher lift) it has a gt35r turbo and 1400 cc injectors on E85

The Gearbox is a 5 rib with weddle gears (3.11 , 1.93 , 1 .22 , 0.93 with a 4.57 final drive) and a spool

The adaptor plate is an aluminium one made in the 80's in germany and it uses alot of B1 audi 80 parts and was designed to fit a mk1 gti engine in a beetle and it used audi 80 pressure plate and clutch disc, I had to drill and tap the flywheel to allow me to use a beetle style pressure plate and use a 21mm spacer to set the height its now got a stage 3 kennedy with a RLR black magic disc

It has a small aluminium radiator designed for a old Mini which i put larger inlet and outlet on and a fan that i have set to run all the time.

Current PB from the weekend is [email protected] I had it on the dyno with the old pressure plate (from an audi 80 1.6td) unfortunately it slipped at 340hp I also found that I had an issue with the cam timing after the dyno (I had it set one tooth advanced on the inlet cam) which made it very laggy fixed that and it went from running high 12's straight into the 11's

I went racing again at the weekend managed a new PB of 11.22 @125mph (60 ft was 1.56) and on another run when I missed 2nd I managed a 1.53 60ft. I have been learning how to control the launch both good 60ft times were when I controlled the wheelie with a little clutch slip on launch (although the wheelie 60fts were still mid 1.6's ) hopefully this winter i will get the hydro clutch in properly and have clutch control in 1st gear.

Looks like a fun setup. Did you get the clutch swapped to hydraulic?

Chip Birks wrote: ↑Sun Mar 15, 2026 11:53 pm Looks like a fun setup. Did you get the clutch swapped to hydraulic?

I got 95% there but had some issues with the lines so back to cable for the moment, had a good end to last year ran a pb of 11.07 @129mph also upgraded the CV's to 108mm ones and also changed the box to a 6rib box with weddle gears same r&P and 1+2 as the other box but a closer 3rd and 4th (1.5 and 1.04 vs 1.33 and 0.93) and also pro rings on 2nd,3rd and 4th the new box with the spool from the other box works really well.

also upgraded the CV's to 108mm ones although i did manage to break one last weekend.

Cars PB is now 10.96@124mph and on a separate run I have managed a 1.47 60ft after I added wheelie bars over winter after I bent the rear valance on launch.

Last event of last year I got to the final but missed a shift lost to my Mate Luke (I built the engine for his car) this was after i set the bars up incorrectly and tried to take the tree out Managed to Win the first round of VWPro

Nice work! Have you gotten deeper into the 10’s, yet? I guess you drive this on the street, also?

Why haven't I seen this before!??

John S. wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2026 9:51 am Nice work! Have you gotten deeper into the 10’s, yet? I guess you drive this on the street, also?

Not yet, I turned the boost up a little but have ran into a bit of clutch slip so its currently turned down a fair bit went racing at the weekend but had some issues with second jumping out, also had a problem since my last update apparently I am a little hard on parts.....
also found an issue with the 3rd gear idler looks like the bearing has gone going to have a good look this weekend.

Wao! separated the center of the spool, that's from them hard launches.

A friend repaired the spool for me by machining off the damaged part and making a new ring that bolts onto the old spool centre
The old Damaged Pro Ring which i replaced with a new one from weddle (first time welding a pro ring on but its working)
A new name and look for the car based on my Girlfirends Dads car White noise a SBC powered peugeot 205 that runs low 9's
Ran some very close times at the weeked had a few poor runs and unfortunately eliminations were rained off its currently on 19 psi which is more or less wastgate pressure but this was Q1 and Q2 so i pretty much had my dial
Q3 the clutch slipped and I ran a 11.63 onto the following day I ran a 11.13 on a 11.12 dial for Q4 which brielfy put me in 7th
after a couple more qualifyers Q5 missed the 2-3 shift ran a 11.64 and Q6 boost hose came off went 12.01 ended up in 20th which for such a tight class I was really happy out of 41 cars
I am back out in a couple of weeks for the final VWDRC round at the National Finals going to change the clutch its currently a RLR Black magic with a stage 3 pressure plate I suspect the pressure plate is warped so have a new pressure plate and a 4 puck (only one I could get at short notice made by latest rage? )