ShopTalk Forums | Aircooled VW Tech & Restoration Help

I want to set-up a ´68 ghia coupe for road racing. The engine wil be a 1600. In the beginning I want to use the original gearbox but I´m already rebuilding a 914 gearbox. What can I do with the suspension? Lowered spindels, Good shocks, Upgrade the brakes,................. What else could I do?

I dont have a ghia but I do road race a bug and I would recomend dropped spindles, billsteins in the front and koni yellow adjustable in the rear, 30mm torsion bars rear,replace the springplate bushings with eurethane as well as the irs pivot bushing, 3/4 sway bars front and rear, or if your rich some nice whitline adjustable bars, stock front disk with ferodo pads ,rear disc either 944 or cb performace to retain four lug, with ferodo pads, Ate super blue brake fluid or motul rbf 600 I like them both, braided brake lines.make shure the front end is rebuilt or in very good shape , caster shims, aftermarket ecentricks so you can dial in more front camber, stock are only good for about 1 degree.A nice seat to keep you put realy helps so does a 5 point harness, it lets you concentrate on driving and not hanging on to the steering wheel for dear life Lots of track time because the car can sometimes be faster than one can drive it. There is a guy that races a ghia and has done very well you should see what he has to say. His team name is Retro racing some where in the mid west I think, AJ did his heads and carbs.There is also a guy that races a ghia with V.A.R.A. car #70 in socal but I dont know his name. Good luck and have fun.

Have you already verified that the drop spindles are allowable under the rules? What does the rulebook say about swaybars and attachment points? In some organizations you can use a larger bar but must retain the stock mounting method. No 'Ghia ever had a rear bar stock, and you want one if they'll allow it. What about adjusters, "weight jacks", and added (adjustable) springs, are there any restrictions?

Marc what kind of racing did you or do you do ? I think I remember your avatar was a red ghia race car or am I tottaly off ?

here here to rsnate's suggestions. if you're unrestricted, that's the way to go for suspension mods. the only thing i'd add is a kafer cup style brace in the rear.

you should search or read through some earlier posts, on this forum. there's plenty of good recommendations out there.

do take marc's suggestion of looking into the rules though...

rsrnate wrote:Marc what kind of racing did you or do you do ? I think I remember your avatar was a red ghia race car or am I tottaly off ?

Just left turns (paved oval-track). I had a partner with a Fiat 128 Sport Coupe who also road-raced with it and I helped out with that, but personally I never got into it. I used to run a Class 1 Unlimited off-road buggy with my boss too (he did most of the desert races and I did the stadium events) but roundy-round was my first love.
I've read a lot of rule books (even written a couple) and there's often a restriction placed on "suspension mounting points" requiring that they remain unaltered even if reworking the components is allowed. Drop spindles would be disallowed in most "stock" classes as would aftermarket camber eccentrics - but there was never any enforcement regarding bending control arms for camber ; in the open classes I've competed in, VWs have been allowed to raise the entire front beam in relation to the chassis which is a great place to start (impractical with a full body, but we were also allowed fiberglass noses).

I have always wnated to put the bug on a oval track just to see what she would do Irwindale speedway had a day were you could buy laps for 5 or 10 bucks last year but I could not get any of my friends to go so I didnt make it. I have entered the bug in a rally and that was alot of fun but I was on azenis and I had no traction, the very next day I enterd a auto-x and I could not believe how much easier it was to drive on a paved surface.I am still trying to get the mud out of the car and that was last year I did the rally

We did a demonstration/promotion event at a nearby clay track once with a bunch of StreetStock cars; nobody changed their setup much and lemme tell ya, a car set up for pavement really sucks on a dirt-track - the chattering from the washboard ripples was so severe that several cars had their fenders fall off (packed with clay they weighed about 100 lbs apiece too). I shoulda worn a mouthguard - you couldn't keep your jaw clenched tight enough to keep your teeth from rattling. The more powerful cars with worse traction that could get their rear ends sliding in that sticky stuff and keep their RPM up (like Pintos) were doing the best; I was flogging my bug back and forth between 2nd and 3rd and keeping up pretty well until the vibration made my Reverse shift fork bolt back out and 2nd was no longer an option
The sprint car drivers all wanted us to come back on a regular basis (evidently we polished the track for them and they ran faster than normal that night) but it was obvious we'd need to make some drastic changes in setup and very few were interested.
Running on dirt is great fun and not all that hard when the car's right for it, but regardless of the surface any time it's easy you aren't trying hard enough

I didn´t think about the possibility that it was not allowed to use dropped spindles. I have to read the rulebook to see what is OK.

Rsrnate,

Where do you get ferodo pads?

http://www.ferodo.co.uk/ferodo_home/
http://www.raceshopper.com/ferodo_brake_pads.shtml
http://www.braketech.com/

Thanks Marc!

Marc,

Where did you get your ferodo pads:?:

I queried raceshopper http://www.raceshopper.com/ferodo_brake_pads.shtml and got this answer:

[quote] Unfortunately, we have no listings for this vehicle.
You can fax or e-mail us a diagram of the brake pads- and we'll let you
know what may be available. [quote]