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My
association with Volkswagens began back in 1997 when I acquired a
1966 1300 beetle from my brother, compliments of my parents. The car
was in completely original trim, although in need of a restoration
and had proven to be very tidy and reliable. |
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I
swapped the 1300 motor for a 1600 twinport, and over the university
holidays I was fortunate enough to pick up some work with a panel
beater by the name of Steve at Montacute Crash. It wasn't long before
he was helping me with the beetle, and with a primary outlay of $1500
we were able to strip it back for a complete bare metal re-spray.
It was not a real difficult task because the car had most of the factory
paint with little rust and few dents. I gave the trim a tidy up (recovered
to look original) and with the addition of Porsche 356 replica wheels,
the car started to take shape. Since the car rode on 195/50 profile
tyres there was a distinct gap in the mudguards so I took it down
to Peter & Adam DeBiasi for the addition of adjustable front end torsion
bars and a slight drop in the rear. The car remained like this for
a while, and one day whilst cruising along I was pulled over by Richard
Newbury and he introduced me to the Volks Enthusiasts club of SA.
After joining up and attending some meetings I was really delighted
to find that there was in fact other people who shared the same interest
in clean VW's as me. Another element that has really taken me back
since joining this club is that I am yet to come across anyone that
displays the typical egotistic nature or arrogance of others who own
nice cars. This is despite the fact that (I believe) we have some
cars in our club that match it with the best in Australia if not world-wide. |
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Last
year (2000) during the uni mid-semester break, whilst flicking through
a few VW magazines I came to the conclusion that compared to some,
my beetle was not quite as low and consequently did not stand out
as much. So equipped with a jack and a few spanners, I managed to
turn the rear torsion bars a couple of splines and the front came
down about 2 or 3 inches from where it previously stood. With the
removal of the bump-stops I soon worked out that maybe I had gone
a bit too far, for I could not get the car out the driveway, and there
was literally no suspension travel at all. However, my car looked
really mean so I ventured off to show a few mates. Bouncing around
like a Kangaroo and creating sparks from every bump larger than 5
centimetres, I got less than 1 kilometre down the road before I grabbed
the attention of a traffic police officer. He explained that for safety
more than anything a street car 'must have suspension travel', so
my initial question was 'What's the legal limit on how far I can lower
the car?' To my surprise he went to his bike and pulled out a book
which stated that my model beetle requires a front bump-stop clearance
of 25mm, and the rear 34 mm with bump-stop rubbers that measure 44mm
and 57mm for the front and back respectively. 'Fair enough' I said
and proceeded to take the car home with the addition of a defect sticker
on the front windscreen. I raised the car back up, made a few other
subtle changes (including a dent in the rear mudguard!) and had the
car inspected at Regency Park. They gave it a detailed inspection
and said that there was a engine/gearbox leak, no battery strap and
movement in the front king-pins (which coincidentally was only found
by raising the car off the ground and forcing the front wheels with
a 3 foot pole!). Thankfully I was able to drive the car practically
straight into the DeBiasi's workshop and they fixed the whole lot
up for me in a few hours. |
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Back to Regency Park, only this time I was confronted with a nice
man who virtually had the forms signed before inspecting the car,
and was impressed with what I had done to it. However, my suspension
dilemmas did not end there, for a few months later our festival show-day
was approaching and mysteriously the suspension had 'sagged' a little
bit. As fate would have it, on the way down to the show my police
friend (yes the same one who pulled me over before) had a better memory
than I expected and pulled me over. Just before he reached for the
defect book, I explained that the car was no where near as low as
when I was defected, and yes I had lowered it a little bit - but purely
for show reasons. As the car stood, it was very close to meeting the
legal bump stop regulations. Unfortunately I could not convince him
that a VW can be lowered and still give the same ride comfort as a
standard height one, with the added advantage of better handling.
Thankfully though, he put his defect book back only to issue me a
fine, numbered A715 'Driving vehicle altered from standard'. I was
a bit disappointed but would rather fork out a $50 fine than go through
the hassle of another defect. As a precautionary measure I have since
raised the car and have not had any more trouble from the Police.
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As
the car is my only form of transport, it gets used on an every day
basis and has been extremely reliable. To date the car has run on
a tight budget and owes me very little. A lot of people ask me how
I manage to keep car so straight yet have it as a daily driver,
but I guess the trick is being selective where it gets parked -
and keeping it clean & polished. Over the next 18 months or so I
am hoping to get the DeBiasi boys' to build the motor out to a 1916.
I am in no real rush, my only problem at the moment is locating
unwanted new or near new parts (mainly the 94mm barrels & pistons
and a 69mm counterweight crank) - can any one help??
Keep those exhausts banging driveways, Graeme Fenton
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