From
down under in the State of South Australia, the name of Ken Virgin
cannot be overlooked and is automatically connected with Volkswagens.
In 1956, Ken at the age of 47 was driving a 1956 VW in most forms
of motor sport, road racing, hill climbs etc. In 1961, the much improved
40hp (at the time) was purchased to take over the racing from the
old '56. In 1965, drag racing was introduced to SA and Ken as a spectator
went along to watch the lads at this new sport; when over the public
address system came announcement for persons wishing to compete. After
competing at the meeting….. years went past without missing one drag
meet
At the age of 63 Ken decided to give his son the driving responsibility,
and now father was the other part of the pit crew; from then on
a very formidable team was developing their drag car which at this
stage was a street driven 61 running times of 14.6 sec, these times
were considered to be very fast for a VW.
The year now is 1971 and drag racing is about to go through it's
rapid development stage, with more and more parts coming out of
the USA. The VW after 2 years is running 13.00sec still using all
street equipment and looking like a street car. The a change of
class of competition is decided upon and the rules allow a lot more
modifications. Fibreglass bonnet-boot and guards are put on. Inside
upholstery is removed, a 1 gallon fuel tank is put in to replace
the old 8 gallon tank. Front spindles are machined to accept Anglia
bearings and cast all 12 spoke wheels put on front brakes are removed.
Rear brakes from later model are put on and spun all composite wheels
are used to try to remove weight (the revolving type). Motor is
82spg roller crank, 88 Mahle forged pistons, engle cam .2 48ida
webbers, scintilla vertex mag, solid mounts third gear(i.34-1) 1.1
top gear is used in the gear box and various size slicks from 26.6/28.5
are used. After 2 years of competing, sorting out, 12.2 @ 102mph
is the best the car will go, and the need (or desire) to go faster
is nagging the team. The 11sec times don't seem far away, although
as anybody in drag racing knows to take .2-.3 tenths off a seemingly
sorted out car is not easy to achieve. It is finally a loosened
fly wheel that decides the motor is needs rebuilding, the snout
of the crank is all chewed away and so a new motor is needed and
has to be built within one month as missing out on a drag meet in
not what the team desired. A lot of theory had to be done and a
lot of hard work was ahead as this new motor had to run in the 11's
8,000rpm was decided to be the maximum to be used, so working down
from 4th gear the ratios were worked out. The gearbox until now
had not received a lot of attention, but to keep the motor on song,
now was the time to do it! A Webster 4.86 crown and pinion was selected
along with a spool 1.125:1 4th 1.34 3rd, 3.2:1 2nd and a tall 2.65
1st, this should give the required minimum rev loss while changing
gears. Firestone…26 tall were flown out from the States (USA). These
proved to be very sticky- right on!. A Scat 80mm crank is used with
standard VW rods, the old 88 Mahl pistons are used and actually
every other component stayed as it was, even the jets in the 48ida's
are as they were, with car back together it's off to the strip,
for yet another meet.
Passing through inspection, weighing etc, the car heads for the
strip for practice. Revs are estimated as a rev counter is not used,
the car staged; motor winds over at 7,000 the clutch(standard) us
popped, the tall bottom gear is let to run out 8,000 and hit second,
same for third and shortly after into top. The engine is really
turning over and the end of the strip doesn't come up quick enough
as one is sure the motor is going to blow; through the traps safely
and another run over, car still in one piece. After the car comes
to rest out of the way of other competitors, Glen hops out to check
the slick, they are nice and warm. Father (in push car) and son
anticipate a good run. Back to pits and a time card is produced
by officials 11.9 @107mph. That's fast enough for No.1 qualifier.
Later that day 5 more runs 11.8-108,11.78-110, 11.7-109, 11.78-108,
which were fast and consistent enough to win the bracket at that
meet. After several more meets and similar times it is decided to
retire the car and concentrate on building a Type IV dragster, as
to keep the Beetle going it was considered the car had achieved
it's goal, and the target with the rail would be to run in the 9.99
times. The '61 Beetle has now gone the full circle, with Ken now
driving the car on the street, minus a lot of goodies.
Glen Virgin
