In the world of motor racing there’s a lot of talk - horsepower figures, torque curves, lap times, terminal speeds etc. But when the flag drops, the bullshit


stops. And this is where the bullshit stops...





Having built and developed a turbocharged, 1914cc, street-driven Oval window some 10 years ago that ran a best of 12.74 seconds at 104mph on the quarter-mile,


Matt Keene (VolksWorld's technical editor) decided, if he was to go faster, he needed a new car, but this time rather than being a compromise between the street and the strip he needed an all-out race car.


Matt thought long and hard about what he wanted to achieve. Sensibly, he didn't set out to build the world's fastest Beetle. Instead, he set his sights on a car capable of consistent and reliable 10-second quarter-miles.


To put that into perspective, the Bugatti Veyron will do a standing quarter-mile in 10.2 seconds at 142.9mph. But you'd have to shell out close to one million sheets for that privilege. Matt figured he could do it cheaper than that. He also figured he could do it with a stock-bodied VW with a stock floorpan, but that he'd need around 300bhp, to achieve that goal. That's quite possible these days, of course, especially when Matt was planning to use a turbo and fuel injection. All he needed then was a car. When Matt heard about a part-built race car for sale, his ears pricked up. The car belonged to Pete Shattock (USA issue 15). When Matt saw the car, he knew he'd found what he was looking for.


Matt: "The car already had the inner bulkheads and the dashboard cut out to a very high standard and Pete had also drilled about half of the lightening holes the car now has.


I started cutting out metal to make way for a Porsche 915 gearbox with Quaife limited slip diff that I was going to use," he explains. Matt's is a lover of IRS for the rear of a Beetle - both for its design advantages and also its superior road holding - and was never planning to use the stock torsion bar rear suspension, so cut most of that out, leaving just the torsion bar housing, around which he made up his own adjustable trailing arm brackets. In the process of doing all this, he narrowed the back end around 5-inches so he could get some decent rubber under the stock arches.


By this point he'd also done a deal with good friend Marco


Mansi for the engine. Being a water-cooled Wasserboxer lump, it was an unusual choice but it was already highly developed and Matt knew it still had a lot more to give.


"Next I decided to replace the mild steel 'cage with a current regulation-spec. chromoly one. I called on Wayne Allman of the Intergalactic Custom Shop and the two of us worked six days solid to make a semitube frame chassis / rollcage structure." Interestingly the body is separate from the 'cage, as Matt wanted to be able to lift the body off if necessary.


Virtually everything else on this car has been handmade, and considered at great length from an engineering, weight saving and, of course, a safety perspective.


When he was absolutely sure he'd thought of everything he dry-built the entire car before taking it all apart again to be sandblasted. It was then turned over to good friend Matt Bown, who smoothed the body and sprayed on some two-pack primer mixed with a mid-green base coat.


Coming from the factory in L412 Diamond Green - a 1956-only hue - this was the only colour choice for the body.


The interior is a custom mix biscuit shade that was designed to mimic the original interior trim a Diamond Green car would have. From there it was simply (he says...) a case of bolting it all back together.


First time out there were a few issues with the rear springs and shocks being too soft - the car was bottoming out on launch, causing the rear tyres to unload. Then the driver's side window blew out at 125mph!" Despite this, 5 runs later, Matt had a timing ticket that read 11.50 at 128.79mph and a smile like the Cheshire Cat. A good first outing, especially so when you learn the boost was turned down to 13psi and just 330bhp of its 415 was available.


A month later saw Matt with 600lb rear springs installed and wider, 8-inch Ercos on the rear with taller 8-inch slicks.


An 11.2 at 128mph was run on the Friday followed by a 10.6, a 10.52 and peaking with a 10.37 at 135mph on the Sunday. In just two meets, he had achieved his goal of a 10-second quarter-mile.


"I'm fairly confident it'll get into the nines. It's certainly handling the power okay, chassis-wise." We'llhave to wait and see if Matt decides to push it that far but one thing's for sure - it's going to be crazy when he turns the boost up...



 

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