News and Views

Re: RWYB's are where it's at

Just come back from the "GTI Festival" at Santa Pod and believe me there are some "sleepers" out there. One, a pale blue Mk4 Golf, slightly lowered, drove quietly to the startline. When the green light came on it dashed, arrow straight all the way down the track, stopping the 1/4 mile et clock 11.54 seconds later at 118mph. "Run what you brung" events often bring out the best in Drag Racing. Cars which usually run to an index can be seen running at, or close to, full potential. For example "Super Gas" cars which run to a 9.90 second index can be seen running in the low 9 or high 8 second region, (definitely spectator fodder). If this years "GTI Festival" was anything to go by, I would recommend next years to any Drag Racing fan. (11/06/2000)

Re: Do I need Titanium Valves

Titanium valves are 4 times the price! Approx $650 per set! The money could be put to better use. If the "valve Train" is heavy the exhaust valve probably be the first to touch, make sure of enough clearance with piston, spend money on lightweight lifters, autocraft tapered pushrods, titanium retainers, vasco springs and Pauter rockers if you have all these then consider titanium valves....      The valve spring doesn't just control the valve, but keeps the whole valvetrain under control. The camshaft pushes the lifter, pushrod, rocker and valve one way and the job of the spring is to move the whole lot back again. As the valve spring is controlling all of the said items if any are made lighter the valve spring will have less work to do....

Re: Lost or Stolen

Karl Donovan ......... After early season testing, (its mighty cold at Santa Pod in March,) Bugeyed laid down several 10 teen passes trying a new suspension setup. Into the session the car started "laying down" at the top end, the session was aborted after a compression check revealed a low cylinder, Karl said "The car sounds and feels strong. It just goes to show how important it is to consider the information available". After returning to base the car was disassembled one valve seat was found to be useless. Karl said "When your running this hard trying to do that magic 9, these things happen." The heads were found to be none useable. A new set of Autocraft "super heads" very hush hush were orderd from America ........ Thats when the trouble started, the heads have been lost or stolen in transit, they were "tracked all the way to Luton". It takes approx 12 weeks for the insurance etc to be sorted out. So if you hear of a 1200 Beetle with a special set of heads let Karl know so he can get racing.

Re: Flat Peaks

VW racecars to the purest (as we all are on this Web Site) means keeping an eye on that camshaft. Lots of race engines when using high lift cams in conjuction with radical valve spings have the cam go away. The resultant mess, all that ground up camshaft lobe can do immeasurable damage. We hope this may have been solved. Udo Becker (the main man in Germany) builds VW engines not only for drag racing, but is also at the top in Kafer Cup (Beetles going roundy roundy). Udo experiences no problems with cams. He uses followers which were designed for Formula Vee. These lifters are super light but of course super expensive. FK 98 cam with Chevy spring no problem just fire it up, let it tick over. All is not lost, the same company in Germany makes an identical lifter apart from being so light, but the price is still pretty expensive.

Re: Bugster Update

Bugster will be back on the track as soon as we receive our new parts from the USA. We decided at the end of the last century, that the VW cased engine which we've developed over the last 4 seasons was at its full development. The car could go faster with a VW case, but reliability would suffer, we've tried 88 stroke with steel rods, 86 with both alloy and steel, many different rod lengths etc etc. The final engine is now in the hands of Ralph & Laurie Craig. I don't think it would be fair for me to disclose exactly the specification but hopefully the Craigs car will be featured shortly. I can say that this particular engine has run 9.50's on several occasions, 140mph and revs with good power up to 9 grand (with noz)...... We're trying a new approach, an aftermarket case, short stroke 78mm, 100mm bore, this will allow us to use a larger inlet valve, more weight, but hopefully the much shorter valve train will compensate for this, the con rod is short too. I can't really go into detail until its run, but if it is successful you'll be the first to know, with an in depth description. Mr DHL, please deliver our parts.

Re: McCloed Floater Clutch

The biggest problem is getting a clutch that will reliably transfer power from the engine to the transmission. All clutches "slip", if the clutch were an on/off switch the transmission would break. The secret is to smoothly and reliably transfer the energy. Any energy not transfered to the transmission is "lost" in the clutch in the form of heat. The clutch then has to dissipate that heat. If more heat is produced than the clutch can dissipate, the clutch is destroyed, the centre disc turned from fricton material to junk. Heat transfered through the pressure plate destroys (de-tempers) the springs that "push" the pressure plate. Once a clutch has "burned" just changing the centre plate rarely rectifies the problem..... Change both pressure plate and centre plate(disc). Throughout our career in VW drag racing BUGSTER, we have tried most types of clutch, you name it, we've probably tried it. You've heard the saying "you pay peanuts.....you get monkeys", we've found exactly the same with clutches, the cheap route ends up more expensive. The McCloed clutch is not a direct replacement for a VW clutch! The flywheel has to be modified to accept the larger diameter Clutch Cover Plate and Stands. Picture "1", shows the"Floater Plate", you can see the 6 evenly spaced semi-circles, this is where the 6 stands locate. Picture "2", shows the corresponding holes in the "Clutch Cover", by inserting 20thou shims under the 6 "Stands", the clutch is made softer, conversely take shim out the clutch becomes harder. On a conventional pressure plate the clutch cover and pressure plate are one unit, that bolts directly to the flywheel. Picture "3", shows the "Centre Disc" not your normal 3 or 4 puck disc, our disc is similar to a "top fuel " disc , just smaller (200 mm), but has the same qualities.... We call it a "High-Coefficient Disc" as it becomes hotter, so it grips more, the down side is its "rotating mass". McCloed Industries have been making the "Floater Clutch" for over 20 years its original application was for sprint cars. Another outstanding feature of the design is the lightness of the clutch pedal, so light in fact as to think "this will never work" but in fact 100% reliable (in the 5 years we have never had a failure)..........PB