Thread: Streetracer Ghia.

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Hi,
New guy from Sweden.
Check my blog http://streetracerghia.blogspot.com/

Hey man, welcome! I just found this site myself...

Welcome max2919
Wow don't know if we have any active members there yet. Nice to know there are hot rodder's everywhere! A street racer ghia should be very cool. We have a few VW fans here that have some serious nice rides.
Here are a couple.

Welcome, Looks like your early on in your project. Good time to make some plans in order to have it come out the best way possible.

My son and I run a 1960 Sunroof Bug and have run a quickest of 11.01 ET at 123 MPH. The car is "no lightweight" at 1900# car and driver.

Based on my experience of racing this "street car" for over ten years you need to do some planning to have a safe and quick car. If I were to start another car today these are the things "I would", or "would not" do.

1) forget about running a type 1 transmission and just go to the initial expense of building a type 2 transmission in the beginning. Dave Folts makes an axle conversion kit to change from the IRS transmission to your swing axle chassis. Although we run his kit on our car, I have some serious safety concerns about what happens when you break an axle U-Joint, so I have built some retention braces for the axle tubes.

2) You will need to address the rear wheel/tire clearance problem if your set on building a Ghia based car. You should narrow the torsion housing and "mini tub" the inside of the body for tire clearance.

3) It might just be easier to build "your own" IRS rear suspension from the begining. Look for a web site called Lawless Designs, Mike Lawless, White Knuckle Ride. Mike is one of my racing buddies, and is in my opinion, the single "best source" for someone that has tried everything running a street legal Ghia drag car. He won the Famosa "March Meet" this year beating 256 V-8 bracket racers with a "old school" alcohol burning Hilborn mechaincal injected VW.

4) Make sure you build a cage into the car and tie the torsion housing into the cage. The added weight will be "off set" by the quicker 60 foot times.

Most likely you will be close to 1800# to 1900# when your done (car/driver). If you have roll up windows and steel doors. Not much to save by going to fiberglass, IMO. You will need to produce about 260HP to get to run in the 11's. It's a fun ride because it will run quick 1.50 sixty foot times even if it only runs 11.90 on six inch tires.

Two other VW specific resources are Cal Look.com and Ultimate Air Cooled.com.

Good Luck with your project

Welcome Max2919,
I like to see other ACVW's. We have street raced and off road raced them since we were kids, in many different forms.
One thing about a ACVW, their like a old Ford hot rod, you can build them many different ways, and they'll still hold up. Some of our friends turn 7's & 8's with them, some of them turn 12's and some slower. We all have just as much fun.

Have fun and build safe!!!

Pat