Welding the Burner

F.I.W.S has been busy and Mark Devenport has repaced a left heater channel, made good the rear crossmembers and body mounts both sides, and custom made a trick removable rear valence.
Mean time the pan has been cleaned back, a new set of brake hoses and a drive boot fitted and the chassis made ready to accept the repaired shell.
Here is a photo of the pan. All original metal, no repairs needed which I am really happy with.

I had initially planned to replace only the closing panel on the left side heater channel as the main portion of the channel inside the car is in very good condition. The complication came along the running board edge where holes meant that repairs would be needed to fit the closing plate. Time is money, and the most effective course of action for the best repair was a whole heater channel replacement. Here is the result.

Round at the back end of the car, inner arch repairs were needed and the body mounts had corrosion cut out and new metal let in.

In this photo (to the left side) you can see the new method of retaining the rear valence. This makes it removable by undoing 2 flange nuts and 2 wing bolts each side. Its a sturdy job, excellent work by Mark, and I look forward to seeing how it works with the body back on and the engine in place.

The next tasks are to repair the front end and get the body re-united with the chassis. Then he new bonnet will be fitted, wings too, and a replacement passenger door.
Paint is booked for 2 weeks time. Watch this space!

The VWDRC is 25 this year and the Burner will be stepping up to plate to stand proud with some very special race cars.

This weekend the work started to put a couple of niggles to bed, to sort some MOT-welding, all in preparation for finishing the Burner off in the special 2012 25th year anniversary paint job.

So this is how it started. I had a rust issue on the framehead and a couple on the rear crossmembers. Both of these are common, both are very awkward to get to and I want to know to what extent the rust taken hold. Its a 2 hour job to take the body off the chassis on a Beetle and with some good friends to help here is how it was done.

At Burner HQ I pulled the engine and fuel tank and separated the front brake reservoir. Once at the Welder unit the first job was to split the stitch weld on the closing plate. This was a ‘temporary’ job a couple years back.

Once that job was out of the way and all the bolts out, each man grab a corner and lift.

Raise up above the gearstick (dont forget the battery cable – the only wiring that I didnt disconnet!) and lift away to some sturdy trestles.

The result is very pleasing. The ‘pan is in tip top condition and worries about the framehead completely unfounded.

The body requires a little more work around the rear crossmembers than I hoped, but overall its good news with the rust areas looking at initial investigation that they can be dealt with by local cutting and small repairs.

Wheels, bonnet and wings

I have sourced some wings and a Gasser style bonnet, to replace the damaged parts after colliding with a Deer. Here is a quick photo of the front as it stands now.

This week I will be making ready for taking the body off of the chassis, which is scheduled for next Saturday. Its coming off to repair a couple of difficult to access areas ( the channel closing plate and the framehead).

I have also spoken to Bruce at WRP Paint about the respray. Things are getting busy at Burner HQ now, and everyone in the club is looking forward to 2012 – the clubs’ 25th Anniversary year.

Points make Prizes

The final points table has been now been posted on the club website (http://vwdrc.com/points)
Beetle Burner finished 5th with 1700 points. I managed to push Dennis Cox into 6th position (1550 points) and this move made me the highest finishing Aircooled car in Sportsman. Dennis drives a 1641cc turbo swb buggy, though for the last couple of rounds had dropped back to his spare car a mk4 Golf.
I was unable to make the leap up the table any further, Paul Jackson finishing in 4th on 1840 points in his mk1 Golf.
This really was a very strong finish to the season for me as I only managed 5 rounds this season so I missed out on the 100 point bonus for competing 6 or more events. These numbers have really made me feel positive for 2012.
 
The car is sat waiting for the mods to begin. The damaged front quarter will be cut off and countless small rust repairs made good. Replacement wings are loosely held in position and a new bonnet has been sourced and will soon be collected. At some point in the New Year after the metalwork is completed, the Burner will be off to a fellow racer; WRP paint & body to finish the whole thing off in fresh paint. A set of wheels have been collected, bigger rubber bought for the back and trial fitting of that will happen in the next month or so to fix the clearance issues that were affecting the launch.
As we approach the clocks changing, those dark cold winter nights in the workshop are calling …..

Beetle Burner Wins the Finals and secures 5th place

Beetle Burner took first place this weekend at the National Finals and finished 5th in the 2011 VW Sportsman Championship. To put the icing on the cake, (thats www.bakey-cakey.co.uk) , Burner is the highest placed Aircooled VW in Sportsman too.

Photo courtesy of ‘The Mad Welshman’

In elimination round 1, I chased down Matt Bennett-Sime, caught him by half track and just kept my nose in front to the line to prevent a break out.

The semi final was against seasoned racer Martin Ayrton and I had the head start this time. A double break out, Martin passing the finish post first but loosing the race by a small margin of 0.04 seconds. For the first time I had made the final.

So, I had a 2 second wait on the line in the final against the auto Golf of James London. A chase which I had under control by 3/4 track and then just blipped the throttle to victory, running a 16.50 on a 16.48 dial.

This has been a good season, and has ended the best possible way. Many thanks must go out to AJ who helped countless times, not least when the 1200cc engine was needed for BugJam. Thanks to Jodie and to Imogen the best support crew in the world. Thanks to Nick for the cup of tea, wise words and BIG bbq’s. Thanks to Koen from Belgium. And thank you to all in the VWDRC.

Time for a little break. See you all in a month or two.

Dean Clatworthy, Owner, Builder, Racer > Beetle Burner.

2011 National Finals

Its the last round of the championship this weekend and Beetle Burner will be pushing hard for good result to end the season on a high.

Somewhat battered after an encounter with some wildlife, we are looking for a good finish to the season to secure 6th or even 5th in the champinship. This would be superb, bettering last years 7th place finish.

So for the last time this year we will be heading up to Santa Pod this friday to have a top weekend of racing and socialising with the VWDRC.

See you all in the fire up lane. Vroom Vroom. . . .

Burner 1, Deer 0. ?

Burner is 6th equal in the Championship

With only one round remaining Beetle Burner has 1040 points and in closing on Dennis, trailing by only 190 points.

The Open Sports Nationals was a difficult weekend, with the track crew unable to keep up with the poor weather. 16.12, and 16.19 runs were sufficient to get me into 3rd spot in qualifying, proving the Burner is abck to full power.
Reaction times were excellent 0.04 and 0.07 seconds. The poor startline grip meant i was a gentle on the power from the lights and therefore 60 foot times slightly down, so once we are back at Santa Pod I will be looking for a 15.

Eliminations were set and I faced the current leader in his VW Derby. I cut the light too fine and with a -0.004 it was red and I was on my way home. I couldnt resist putting the boot in and held out for a quick 1/4 mile at 16.05 to end the weekend.

The countdown is on. The Finals are on the horizon. Can we grab 5th or better? the RACE is ON ……

(24-25 Sept at Santa Pod, email for more info)

Open Sports Nationals

This weekend at Shakespear County Raceway I will be taking on 10 other Sportsman racers and will be aiming to move up from 6th in the overall standings. The Burner is back to full power with the 1776cc race motor fully rebuilt and prepped. See you at the track and stay tuned to Eurodragster.com for full live coverage.

Engine News

Though the 1200cc engine made it through a round of racing, its not something I want to do on a regular basis. The 1776cc motor has been stripped to find that the metal in the sump was in fact leftovers from the failure earier in the season. No damage to the main or crank bearings and the cam in perfect condition too so the decision to not run it for BugJam saved the loose metal causing any issues.
While inside the cases I have had the distributor drive seat machined and tidied up where it worn and I have checked the deck height.
A little dissapointed with the 8.3 : 1 compression ratio, im not 100% sure of the way forward. In the short term I will run the same set up (with 8.3:1) for the Open Sports Nationals and the National Finals and then look to ammend that compression ratio over the winter season.
Open Sports Nationals at Shakespear Raceway on the August Bank Holiday, we will back into the 16s and the little 1200cc engine tucked away in the shed …
See you at the track

Beetle Burner closes the gap on 6th position

After a monumental effort from AJ, helping get the spare 1200cc engine into the Burner and then spending all of saturday morning at Santa Pod tuning, Qualifying went better than we could have hoped.
With only 0.03 off my dial in 6th position was secured in the large sportsman field of 20 cars.
Performance from the temporary engine was not exciting by any stretch of the imagination, but with a steady run in the first round of elimiantions I defeated Jacob and was though to round 2.
A twitchy trigger finger left me with a red light against Martin in round 2 though and I was off home.
A very good weekend had by all, with special thanks to Koen from Belguim, AJ, Nick and of course Jodie.

The outcome was that Martin moved up a couple places and I am now just 130 points behind 6th position Dennix Cox.

Back at Burner HQ the issues with the 1776cc race engine are being dealt with and Its full steam ahead to be ready for the Open Sports Nationals at Shakespear County Raceway over the August bank holiday.