The race to end all races.

Pulling ourselves out of our winter hibernation, highs in the 20s, for just a moment to tell you about why the Europeans have MUCH better car show.

Here is the legend of the very special car race.

On cloudy summer day while working in the dark recesses of the Oldtimers OldSpeed club a group of mad scientists come up with the perfect “race” to lead into Bad Camber and they called it the Cannon Ball run. The race was to powerful to be contained by one group, and as any good end of the world movie will tell you, it escaped to infect the rest of Europe. This caused insolent 50s Beetle, 356 and couch built owners to go mad with the desire to race across Germany to see whom could be the first to BC. So the wise Oldtimer Oldspeed club set up a start point of 100km out from the show on some of Germanys pretty back roads for an all out sprint to the finish.

It looks as if there will be multiple classes to allow for cars of different displacements to have a fair fight. . Well as fair as a Beetle Vs a 356 could ever be. So if you are going to be in Germany next summer for BC you HAVE to check out this race. Or even better get off your tush and get that old VW or Porsche in this fantastic race!

The quest for knowledge

The OSS is currently look for any and all article(net or paper) on the 356 Type 540 America roadster. If you have any interesting links or want to sell/send/scan article for us feel free to contact us at oldspeedshack@gmail.com

52-52 America Roadster Oil Sump

Okrasa special update.

In case you have not been following the Okrasa special build use your mouse to scroll down and see the couch build work in progress.

Thanks to the Monaro Motors Dual SU carburetor kit rebuild last year the OSS has found a fondness for everything old speed-Australian. Through the forum Aussieveedubbers.com we have met a few vintage gear heads and learned about what craziness they are up to over in OZ. There seems to be more than a couple of well made/ DIY kits running dual 28PCI carbs down under. The DIY movement related to these old VWs is what makes this obsession with vantage parts and cars so much fun! . Cut, Weld, Drive… think that is another sites catch faze but that is what many of us are in fact doing. Yes those Okrasa heads are cool and that Abarth muffler is drop dead gorgeous but sometimes the fun in it is getting your hands, face and knees dirty! This is not to say that you need to build your whole motor, hell we here at the OSS are having a short block built by a por. Why you might ask, well because we don’t have enough time to finish the damn beetle let along build another engine! LOL But we digress, so if you have some time check out what our vintage speed brothers are doing over in Australia.

Kustom Karmann

When it comes right down to it this is the way to go, 356 engine and brakes = so much more potential right out of the box. Of course these days the price tag on one of these little gems is a more than may of us pay for our VWs. But back in the day you had the chance to pick Porsche engine from wrecks here and there. This sadly happen no more.

Only thing we were sad about from this article was the fact that the Ghia had a 3 piece case instead of the much cooler 2 piece case.

Dick Beith 50th anniversary

1960: Dick & his record setting VW at the entrance to the famed Bonneville Salt Flats (image from the Dick Beith archive)

In 1960 Dick Beith became the first man to set a land speed record in a VW. In 1961 he went back to Bonneville and broke the 100MPH mark with his modified dual carb VW motor. Now 50 year after his first record setting run Dick has returned to the flats to see if he can double his 100+ time!!!

Oh we forgot to mention his 1963 Pepco super charged 36hp lakester that was able to pull 130MPH!!!

This time he has modified a 68 Beetle into a bit more of a streamliner powered by a 1450 36hp monster with fuel injection, Eaton Supercharger and fuel injection. Hell we here at the OSS get excited about dual carbureated 36hp motors so this is like a wet dream.

We will update the OSS with times when we get the heads up on yesterdays runs.

And yes we have posted this before but it is always a good watch.

German VW commercial

Lorenz from Germany modified this old VW commercial and we love this one!

Wheel part 3

Rob is almost done with our custom 3 spoke steering wheel. Some more wet sanding and into the beetle it goes!

Rometsch

Here in the north east USA we don't see to many of these little buggers around, and if we do they tend to be basket cases.

VW Know how

This article was written by the late Jack Bono hum Raced Beetle and 356 Porsches in Australia. Along with modifying both so that they would handle much better than stock.

Wheel part 2

More progress on the one off three spoke steering wheel, yes Rob is the man.

Trial of a 36hp motor...

The Sechs Volt Garage has been one of our favorite VW hot-up publications for the last few years now but our 36hp VW motor has committed a crime against them and theirs, one that we will present today for you.

Exhibit one:

We had no way of knowing that under that beat and battered exterior that this work of German art was almost brand spanking new. How could we!!

Exhibit 2:

This is the generator that came with our $400 36hp motor we picked up off the webernet over a year ago. It seemed innocent at the time and we hold no regrets for our purchase,(she runs like a fucking top!), really how were we suppose to know?? And to that point how many 36hp motors that "some guy" in Florida is selling are equipped in such a way that one would commit such a hanus crime?

So in closing, we ask you the jury, to look past the 14v stamped into our souls and allow our darling 36hp to be one of the gang even if she is an unassuming 12volt motor.

What makes a VW...

This was a series, we think it was a series any how, from the Australian magazine Modern Motor explaining how our little VW beetles worked. We will go through some of our "back issues" and verify that it was a serialized publication and post our findings!!

Labor Day and some Old Speed for everyone

Though not a VW, the OSS though that it was more than cool enough to grace our little internet rag. Oh it is air cooled and in 1957 this would have been a FUN car to race. Hell it would be a fun car to race in 2010!

Article from the November 1957 Modern Motor magazine.

Von Dutch's 36er.

Now i bet that that little 36er got a bit better performance then the ones shoved in the bus...

Wheel part 1

Pressing on, that is what we here at the OSS have been doing. Trying to get as much done in as little time as possible WHILE still staying sane and enjoying what we are doing. Lately it would seem that nothing is ever as easy as it should be when it comes to these little rascals. We pulled the interim 36hp motor off the engine stand and guess what, the flywheel seal is starting to go. No biggie all and all but sometimes you really just want thing to go smoothly.
There is one project that has been gaining steam, our custom/hand built 3 spoke steering made by our good friend HotRobHeb is nearing completion. All that is left to do on this piece of art is wet and spray some paint of chose.

Spaceball… shit, there goes the planet.

Today the OSS has picked up a brand spanking new set of seat covers for the bastard 61 beetle. The price was right on the money and the color was our favorite, no not RED, Pea Green! Little things like that make the day much nicer, Oh and this morning we passed an interesting message posted on the side of the road:

Only in Vermont would we have an evacuation plan in case of invasion by Zombies. Guess we should go ahead and purchase the zombie hand book just in case this is not a test…