I had a friend that had a 10sec. VW Beetle. I never seen it run, But now I really believe him. Lol... but now I wish I could have seen it make a run down the track. ✌😊
Big Louie yep. And I have a sneaky feeling driver of the love bug on steroids wasn't giving everything it had. Think he was holding her back some. Just a hunch...
As Colin Chapman (founder of Lotus) said: “Simplify, then add lightness” It was his philosophy, way before 'minimalism' became fashionable. “Adding power makes you faster on the straights; subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”, was another of Chapman's premises. By tradition, Lotus uses the least number of parts in its products.
@@friktionrc always wanted an espirit turbo in the 80s. such an attractive car. Papa raced a lotus chassis back in the 70s. Instead of my espirit, Papa is getting an old elans for his retirement.
@@jhart7304 I remember the Esprit turbo well...a guy near us had one, white with the red pinstripe....he eventually sold it and got a Porsche 928 (v8, but the 5ltr version) which for me was one of the better looking Porsches. But yeah the Esprit was a stunner- both to see and hear 👏👏👏😎 Re the present - Ooh sweet!! Will your Father get back into racing? I've seen quite a few race at Brands Hatch and Silverston (so here in the UK) especialy at 'revival' /classic motorracing events like Goodwood Revival (check RU-vid - plenty of clips of great close racing involving classic cars)....the Elan is both very light and nippy. Aslo, if you're Father is not into track racing they make great 'hill climb' cars....they carry so much speed through tight turns and due to light weight have great acceleration considering their age. Either way, I'm sure he will love driving it 👍 Clearly a well loved Father to recieve such a wonderful gift. Much love to you and your family for such a stunning gift 👏👏👏🙏🙏👍
@@friktionrc nah. He and mom raced back in the 70s. she actually won the national championship in scca in '76 in a formula ford. 😂 It was just one of those questions you ask of papa as a young boy. 'Papa, what is your fav car?' So he said and I still remember. Lots of work yet to do. So keep it quiet please! He doesnt know. 😁😉
That sleeper “Bug” obviously did NOT have a 4 cylinder motor (look at the headers protruding out in FRONT of the car). A 4 cylinder NEVER sounds like that. Also its front end has been extended to fit the motor.
I recall back in the late 60's a VW at Mission Drag Racing Park. It sounded kinda like a coffee percolator, pop, pop, pop. Announcer said it had an VW engine in it as well. He was racing a 427 Camaro I think and the VW just smoked him pulling a 9 sec 1/4 mile.
I used to use a socket wrench on the generator pully. One quick twist was usually enough to start the engine. Had to make sure the generator belt was tight and wouldn't slip.
@@njmvcsp2575 The giant ass wheels hooked to a Ford 9 inch rear diff in a tubbed enclosure is what really gave it away, I mean you just look at it and you see it.
I'm impressed that he runs a stock hood, that the chassis has the engine super low and can close the hood... so it has to be a small block, but then I thought it's in the rear as it looks kinda dark in the back like there's an engine behind a firewall in the back, but big engines in the rear of a beetle don't handle too well and this one runs straight and true, but yeah, headers in the front so, I'm goin' with small block.. a hot big CI small block in a car that small will easily run low 8's or better
@@davecpgh he said 300 tops not stock 😂 I was replying to jeffel80 obviously not 300 running those times. You are Army so I apologize for you mistaking Tops with Stock. It wasn't written in crayon for ya.
compare the difference in weights as well ... the nova ways some decent poundage more than the VW ... so it has to over come more weight to get going ... a portion of the VW win is due to inertia it has less so got up to speed faster ... the joys of physics
@@0623kaboom Yes, I am acquainted with those joys, having minored in physics in college. But my comment was on the sheer speed of the bug and not what allowed it to get up to speed. The way that it came off the line was incredible. This is not something that one normally sees in a drag race unless watching funny cars and rail jobs. Not that both of these cars weren't heavily customized because they were but it was still quite a sight.
That's pretty legit, especially if you kept stock gearing in the trans. When i think back I get sick thinking how much money I threw into that engine to gain some speed.
Holly crap that VW can 60ft!!! Half track on the bars! Would love to see how he managed to cram that (obviously very large) V8 underneath the stock hood of that little thing. Nice vid, new sub, keep um coming!
a friend of mine drag raced a vw with a flat 4 ,held adra record for years ,was a nearly a street driven car,minus cooling fan,had to change to a ghia body,the bug style would flip over at 120mph
@@donaldkash8859 Nice! Would love to have seen him make a pass. I’ve always loved big engines in small vehicles! I know a flat four isn’t exactly a huge engine, but it’s a far cry from a 1300cc VW engine! LOL 😈
What is the engine in the VW....cuz thats a sweet hole shot. No VW can do that so what's under the VW body... GM, Ford or Mopar. So Nova gets beat by somethind eith VW body? Very nice V8 modification runner massive hp disguised as VW ...
@evensout I remember a mate dad reading an ad for a bug for sale out of the newspaper with a 454 in it !!!! Would love to have seen it !!!! Also remember some younguns trying to show horn a 350 chev into a Morris Minor..... Safety wasn't such a huge issue back then 🤣🤣🤣
@@turnman02 Saw a maroon Chevette at a car show with a 454 crammed in between the fenders probably 30 years ago. Probably barely drivable but wild. I was maybe 22 or so & I asked the owner how he managed to get the engine in there. He was a very cool guy & he said, "Aw, man it was easy; we took the engine up onto the roof of a three story building & just dropped it in there." 😄 👍🏻 🇺🇸
@@DoyleFM I'm in Australia, I think your Chevette is what we called an Astra, but our GMH ( Holden) Astra was quite a bit different from the Euro mobile of the same name....
If you haven't seen a 10 second VW bug with a VW engine it's hard to believe. We had a couple of guys in our car club with one and at night would unbolt the tricked out engine and take it inside.
I think I watched a VW Bug like this back in the summer of '74 in Marion South Dakota. He wuped up on everyone including a Hemi out of Anthon Iowa. Completely blew our minds! Never did find out anything about the VW or where he was from. When I tell folks about it they say I'm lying.
Heck yeahhhh! I used to watch stuff like this all the time in the '80s and '90s at Orlando speed world. Volkswagen beetles running 8 - 10 second quarter mile passes.
VW Bug with a whale tail and M/T's doing a John Force burnout, beats a 1,000 hp Nova by 1 1/2 seconds. Can you possibly imagine the razzing the Nova driver got back in the pits? And yes, I saw the headers peeking from under the fenders.
Thats not truely a vw so you cant say its a beetle vs muscle car when they both have the same engine, vw aircooled engines can run 8 seconds down the quarter mile if you know how to build them
There is a mechanic named Bill denson who used to soup up vws back in the early seventies that used to beat Corvettes all the time down at englishtown from what I understand I never seen one run but I always heard about them I wonder if he's still fixing vws out there in Summerville New Jersey on route 206 this guy was one of the best mechanics out there.
I built an air cooled VW engine that made 140 rwhp and put it in a 500kg road registered beach buggy( originally 36hp) with a soft tune: you can make them flyyyy but it costs big money.
Yup. Every engine has a magic number $ = HP, it can cost minimal amounts to gain big numbers from stock to that certain point, from there it goes up exponentially: I’m not rich but have been lucky enough to be able to go past that point when I want to, let’s say to just over the edge of “Streetable” which really is streetable just not in traffic which for some stupid reason I think is fun: most can do intake and exhaust, some a mild cam, I like to go a few steps further with cams that need head work and a non factory ECU, supercharged over turbo but only because I love lumpy cams... that VW engine was purposely built to be fast and reliable, it had a small turbo with injection, a Haltec ECU, the cams, crank and pistons were all turbo specific (nothing inside was VW) it would drive all day at double the speed of an original engine and not overheat, it still had the stock 1967 swing axle gearbox which was the reason for the soft tune (to stop it breaking: tuning to it’s full potential would have to include a cost of close to $5,000AUD for suitably strong gearbox [nothing auto is cheap here (Australia) we pay around 35% more than the USA regardless of origin] but with that it would power wheel stand in 2nd gear with the stock gearing) and yes, it had four wheel discs: sadly I sold it, as an example I now have a fully loaded mint C6 Corvette convertible that would fetch maybe $35kUSD or a bit less but here with the RHD conversion it’s a six figure car to the right person.
🔴 Sure looks like headers come out of the front of the Bug, There was a 1600 CC bug though that did do 8.9 seconds in the 1/4 @ 140 MPH, that guy had a hard time keeping it in his lane! he was going to sell that Bug and build a Bonneville stream liner car with a water cooled 4 banger...
It's just like a spicy food challenge... "Eat this salsa made from pure capsaicin with these ghost peppers to dip with". Of course it will be hot... The bug has more HP and likely less weight
We had a beetle that used to come down to the track and smoke just about everyone you’d be amazed what a bug engine can do, you do know it’s a Porsche engine essentially
I saw a sleeper VW bug at the winter nationals in Florida one year. It looked like shit and had a long stinger exhaust pipe coming out of the back of it. Everyone laugh at it until it ran an 8.9 in the quarter mile. It sounded like a 4 cylinder.
I remember seeing a beetle called the Pink Panther in the late eighties early nineties at Sears Point in Sonoma. It was very fast & I think it was a four cylinder. Could be wrong it was a long time ago.
The Nova got the jump, but his front end came up. The Beetle was straight out w/just a bit of a wheelie. 8:30 - 9:45 ET 162 - 158. Win wasn't a fluke. The VW had better HP to weight ratio. Unless there's a hitch or a mechanical the wt/hp combo always wins.
The VW Bug probably weighs 1,000 less than the Nova and had as much HP and torque so power to weight ratio played a big factor in the outcome of the race. Why didn't they say how much HP the VW Bug had? That would explain everything.
