As any performance Beetle owner knows if you keep launching your car hard and induce axle tramp you will eventually break or bend something, usually the chassis forks.
After speaking to a number of experts in this area and getting some conflicting information I decided to go with experienced drag racer Henry Spicaks proven remedy.
This
involved bracing the chassis forks to the rear luggage area. I accomplished this task by
first getting hold of some banana type mountings for a Beetle towbar, you now the ones
that clamp on to the chassis forks just near where the heater cable join the heater box
levers.
I bolted these to my chassis forks, and then welded a piece of 1inch x 1 inch square tube between the two, parallel to rear transmission mount cradle. I then welded another two pieces from the ends of the first square tube then these went up to the underside of the luggage area terminating with a ¼ plate that bolted to the floor of the luggage area. This plate needs to be about 3x3 inches and you might as well make four of them because you will need another two on the other side of luggage area floor. I used some ½ inch Teflon sheet to go between the ¼ inch plates and luggage area floor to cut down on vibration from the chassis forks. The upright tubes need to go out at an angle of about 10 – 15 degrees so that they end up about 2 inches from the wheel arches.
Now
on the inside of the car you need another length of 1inch x 1inch tube, I used thinner
wall tubing for this one to cut down on weight. Cut this tube so that it just fits between
the wheel arches and allow room for this tube to be terminated with piece 1inch x 3inch x
¼ inch plates on each end, make 8 of these plates. Mount all the underneath tube and
drill through the luggage area floor, then mount your second set of 3x3 inch plates and
bolt them to the luggage area floor. Weld the inside piece of tubing to the 3x3 inch
plates, its important to have the bolt holes on the 3x3 plate running north-south, then
drill the 
inner
guard and mount another set of 1x3 ¼ inch plates on the outside of the inner guards.
By now you will come to the conclusion that the luggage area floor, inner guards and the chassis forks are all tied together, but there is one more step. Weld another piece of tubing to form a Y section starting above the area where the tubing is bolted to the floor. This then runs higher up on inner guard terminating with another 1x3x ¼ inch plate with another plate on the outside of the inner guard.
Its best to only tack the unit together in the car, so take it all out again and give a really good going over with the welder, and a coat of paint.
I
hope that the pictures explain what I couldn’t put into words.
The other remedies that where recommended to me involved bolting a large piece of aluminium to luggage area floor and just bracing the forks to this. Expensive and it only place stress on the luggage area floor instead of spreading the stress over the inner guards and luggage area.
Steve Carter