I dare
say the neighbours weren’t impressed to be awoken by the bark of my motor at 5am in
the morning. My intake temp read just 5 degrees as the motor idled for several minutes in
the driveway struggling to gain some temperature. It was time to go, nearby lights were
starting to flicker on and I wasn’t hanging around for any lectures from irate
neighbours.
Destination- Cowra airstrip, long time club member and friend Fabion Corio who relocated his family and business several years ago from Bexley to Orange had enthused me into driving to Cowra for some drag racing at their local airstrip.
Belinda and I were packed into the Beetle like sardines. I had removed the rear seat to try to compensate for the extra weight in the car with the tools and spares, to ensure that the car wasn’t too low. The car was low to start with and I was to prove that along the way.
The dash
from Sydney to Lithgow went quickly, the boost needle flicking and froing up and down from
10psi. A quick stop for breakfast at Lithgow McDonalds and we were away again! The exit
from McDonalds was a bit tricky, having to exit from the entry in order to avoid the
speedhumps.
Bathurst came soon enough, a last minute left turn made in the main street would have impressed a few bystanders, with boost and sideways action from the old Beetle. Until now the roads were excellent, from here on the roads were terrible. Lots of ruts and pot holes made me drop my speed from 100km/hr down to a crawl in fear of tearing my exhaust headers off from under the car, I could now see why Fabion had commented that his floorpan bottomed out on some sections of road.
Making Cowra, we filled up at the local servo, with the Beetle attracting its fair share of attention. A number of locals crowded around as I added octane booster to the petrol tank as I filled the tank with petrol. One local seemed quickly amused at the sight of octane booster but soon stood in disbelief when I mentioned I added it to reduce pinging at high boost levels. Indeed the car was turboed.
My exit
from the servo became a bit messy as I headed up the wrong side of the main street in
order to reduce scrapping to a minimum. At that very second I swung behind a highway
patrol car no doubt looking for local heroes out to prove their worth on the way to the
airstrip. The highway patrol officer didn’t give me a second glance-the joys of
driving a slow old Beetle!
Belinda and I were the last car to enter racing, some 45 minutes after the official closing time. As we pulled up next to the airstrip, I was nervous to see some 100 or so onlookers staring to see what all the noise had been about as I crawled down the entry road and came to a stop. The Beetle emitted the distinctive bark of a 2 litre flat four which at the time caught the attention of the V8 loving onlookers.
After explaining I had driven up from the south end of Sydney, which had taken some 5 hours, I was given the nod to race by officials. The locals seemed to be quite amused with a showing of 3 Beetles on the day, Fabion, Dave Becker and myself. With "Herbie the Lovebug" being aired only the night before on local TV, during scrutineering I was given the number 53. I think by now the locals were indeed having a chuckle at us.
So there we stood 3 Beetles and 40 odd V8’s, two rotaries and a two WRX’s. One Sti and the other running the full kit! – nitrous oxide, intercooler, water spray etc etc.
Everyone seemed amused at our showing and stood whispering and joking until each Beetle had run a pass of the airstrip. Fabion in his 2016cc twin webered oval was having problems like everyone else in gaining traction on the gravel covered airstrip surface, the best Fabion could manage was a very respectable 10.14. Dave had flat towed his white 64 Beetle up with it’s 2007cc 48 IDA motor and fiddled all day trying to improve his time. Slicks were slowing the car as the gravel spun like ball bearings under the tires on the line, but by removing his fan belt at the end of each pass, he improved his time by 1/10 second. It was amusing to see Beck continually trying all different things on the day, I felt a bit guilty by the days end having never checked a thing on the car after such a long drive. My only improvement on the day was to screw more boost into the motor to compensate for a boost leak from somewhere near the intercooler pipe work.
Nothing looked better than seeing Fabion or Dave’s car crab sideways off the start line as each car scrambled for traction on the slippery surface, indeed the crowd was having a ball, wondering what exactly was powering each Beetle as it struggled for traction.
The locals stood in disbelief as each time the 3 of us returned with times that were better than most of the V8’s on the day. We had come from being the underdogs to 3 of the quickest cars.
At the start of each run stood the local police officer, complete with gun and cuffs. It was a funny feeling staring the cop out whilst he stood waiting patiently for each car to burnout and move to the start line.
After a brief lunch break, dial in’s began. Three different categories of cars, each driver was to dial in a time and try to run as close to this without breaking out. By now, everyone’s cars were running faster and the 3 of us decided whether to try for as close to dial in or to keep running for outright speed. A trophy was to be awarded, so there was some friendly rivalry between the three of us. My first run was a joke, for some reason the car hooked up perfectly, wheelspin was minimised and my car powered down the strip to run an 8.85 on a 9.1 dial in! By now I was only 0.1 behind the WRX driver who was driving the car like he’d stolen it! By the end of the day I’d fluked a 8.92 on a 8.90 dial-in, with Dave being just a little further off his own dial in time of 9.3. Fabion, who everyone had nicknamed Mr Consistency from previous VW Nationals Drag meets wasn’t having a great day with his webers rattling loose but still ran a very close dial-in time also.
By the end of the day we stood there with the locals, who chatted and laughed in disbelief as word had spread that one of the Beetles was turboed. Locals peered through the top of the decklid of our Beetles or lay on their backs on the airstrip peering under my car trying to catch a glimpse of the turbo. Some of the locals admitted their conception of vw’s had changed forever. How nice it was to go to an event and mix with other drivers and share laughs no matter what car they drove.
At the end of the meet we waved goodbye as we headed for home. Fabion headed off to the local pub where the trophy presentation was to take place in a little over an hour. Belinda and myself were eager to head for home with over 5 hours of driving ahead of us.
The locals seemed impressed with our efforts with several, including the local cop, giving us a wave as we cruised back down the main street heading for home. What a great day and a well-run event. Thanks for the invite Fabion and thanks to the people of Cowra.
A phone call Monday morning from Fabion confirmed I had run second fastest car of the day whilst picking up first place in dial-in for our category with Dave picking up second and Fabion picking up third. Poor Fabion was left to cop the torment and remarks as he stood at the front of the pub on that Sunday afternoon to collect all three awards! Beetles 1..2..3 !
Leigh