Heather helps us out.
We weren’t quite ready for the first race of the season, so struck a deal with Jessica and Nathan to have them run our 1107 number at Prairie City. They’d just picked up the car previously known as Skittles from Jason Mace in Las Vegas.
Here’s some photos from the weekend’s race. And video from Sunday’s first moto with Heather at the wheel.
Sure we’ll be ready for Prairie City.
The body finally came off today. Not without drama. But it’s off. And this is what a Class 11 looks like stripped bare. Photos here.
Sometimes, just because you can video something, doesn’t mean you need to make other people watch it.
Anyone who thinks racing is exciting should really watch this video because it encompasses all that racing is about. For every high speed pass, for every desert vista, for every rollover, there’s this. An hour spent power washing the new body. Also this weekend, because a truck had a flat, then the engine wouldn’t start, then the forklift clutch was shot, we didn’t get the body off 1107, putting us further behind schedule.
And people tell us we’re nuts for racing a VW off road.
Hot on the heels of connecting with Carlos Dal Pont and his off road VW Beetle in Brasil, I’m contacted by Bob Beales in the UK, who rally races a VW. Not just any VW Beetle, but a 1958 1958 Oettinger GT, which British racer Bill Bengry drove to win the British Rally Championship in 1960 and 1961.
Beales owned the car since 1965, used it for rallies (Paul Hartl I’m looking at you) and autocross, and won the Welsh Historic Championship in the early ’90s. The car’s never been rebuilt, runs a 1300cc Oettinger engine producing 75 BHP redlining at 8,000 RPM. It’s been sitting in a shed on his property for a couple of years, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’ll be hitting the road soon. He also turned me on to the awesome RallyBugs website. How on Earth did I not know about this?
Here’s Crusty single-handedly rolling our new car at lunch today.
I honestly think the only thing we’ve never driven through is hay.
Carlos Dal Pont from Brazil got in touch, having found our site because of my non-stop yammering about Dakar (until Robby Gordon dropped out and then I sort of lost focus). He’s got some photos of his Bug online. I’m going to have to ask him about the tires. I think it’s also cool he has tile and a sofa in his work shop. The blog, while apparently done by someone else, has some great imagery of VWs.
Hooning in a hay field, then a Jeep catches on fire.
Wayne Karnes and I keep in touch. He and his son have been working on a Manx over in Silicon Valley. It’s almost done and he sent along some photos. One of my favorites:
