The modified car scene has recently experienced a major swing towards modern, hi-tech - often turbocharged and all-wheel-drive - vehicles. Just go along to any contemporary car show and you'll see a distinct downturn in the number of restoration type build-ups, and a lot more grab-a-new-car-and-slap-a-kit-and-wheels-on-it machines. This is a trend that only makes Adam Debiasi's spectacular 1970 Vee-Dub Beetle stand out even more - like it wouldn't stand out anyway!
Working at his father's VW specialist workshop (Debiasi Auto Repairs), it's no surprise that Adam has always been a bug lover. And when he's not getting greasy working on 'em, Adam savours nothing more than to go for a quick drive (read: f-a-s-t drive!) in a Dub. In fact, at the wheel of his purpose-built race-bug, he actually holds the naturally aspirated under 2-litre record at Adelaide's Collingrove hillclimb. Impressive stuff, eh?
Anyway, back to the green machine. Adam first laid his hands on this 1970 bug after it had copped a fair hit in the front - looking past this, though, he could easily recognise the potential left in it. The rest of it looked pretty darn good after all. That first meeting was now three years ago, and work on the Bertie has since been on and off...
The first flurry of action involved Adam separating the body from the floorpan. That was the perfect time to convert from the typical Beetle swing-arm type rear suspension to the IRS outa Type 3 wagon. The front end was then lowered and - like the rear - equipped with Koni adjustable shocks. Whiteline adjustable swaybars front and rear, plus a full set of tight Nolathane bushes were the last suspension goodies to make their way on. Once the suspension was mounted, the anchors were then the next area of major focus - Adam always knew he was gonna need a lot of brakes to go with his desire for speed. The combination that went on the rear - oddly enough - is a mix of VN Commodore discs and L-series Subaru calipers. The front, meanwhile was treated to more VN rotors (which Adam drilled himself) and Type 3 VW 2-pot calipers. Overall, it's proved to be a very effective braking upgrade over standard - to say the least!
After these preparations - and the car coming back from having its body ironed out - the entire bug shell was sprayed in that terrific attention-grabbing Daihatsu Tropical Green. Now - if you can wrench your eyes off the paint colour for a minute - you'll also notice some other subtle touches that complete the car's very real aesthetic appeal. This includes a race-style motorbike fuel filler, single piece door windows (there's no front quarter window), a vented engine lid from a later model Beetle and a cute little pair of carbon fibre mirrors from America. And those 17-inch Porsche style rims - don't they look just perfect? Fortunately enough, Adam scored these rollers second hand. These are encrusted in the appropriate low-profile 205/40 rubbers.
And now we arrive at the Beetle's powerplant. Now, while most people would stand at the back of a Vee-Dub looking down and scratching their heads, Adam was already rolling out the attack plan. Drawing from the configuration from his title-winning hillclimber, the VW flat-four was built up with a new crankcase, counter-weighted crankshaft, Carillo rods, a deep sump, additional oil cooler and oversize 94mm Mahle forged pistons (for a 7.5:1 static CR). This teamed up with a mild Ange cam, stainless 42mm inlet and 38mm exhaust valves, dual valve springs and a pair of high-flow Street Eliminator heads. In other words, there ain't much left standard! Displacing 1916cc (which is, apparently, the max to which you can safely go), this engine was surely built to last with what was about to follow - a turbocharger whack!
Adam didn't waste his time looking for an aftermarket turbo, coz it turns out that a factory Nissan T28 unit was ideally suited to the job on his near-2 litre dak-dak. With the turbo hardware selected, Adam then made up his own mild steel tubular exhaust manifold (which was also later ceramic coated) to suit. This locates the turbocharger out of sight on top of the gearbox. With boost pressure currently set to only 9 psi, cooling the compressed intake charge is Adam's own hybrid water-to-air intercooler. Using a dense aftermarket core as the base, Adam cased the sucker and proceeded to mount it in the only place it would fit - again, on top of the gearbox. The rest of the water-to-air IC system uses a Liberty RS electric pump, while radiator duties are performed by a wide trans cooler that's mounted beneath the front of the car. Other induction system features include Adam's own fabricated plenum chambers above each pair of throttle bodies, polished intercooler piping, heavy duty hose clamps, a K&N conical filter (drawing from the rear wheel arch) and a Bosch blow-off valve.
Take a look at the rear apron as well - notice the absence of those twin VW peashooter tailpipes? In their place is now a single fat 3 inch chrome outlet, which maintains that same diameter right up to the back of the turbocharger. A straight-through muffler is the sole noise suppression device (other than the turbine), but - still - the car is not obscenely loud. You can tell it's thoroughly worked-over o' course...
Adam didn't stop with a full engine build, turbo and an intercooler - no sir. He kept the ball rolling and opted for a pair of beautiful 45mm Injection Perfection throttle bodies, which are mounted on a couple of off-the-shelf manifolds sourced from the 'States. Fuel is put into the side of these t-bodies by a set of rotary turbo injectors, which combine with a 2-litre Kombi rail, Japanese import regulator, stainless steel surge tank, Carter lift pump and a VL Commodore main pump. Controlling both the fuel and ignition shooting match is the latest Haltech E6K programmable ECU, which uses a MAP load input and fires a single hi-energy coil. Injector firing is sequential - and we'll come to the tuning shortly...
Adam has found what
should prove to be a strong enough gearbox in VW's own parts collection. He uses a Volkswagen single side-plate 'box, which he's modified to include additional needle roller bearings to support the gears. Fingers crossed, it'll stand up okay. Linking the boosted engine to these cogs is a combination of a 1700lb Kennedy pressure plate and a 4-puck clutch. This particular clutch arrangement has only recently been installed, as the previous set-up gave massive slip. This first became evident while the car was undergoing ECU tuning on a chassis dyno. Unfortunately, the higher load and rpm ranges could not be properly mapped because of the way the clutch would suddenly start to slide. D'oh! Still, at only 3800 rpm the Beetle was rolling out 70kW at the wheels on 9 psi boost - and, as Adam says, it should be able to spin to around 6500 revs, no probs... A more accurate representation of the car's performance came at its maiden ΒΌ mile drag outing. With that same low boost setting, and the need to shift at around 5000 rpm (the ECU still hasn't been properly mapped yet!), the car reeled off a highly respectable 14.5 ET. But - with tuning yet to be completed and more boost likely - Adam is hoping (and quietly confident) of cracking into the 12s. That's right - 12s...
Of course, it would be a travesty to invest so much time and money in a wicked car such as this only to leave the interior lookin' daggy - and, thank God, Adam hasn't! He's gone to the extremes of smoothing out the dash fascia, inserting Porsche gauges (out of a 912), Autometer boost and oil pressure gauges, a Berg shifter and Momo steering wheel. Sliding around on a vinyl seat while the Bug zipped around corners wasn't Adam's idea of fun, so he also endowed the cabin with a pair of top Recaro A8s. Carrying over their tough look throughout the cabin, the rear seat has been bolstered and trimmed to match. Another nice touch is the aluminium window winders that were - again sourced out of America. Adam says that the US is the place to shop if you're looking for Bug bits.
When we caught up with Adam and his beautiful Beetle, the build-up had only j-u-s-t been completed. Adam has only had time to put 50 kilometres behind his new beast - but he's very pleased with the outcome. "Yeah, it handles really well and it's got quite a lot of power" he enthuses. (The handling bit, BTW, is probably because it's a very similar set-up to his race Bug!) Not surprisingly, the go-fast greenie won't be an everyday driver - not with so much money and effort invested in it. Plus then there's the fact that Adam lives on a dirt road... "Once we've got it tuned properly and running a bit more boost, I'd love to take it to the hillclimb though," Adam trails off...
Uh-oh, look out - Adam might be now looking to break the Collingrove under 2-litre forced induction category!
Contact:
Debiasi Auto Repairs
+61 8 8262 7533
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