Many years ago, someone coined the term the “Go-Fast Crack
Pipe” to give a name to the horrid obsession that grips racers in the quest to
always go faster no matter the cost. One of my favorite authors Peter Egan once
said that “(r)acing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something
salty”.
As I have been poring over issues of Hot VWs, Volksworld,
and countless posts on The Samba trying to plan the path for my build of
Clementine, that same old feeling of wanting to feed the need for speed is back
in my blood. Turns out that there is way more cool stuff to throw at your
Beetle than there was in 1988 and the state of the art is pretty impressive yet
remarkably affordable when compared to my days trying to campaign two racecars
in competitive amateur series. I probably will be able to get away with the
full build minus bodywork for less than I spent on tires for my AIX Mustang
“White Lightning” in one season. Sheesh.
Of course in order to get your hands on the good stuff, you
need a reliable quality dealer who will get you only the best uncut finest
grade hop-up parts. Although I have bought a few things from my local Bug shop
to address some small problems, I needed to find someone to advise me on the
critical parts of making Clementine go faster, turn with authority, and stop
reliably. After some reflection, I decided to engage Jeff Lain from the Kaddie
Shack in Pasadena, Calif. (www.kaddieshack.com) to be my guru for all things
Beetle.
Jeff and I connected a few years back when I found my high
school friend Tonia on Facebook. Turns out she is married to Jeff and she
shared that he is as sick on Beetles as I am but even more so. While I am only
up to one Käfer in the backyard, he has four including one that he has had
since he was 19 years old. Jeff and I met up at the Sacramento Bugorama two
years ago and I always had his shop in the back of my mind as where I would
turn when I finally got a Beetle of my own.
Jeff started the Kaddie Shack a little over three years ago
as a service to rebuild and tune the Kadron (“Kaddie”) carburetors that were
standard issue on VW’s during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The business kept growing
so Jeff decided a year ago to open a shop in Pasadena and he is now up to five
employees and has an impressive volume of business based on the calls he was
fielding and the walk-in business when I visited recently. The shop is a bit
small but carries a full line of parts including ready to go carburetors, fully
built engines, as well as suspension, brake, interior and body bits.
With the grand plan in mind, I headed down to Pasadena to
meet with Jeff and also get a demo ride in the Kaddie Shack race car that I saw
up in Sacramento at Bugorama running high 13-sec quarter mile times which is
around where I wanted to end up with Clementine until we go full race. Jeff’s
key man Miguel owns the ’62 shop car and he took me for a ride around Pasadena
to show me the wholesome virtue of the motor and also demonstrate the sort of
sauce it was packing. To be clear, this is a real racer with license plates and
not a slammed “waxer” show car. There is no carpet, no sound deadening, and the
car is ready to rock on the street or the track at a moment’s notice. However,
despite the noise level the car was very well behaved. It was an easy 90
degrees out when we took our ride and the car idled like a champ, had zero flat
spots off the line, and did not show a hint of overheating or stalling while we
put it through the paces. I was sold so as soon as we got back, Jeff and I laid
out a game plan for a 1968cc twin of Miguel’s motor using an aluminum case that
came in on trade and perhaps with a few deviations to accommodate the primary
street mission of this engine. This is Miguel’s ’62 along with its very capable
pilot after our ride.
The next part to sort out was getting some reasonable brakes
and suspension under Clementine so that she would not be a menace to drive with
triple the stock power on board. Jeff and I talked over a few strategies and
settled on 2.5-inch drop spindles with Karmann Ghia style discs up front as
well as a new front suspension beam narrowed an inch with height adjusters to
allow me to dial in the ride height to where it needs to be. Adjustable rear
suspension arms in the back with new stiffer bushings with let me drop the back
end a bit and I will fit new shocks all around to replace the roasted and leaky
units still on the car. Here you can see all the goodness crammed into the shop
with Jeff manning the phones as well as the guys out back stuffing a rebuilt
motor into a ’69 that was in for a transplant.
So, things are coming along quickly and the next task will
be to get the stock beam out of the car so Jeff can work his magic on it. After
that, it’s time to yank the 1600cc engine and clean up the engine bay in
preparation for the new bullet. Fun times and you can almost see the old girl
smiling as she contemplates her return to the street ready to tear up some
tarmac.
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