How to build a "beetlebomb"

Once upon a time...in 1960....what we consider "Old speed" was "the latest hop-up kit". 

 And few old speed hop-up kits are more sought after than the Denzel kit for the 30 hp (US 36hp) vw 1200 engine...

Imported to the US by European Motor Products Inc. and built by Revmaster Inc, both in California, the Denzel kit (heads, rocker arms, lifters, carbs and engine tin) should jump horsepower from 36 to a healthy 54...for the power-thirsty, an EMPI 69,5 mm crank would rise displacement to 1300ccm and the stroked engine to a whopping 60hp.. 

Throw in a longer duration camshaft, bigger carbs and even higher compression, and 85 horsepower was reportedly possible....!

One can only wonder what influence Denzel tuning kits would have had on the vw tuning industry if Wolfgang Denzel had not started to work for BMW shortly thereafter......?

Comparison of the Denzel head and the stock vw-head...bigger is better ;-) One can clearly see similarities with this early performance head and the racing heads availlable today..

 

(Photos from HRM, June 1960)

Sechsy summer nights

Last night as we were cleaning in our garage after a winters work, this split bus suddenly stopped outside. We jumped in and headed straight to the nearest beach. The rest is history as they say... We wish you all happy holidays, and hope see you @ SCC in August!!

Sechs volt at Mantorp park

After a heavy breakfast by Oval57`s mum we headed for BugRun 2010. All the tree cars did run like a blast on the highway. At BugRun the swapmeet never turn you down - we did all get some nice parts for the cars - or the shelf. Two of the cars in front was first time Mantorp. We are sorry for the high voltage car in the middle....

Say (Swiss) cheese =)

"No guts - No story" is this years slogan for the SCC event in august. And one of the guys that makes storys to tell is Claude and his beautiful BUGBUS.NET van. This summer he and a couple of friends set off from Switzerland in their vintage VW's heading for Norway on holiday. Reaching Oslo, Claude desided to take the "little" detour to Bug Run i Sweden, were we met up with him. We had a great weekend, and I believe Claude made the detour worth while, as he scored some parts for his Barndoor project. Rumors has it he has travelled more than 100 000 kilometers in his bus since restoration - Thats guts right there!

The bugbus unfornately suffered some generator trouble on the way back from Bug Run, but that's being fixed at a shop in Oslo as we speak. We wish the swiss guys a nice holiday in their vintage buses, as they are heading further north before returning back home to Switzerland. Some guys have all the fun =)

Follow their very cool travelblog right here: http://bugbusnet.wordpress.com/

BUG RUN 2010!!! =)

Just two more days to go....BUGRUN 2010 is approaching...and the sechs volt crew will of course be there!

Some of us went there several times during the 90'ies - as for myself, I took up the annual pilgrim travel again in 2002. Back then, a '63 recently dragged out of a shed was purchased, washed, MOT'd and off she went. 

"The Norwegian Bend" - BRMs were the wheels of choice on all these cal-lookers.. =)

One of the huge crowd-pleasers in 2002 was this swedish "rat-rod-vw". We are looking forward to see what's up for this year...and of course the swap-meets as well.... ;-)