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Current car information

2010-12-30T22:00:00.004-05:00

1988 vw scirocco 16v
2.0L 16v vw 9a engines - roughly 145hp each
2755lbs wet

O2A vw 5 speed transmissions shifted via home built cable shifter
Hydraulic clutches via dual cylinder wilwood pedal assembly
rear throttle actuated by immensely long bicycle brake cable

Best 1/4 mile time to date - 13.77 at the 2010 GRM Challenge
Top speed 150+

The Project Begins

2010-12-30T21:51:00.002-05:00

All of the trouble started because of my job, since my daily commute took the better part of an hour I was left with a frighteningly long period of time in which to think. Any good dictator will tell you that too much independent thought is dangerous and while I don’t generally seek guidance from the likes of Polpot and Quadafi, in this case it would seem that their philosophy was right on.

	Most days I would find myself pondering questions of great importance such as: “why do I have to be driving so fucking far to work?” or “why are there so many goddamn little old lady’s putting along in the fast lane?” But occasionally my mind would grapple with issues of a more idealistic and altogether more perplexing nature.

Mashing the accelerator in my trusty 16v Scirocco would yield quite satisfactory results, the car would mosey forward at a reasonable pace, by all measures, ample power. But like the fat kid with a single dip ice cream cone I would always think “wouldn’t it be nice if I had twice as much”

		Wicked thoughts began to turn to wicked deeds, I leased a different house with a 2 ½ car garage, borrowed a MIG welder from my good friend Ben Harder, and started the search for the right Scirocco. I already owned a ratty ’86 8V and a clean ’87 16V, the former was unfit for the task because of its poor condition and the latter was far too nice to chop up for such a loony pipe dream as this.

	The project began in earnest when a friend dropped a 1988 16v Scirocco off at my garage in Columbus OH. The idea was to take the engine, suspension, and interior from his rusted out Rocco and plant them into the cleaner body of the ’88.

After closer inspection a considerable amount of rust was located on the “clean” ’88, the planned swap was aborted and I was stuck with a non-running red Rocco in my shop.

	The whole situation was rather like leaving a hungry dog alone with the thanksgiving turkey, bad things were bound to happen. With a head full of twin engine aspirations it was only a matter of time until the Sawzall came out. The cutting began just after Christmas ‘04, my brother Giles was in for the holidays and the usual drunken carousing was in full swing.

GRM Challenge

2010-10-20T21:32:00.002-04:00

We went, we saw, we staggered around by the pool. More information and pictures to come.

2010 GRM Challenge

2010-09-24T08:12:00.003-04:00

Less than a week until the scirocco of filth makes its Challenge debut, it's high berkelying time.

Shifter

2010-07-07T16:20:00.001-04:00

I now have a working cable shifter, it's ugly and heavy but functional. I still need to fab a reverse lockout release lever.
Thinking of heat bluing the steel and giving it a coat of gun oil to keep the rust off. I don't like paint or painting.

So far it works well, a huge improvement over the old linkage/cable hybrid system driving the o2o's.

Parts list:

3x bmw automatic brake pedal pivot tube/bushings/spacer - used as the main x and y axis shifter pivots and the rear shift tower bell crank pivot
1x bmw v8 drive belt tensioner swivel - used for the select motion bell crank swivel
2x Mitsubishi Galant shift cable spherical joints - select motion linkage
4x stock VW 02A shift cables
1x bmw M30 rocker shaft - used for the gear lever
1 zillionx washers - shift knob
1 bmw m30 head bolt - shift knob center shaft
bunch of scrap steel was used for the shift tower.
Other hardware - scrounged from my parts Passats.

Image hotlinked from Tim's pictures of C&C - let me know if this is not ok Tim.

Cables

2010-02-05T23:15:00.000-05:00

My current shifting arrangement requires two hands, a little luck and a lot of patience. I should have the car driving again in the next month, I plan on doing a few autocross(s?) this summer to iron out the suspension. I've always allowed anyone drive the car who was sober enough to climb in without assistance.

shifter cable joy.

Fearful fuel tank fettling

2009-07-03T14:23:00.001-04:00

In order to install the firewall without undue fiddling I had to move the fuel tank filler neck. The fuel tank is 3/16ths mild steel of my own construction.

I emptied the tank, double washed it with alkaline based detergent and then used exhaust fumes from my e30 to displace oxygen from the tank during welding.

No explosions. Sigh of relief.

Firewall at last

2009-04-11T10:28:00.000-04:00

After a fruitless search for cheap honeycomb sandwich aluminum I went with .040 sheeting.

I bought the material from Research Alloys, that place is stuffed to the gills with metal of all shapes and sizes and types. $20 got me what I needed and they sheared it to rough sizes so that I could haul it home in my e30.

I shaped the three sections using cardboard templates I then took the sheets to a friend’s aviation shop and had a go with his bead roller. The machine was pretty basic and operated with a hand crank… some of my beads ended up a little wiggly.

My day job is working on bmw’s in an independent shop, some of the mid 90’s automatic cars use 6mm bolts to fasten the transmission pans, trans filters for these cars come with new bolts. I saved a bucket full of the used bolts with the intention of using them for something nifty… firewalls are nifty. By careful use of the WAG method I determined that the firewall sheeting needed a bolt every 4 inches, this meant I needed to drill and tap about 120 holes. I welded a 1/4” drive socket to a cheap tap handle, tapping was still a pain.

Girling 60 front brake upgrade

2008-10-08T22:32:00.000-04:00

Factory 10 inch brake rotors and 54mm calipers never had a chance of stopping the car given it’s increased mass and potential for violent acceleration. Several Audi models came equipped with dual piston Girling 60 calipers and I chose to stick these on the car.

Cost breakdown:

- Girling 60 calipers and A1 adapters $80 - local friend - used

- Coraddo 11 inch 4 lug rotors $85 - local parts supplier

- Hawk HPS brake pads $95 - ebay