aj986s

When we were dating, I talked my wife into buying an '83 GTI, the first year they were sold in the States. That was a blast of a little car. Only rated at 90HP, but at 1,800 lbs and a with a close-ratio 5 speed tranny, it was very nimble. We never tracked it, but it was a force to be reckoned with at autox's.

Enjoy the car! And the racing!!

Professor Helmüt Tester

Do yourself a favor...

Visit FAPS, purchase the appropriate "fuel pump relay" for the car. Stick it in a plastic bag, and store it in the glove box. You will need it someday. That day may be tomorrow.

You can hotwire around the relay, but it's a lot easier to just plug a good relay in.

New England-area guru for race tuning VW's was (and probably still is) Dick Shine - Shine Racing Services, or something like that - in Walpole.

924RACR

Even better - just wire the pump to a separate switch. No more guessing.

+1 regarding Shine Racing Services. Conover in (IIRC) NC builds the best VW motors I've seen recently, though there's that Beran Peter guy who's got a pretty good motor too , also up in the Baaahston/NH area - forget who built his motor, but it wasn't Conover.

Oh, yeah, and put the ARRC on your calendar.

joel-cs

I just inherited a very similar race car. Is there a good forum to learn about setup/repair/upgrade of these?

TwentySix

I love these cars, good luck with it! They are a blast to drive and built like tanks
I agree with the Professor, loose is best... rust free shells getting very hard to come by, we have one tucked away, hope we never need it

Jay Gratton

I agree it is slow for ITB, but it gets me in the door cheap to do some racing. Dick Shine built this car and just rebuilt the whole suspension system. I will always be a Porsche guy, but this will be fun to try for a few years. Still have the 914 and the 911, so all is not lost! Thanks for the posts guys.

Edward

Ha! ...ain't that the truth!! Kudos

Hey Jay,

What my buddy does in his rabbit (also SCCA ITB) is amazing ...I mean amazing!! He has a whopping 120HP (IIRC) on tap and has countless wins and at least one track record (that's still standing, I believe). Great cars when setup right and hurled into corners ...let's just say his brakes last quite a while . Have fun!!

Edward

924RACR

If you're looking for contacts etc regarding IT, the forums are at improvedtouring.com - plenty of VW guys there.

Professor Helmüt Tester

Yeah...one of my GTI's was wired like that...and then one day, as I sat in a smoking heap that had just been seriously shortened (by about 3 feet or so) by a 100mph>0mph event involving another car and some armco, I noticed that the fuel pump was still running while the engine was silent. "Duh", I thought. If I'd been hanging unconscious & upside down (certainly a possibility...although it was my neighbor Chris who had set the Rabbit Bilstein Cup season record for "flipped Rabbits"), this could have gotten a tad warm. The next car (a "round 'Rocco") went back to letting the ECU turn the pump on and off.

924RACR

Yeah... well... since my "ECU" is 30 years old... I'll just use the kill switch. It's worked so far, all the many times I've crashed.

Oh, did I mention, the 924's built like a Panzer, not like a Kubelwagen? Lesser cars - Wabbits, Goofs, and Vulvos - bounce off of it...

BrandonH

Cool watching Rabbit/golf ITBs round Big Bend at LRP: Done right, the inside rear tire lifts off the ground as the driver turns in while still rolling off the brakes. So the car takes the whole corner with the rear wheel stationary, or every now and then, slowly revolving backwards. At first I couldn't understand what my eyes were seeing.
One of the neat things about the diversity of SCCA classes is how differently various mfr chassis handle, yet still turn equiv lap times.

924RACR

Cool isn't seeing a VW or the like 3-wheel through the corner. Cool is seeing a fleet of Spec Neon's do it within 1 foot of eachother!!

Jay Gratton

Great site I agree!

Those Neons look like a form of SM/SSM!!!!!

L8Apex

You will have a blast! I started in ITB with my GTI. The little car made 97hp & 95ft/lbs at the wheels after Rafi @ Eurosport finished it. Low cost and fun. Here's the only pic of my old one:

Jay Gratton

Very cool! I will get some better pics of the car in the sun when it gets warm. Hopefully some action shots too!