Like most nostalgia drag events in the USA, the annual March Meet at Famoso Raceway is dominated by American cars with American engines. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find a few people racing cars of the imported variety…

This year there was a large contingent of street legal, air-cooled Volkswagens that were taking part in the action; some with naturally aspirated engine setups sitting under their deck-lids and others with turbochargers. As you can see in the lead photo, Jeff Newcomb’s 1955 Beetle falls into the second category.

But even before you get to the engine, there’s something downright cool about this Hot Rod Eliminator class competitor. It starts with the ground-hugging stance and a subtle gray body that’s devoid of any decals or graphics.

And while the lightweight drag wheels are there for function more than anything else, they look quite good tucked beneath the fenders, fitted with full slicks in the rear. Also note the trick Wilwood wide-five hubs.

But it’s really the fully built flat-four engine that raises the eyebrows when you see this car. However, you almost forget about the motor itself when you see the wild forced induction setup.

There’s a massive Garrett turbocharger with a Turbosmart Ultra-Gate38 external wastegate feeding a big DaVinci carb, and the whole setup is so large that it actually sits completely outside of the original engine bay. For as subtle as the Bug is, a sleeper it is not.

The cockpit is pure function, with a full roll-cage along with a pair of Kirkey racing buckets and a detachable steering wheel. And like most Volkswagen drag cars, it gets down the strip with a manual gearbox.

Unfortunately, I missed seeing the Bug run down the Famoso quarter mile, but it was running a 12.40 dial-in. After checking out Jeff’s car in the pits I feel a very strong urge to get out to one of the West Coast all-VW drag events very soon. What say you?

Mike Garrett

More Volkswagen related stories on Speedhunters

What Does It Mean To Be An Automotive Enthusiast?

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Matthew Jones

I’d like to take a trip down memory lane, to a time where you had your first automotive experience. For some, it may have been the first time they took a ride in their grandfather’s hot rod and the feeling of what seemed to be a massive leather bench seat hugging their hips; the sound of the engine cranking and the excitement of the pilot responsibly hitting the gas pedal waiting for you to explode in a giggle-fit of joy. For others, it may be as simple as the first time their parents took them to a car show, where their eyes were exploding with every ounce of automotive culture that surrounded them; picking and choosing from their favorites of the show…

As in my case, it may have even started a bit late, like when I first got my license and simply fell head over heels with the freedom that accompanied four tires and a laminated picture ID.

It didn’t matter what was jolting your shoulders to the back of the seat on that first ride, and it didn’t matter that your favorite car of the show was most likely not anywhere near tasteful – because we were innocent. We were children floating through the experiences with an open mind; following nothing but the feeling in our gut without the concern of being ridiculed for what was right or wrong.

So let’s go back to that innocence – just for these few moments, at the least. And in the case of this 1965 Beetle, let’s forget the whole ‘stance’ thing ever happened. Let’s also forget the function wars; the ‘my car is better than yours because of its ride height’ apparel; the plethora of blogs and shops solely dedicated to camber specifications and the general separation that is amongst our community due to this specific type of style.

Forget all of it. Let’s be kids again. Let’s be genuine adults and enthusiasts rather than rampaging adolescents hiding behind the fortitude of our wireless internet providers. Even better, let’s be artists. Because at the end of the day, that’s exactly what we are.

As hard as it is for the gearheads and fabricators to swallow, every piece you cut, weld, and mold is you being an artist in the purest form. Those of you who are more cultural observers and simply attend meets to check out the scene, you are curators waddling through a vast pond; picking and pointing out whatever sends an emotional shiver down your spine.

And for the ones like Erik Stevenson – the owner of this near-50-year-old ratty hunk of metal –you are creators; cautiously picking your pallet, modifying your details to the nth degree as you dig through junkyards in effort to recreate that initial feeling of innocence. That first automotive ‘high’ so to speak.

Fellow artists, that high is the reason this car is on Speedhunters. It may lose to a tricycle in a speed bump battle, and it may very well be hardly even drivable (though it is). But beneath that testerone, 9-5 caffeine-enraged shell of yours, you know there’s the innocent child in you that can’t deny how freaking cool this Bug looks. It’s a rolling performance piece that some of us will absolutely adore, and others will regret they ever wasted their time stepping into the venue. So in the spirit of this fluffy chatter, let’s continue to take a step back and view the artistic direction and decisions that our artist chose to make in creating this piece, rather than instantly writing it off without understanding.

Rags To Riches: Saving a ’57 Oval, Then Slamming It

words 

Brad Lord i

mages Paddy McGrath

The reasons why we choose to build cars are as varied as the makes, models and intended purpose. For some it’s all about extracting the very last drop of performance and testing the the laws of physics, for others it’s the simple satisfaction gained from presenting the fruits of their labour on the static show floor. Regardless of mindset, there’s one aspect of automotive culture that binds us all together: the happiness that cars bring. It’s something we like to call #JoyOfMachine.

For Martijn Groters and his small, close-knit group of friends from Netherlands it always has been, and very likely always will be, about Volkswagens. Together, they’ve been putting their spin on humble commuters from the German manufacturer’s back catalogue ever since they left school, and doing so have created some of the most well-known VW-badged cars in the country under their group banner, VWDepartment.

During that time Martijn has owned his fair share –including a couple of modified water-cooled cars and then a rat-styled and suitably-slammed ’67 Beetle. While the Type 1 provided a first step into the world of air-cooled Volkswagens, he knew it wasn’t the right car to really sink his teeth into. It wasn’t ‘the one’.

T1 panel buses consumed his thoughts for a long while, but given their rarity – and subsequent buy-in price – that idea was eventually put on the back-burner and Martijn went looking for an early oval-windowed Beetle, preferably with a ragtop and within his modest budget.

Ticking off all those boxes was never going to be an easy ask, but Martijn’s patience and perseverance eventually paid off in 2005 when he received a call from his local specialist air-cooled workshop.

There was a car for sale – a restoration project that had only got as far as a partial strip-down. It was a ’57 and therefore the last of the rear oval windowed models, it had a ragtop, and it was parked in a barn in the same spot it had occupied for the last ten years having previously been imported from California in 1990. It was all the encouragement Martijn needed to contact the owner straight away and set up a time to view the car the very next day.

What he found wasn’t that quintessential barn find we all dream of – a totally original, low mileage, one owner car sitting under a thick layer of dust. Instead he came face-to-face with an incomplete Type 1 shell that had been largely ravaged by rot. That might not sound all that appealing, but in an instant Martijn had fallen head over heels for the ‘piece of rust’ and secured the deal.