TouringBubble's rally VW, Dori

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TouringBubble

TouringBubble

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ProjectTuning
Dori got some positive responses from the track car thread, so I thought it made sense to do a more in-depth write up here. For the full build and updates on races and mods going forward, check out the Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/DirtyDoriRally. Enjoy!

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Dori was my first car. My parents bought her in 1994 from who knows what number owner. I drove her for 4 years until I left for college. While in college I took her out occasionally, but not often. I decided I wanted to build a race car in late 2004 and brought her up to Atlanta where I lived at the time and began to strip the car. I didn't get to far as I had no money, and I ended up taking a job in another state and no longer had a place to keep her. So, she ended up parked behind my brother's house for about 6 years ...

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We drug her out of the weeds and started the "real" build process in August of 2011. My friend Nick is in most of these pics ... lol.

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While all of the chassis work was happening in a completely different state over more than a year's time, I was back home working on the other half of the project.

Dori's engine is a 2109cc. 76mm F/CW crank, 5.5" H-beam rods, 94mm pistons ... balanced and all that jazz. Scat C95 cam and 1.25:1 rockers giving around .543" total lift. Heads are CB Mini Wedge Port 044s with dual springs. And so on ...

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I'm an EFI guy and never really liked carburetors, so I designed a plenum and dual throttle body setup to be used for the intake. They are based on CB 48 IDA Big Beef manifolds. Injector bungs were added to hold 560cc low-z injectors with custom rails. CNC radiused flanges provide smooth airflow in to the runners. Two 65mm Ford throttle bodies control the airflow.

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To control it all I built a Megasquirt unit with a few bells and whistles.

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The stock Beetle has one gauge ... that wouldn't do at all ...

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Also loving this Beetle too! :p Interesting choice for a rally car, not often you see them about. 👍
 
Katiegan
Also loving this Beetle too! :p Interesting choice for a rally car, not often you see them about. 👍
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It's actually an amusing story ... and it actually starts with my wife. lol

Years back, I was just starting to learn about WRC and such, and was sharing it with people, like my wife. She loved the idea of off-road racing and we tried to find a Golf Country or Rallye for her ... but those are slim. We ended up with a Cabrio. At least it had a VR6 swapped in, so I could drive it without hiding my face. =)

Years later, our local SCCA region hosted a national challenge RallyCross. We went to volunteer and support it, and instantly fell in love with the sport. I tried to RallyCross the Evo (as seen in the other thread) and couldn't do it, so we began discussing some options for a rally car.

Two or so years after that we finally had the money to put in to a dedicated car, and since I already had the Beetle, it was a no-brainer. It was meant to be a $1500 project ... get a good engine and get it running and race. At this point I've lost count of the investment.

Funny part ... my wife has yet to race it as she's too short for the seat position. lol. I've got materials for a cushion for her but haven't completed it yet. It's the off-season so there is no big rush ... with means I'll be doing it the week before the next event. lol
 
TouringBubble
It's actually an amusing story ... and it actually starts with my wife. lol

Years back, I was just starting to learn about WRC and such, and was sharing it with people, like my wife. She loved the idea of off-road racing and we tried to find a Golf Country or Rallye for her ... but those are slim. We ended up with a Cabrio. At least it had a VR6 swapped in, so I could drive it without hiding my face. =)

Years later, our local SCCA region hosted a national challenge RallyCross. We went to volunteer and support it, and instantly fell in love with the sport. I tried to RallyCross the Evo (as seen in the other thread) and couldn't do it, so we began discussing some options for a rally car.

Two or so years after that we finally had the money to put in to a dedicated car, and since I already had the Beetle, it was a no-brainer. It was meant to be a $1500 project ... get a good engine and get it running and race. At this point I've lost count of the investment.

Funny part ... my wife has yet to race it as she's too short for the seat position. lol. I've got materials for a cushion for her but haven't completed it yet. It's the off-season so there is no big rush ... with means I'll be doing it the week before the next event. lol
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Haha, cool! Good to see that your wife is interested in the sport too! Couples who play together, stay together. :p I'm hoping to make my own rallycross project car once I've got the cash and mechanical experience. I was thinking perhaps starting out with a classic Mini or something, a small but mighty car that's easy to find cheap parts for. My dad knows a guy who completely rebuilt a Mini and it cost him a total of £2k. Took him two years, but it was cheap. Obviously the race standard parts will be more expensive, but at least I have the comfort of knowing the basic Mini parts are cheap. :lol:
 
Standard VW stuff is cheap too, as long as you aren't going German NOS or something. And yeah, the race parts are where the cost is. For instance ... I could get stock dual port heads used for about $100 and have them fully built, ported, etc for another $200. Instead, I bought new 044 castings (stronger) and had them CNC ported, decked, etc and it cost me $1250 ... nearly the original budget for the whole car!

The rule of thumb for race parts is standard parts x 5 ... and that seems to hold up here. lol.
 
All rally cars are awesome, I wish mine rally car was as well put together as yours.

Also since this all seemed sort of fimilar to me, was your car by chance mentioned in the Dec issue of Sportscar? I was just reading it at work today and I have deja vu.
 
Yeah, it is. Really nice guy with several MKIVs. This was a pro rally car from the 90s ... Ruby's Diner or something I think. I wasn't familiar, but apparently many people knew about it. He was running on stage rally tires that were with the car in the 90s. lol. They didn't do well in the mud we had earlier in the event.
 
I learned a lot at the event. Mainly, stock VW suspension isn't best for off-road use. The front is way too light, causing me to brake very early and get the car super settled, and honestly slow to get it to turn. Otherwise I get terminal understeer unless I catch a rut to help it along. I was really fast out of corners having all the weight over the drive wheels, but it wasn't enough to keep up with the turbo Miata or the BMW (with an amazing driver).

I already have plant to help correct those issues for next season.
 
So, I had trouble keeping Dori running the last time I had to move her around the yard. Turns out the fuel cell foam had swolen up a ton, causing the fuel level arm to hang. Basically, I was out of gas. lol

I pulled out one of the three foam blocks and halved it, putting half back in to hold the remaining two blocks together in a better arrangement. Fuel level arm is clear now. Added fuel and viola! Fuel pump primes as expected and fuel level reads properly.

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Awesome stuff. As a closet Beetle nut this really appeals.

Do I spy a David Thorne seven-legged spider on your dash, too? :D
 
That car is literally too pristine to take racing.

Love the mad work on the intake manifolds and the CAI (cabin-air induction? :D ).

Wondering, is that 2.1 a stroked stock block or did you go for an aftermarket one?
 
niky
That car is literally too pristine to take racing.

Love the mad work on the intake manifolds and the CAI (cabin-air induction? :D ).

Wondering, is that 2.1 a stroked stock block or did you go for an aftermarket one?
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OEM magnesium engine case. 76mm crank, which is the largest you can use without clearancing. The 94mm pistons required machine work and are as big as the case would allow.

The intakes and plenums are pretty unique. The runners are bought pieces, but modified for fuel injection. I designed the flanges to mount on them and had them CNC'd with the radiused inlets. A local fab shop helped create the rest of the plenum per my specs.

I knew I had to move the firewall to clear the throttle bodies, and that's kind of where the filter location was born. I knew I wanted to get the cleanest air possible, so the side intake and intake box design happened.
 
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