Hi all. does anybody know if the poly bush kits you can buy as a set would fit my F33? the large bushes on the rear suspension have worn away from years of sandracing.i am guessing it would be the normal beetle size or maybe porker 924. at the end of the day i will have to pull it all apart but it would give me a starting point.

Yes they will, the F33 rear is pure late aircooled trailing arms, but take your bushes out first as as a sample as certainly the 'doughnut' ones around the torsion housing / spring plate varied a little over the years B)

thanks for that. i had a thought it was beetle based. i will have to wait until i have a large enough workshop to strip it all down. will be trying to fit an american engine to it one day. the rover v8 is getting expensive to run now. tuning parts are not cheap and they just seem "old"
might have a rare boxer manifold to sell soon. lets you fit 4 su carbs to the rover v8.

so when are we going to see some pics?...

still waiting for my old man to give me the old videos of me and my brother sandracing it. will then try to put them on youtube for all to see the wonder that is known as a uva f33 can-am. lol. been looking on the net for a long time now to see if any parts are still around. still not decided if i want to put it on the road. i think the brakes would need an update and also when it was put together we found the rear suspension was pissed. it was out by miles. didn't matter on the beach as it turned out to be twisted the right way. ( cars drive in a massive circle on the beach)
at the very least i think i would have to get it all set up on a jig and have a good welder on hand. also the quality of the gearchange was very bad. again, on the beach i only used 2nd and 3rd so it didn't matter. (renault 25 or 30 box. cant remember which one i used.) would have to see if any of the other mid engined kit cars had a cable operated change. another problem is cooling on the road. on the beach i had a double core rad mounted in the front, a rad on the A post and a rad on the back with an oil cooler. it was a bugger to bleed but it kept it cool while racing. ( max 10 mins race. engine flat out in 3rd though.)
one final problem is the bloody exhaust manifolds. they rusted away. been looking for some cheap good looking ones for a while now. saw some from a TVR on ebay. didn't want to risk it though. will wait to see what i want to do with it. will be on this forum all the time now. will try for some pictures over the weekend.

vids on you tube - sounds wicked, will look forward to that.

your rad set up sounds interesting!

dosent surprise me the frame was pissed, accuraccy was not one of UVA's strong points......I must say the sand racing sounds like a right load of fun......

ref exhausts, I'd steer well clear of TVR manifolds, the reason being the Rover V8 is very very compact in the TVR engine bays, hence the manifolds ore the worst design ever, they are so compact and twisted they just dont work properly. this is the reason TVR went for a 75 degree V8 when they did their own engine, as it helped exhaust packaging a great deal.

I'd just get some tube bends and make your own or have some made.......for god sake dont fall into the bigger is better trap when sizing the primary diameter, otherwise you will lose all mid range power....... for your motor, something like 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" OD, in 16 gauge (1.6mm) wall thickness will be fine, something thats ID is nicely sized to the ID of the exhaust port. I'm guessing it has about 200bhp, if so these sorts of sizes will be ideal and wont hurt top end power.

stop press......just found these on ebay......for £150 + post I'd say go for it, the bends are no where near as bad as the TVR ones I have seen, and the nice long primary length will be great for torque, and the primary OD is sized well, as I guide I once paid about £800 for a custom stainless exhaust once, its never going to cost less than about £400 when paying someone to do it, and doing it yourself is still costly and time consuming, as the bends are not cheap at about £20 each.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/V8tuners-Range-Rover...1QQcmdZViewItem

Hi Xstore,
I'd love to see some vids or photos as well, can't wait!
How long have you been racing it & how did you come to have it?
Have to agree about the gear change, if its anything like mine I don't think it can ever have worked properly with that design, forwards & backwards movement yes, side to side just isn't going to happen!
What brakes do you have on it? mine seems to be super beetle based front & porche(?) rear. Think they should be OK considering the weight of the thing?
Mine has what looks like two Ford Fiesta rads, one in each side pod with constantly running fans, never driven it in anger (never driven it. !) so don't know if they are up to it, would imagine the fact the fans are wired to run all the time is maybe a clue that things ain't all they could be.
As far as the alignment etc, mine has some of the finest fabrication & welding I've ever witnessed, & anyone who doesn't believe me is welcome to inspect it anytime :D
Go on, get it on the road ;)

well i am still in the process of cleaning the frame down and painting it. might be getting some 944 brakes and suspension soon. if not then i have seen some beetle tuners have fitted talbot brake calipers as they bolt right on..cant remember which talbot model though. will have to try and find website again.
still not decided to go just to standard rear suspension or change to a full coil-over set up. i was running both on the beach as it was so rough, even then it could still bottom out now and again. i guess standard would be ok on the road as it looks like the frame may be weak around the top shock mounting. lots to sort out yet so i will just fuddle around till it all works as it should do. still no vids on youtube yet as i need to get the right sort of camera to upload the films from. tried one of those vhs converters but it just chewed the bloody tape up...take care everybody and keep posting.

i found what i was looking for on good old ebay....porsche 924 turbo suspension and brakes etc.....just got to wait for the postman now and see what sort of nick it is in. might just use the rear parts for now as i have been reading about converting the beetle spindles to take the porker hubs and it is not a quick job on the front end. i have discs anyway so the only problem would be 4 stud on the front and 5 stud wheels on the rear. any tips on fitting this gear?

I thought all the 924's were aircooled 4 stud...but I could be wrong <_<

Fitting is dead easy (providing you already have IRS) as the 924 used the Beetle 1303 rear end. You 'may' have to change the inner bushes, but I would do that anyway. The after market urthane ones fit straight in. Again not sure about the spring plates, the 944 ones are defo different

Front is not easy, when I did mine I used dripped spindles, which was handy as the stub axle blots in meaning I 'just' made another to suit the 944 bearings and hub.
924 are pure early Passat, you 'may' be lucky if you don't go too new..

hope this helps B)

thanks for the tips....not got the parts yet, but paid for them yesterday so i am hoping to get them early next week. been told that they are 100% porker 924 turbo parts so that means 5 stud hubs. i think they may be more like a low spec 944..i just hope i can get something to fit out of this deal. just need some nice wheels now........ :D

well my 924 bits are here and the boxes are in the workshop...they weighed a bloody ton and the "helpful" bloody postman delivered them to my front door...two floors up!! never does that with small parcels though....lol. only seen the front discs so far and they look huge! also found some plastic seats on ebay made by a Belgium company...they look very well made and waterproof. can give you a link if needed..