Tube-frame Beetle with turbo Miata Power wins $2000 Challenge

Andy Hollis said:

You know you've made it to the pointy end when people start to question the rules compliance of your ride.

Qft, for sure. I have some more thinking to do as there are some more rules carve-outs than I was thinking on the chassis side, if this car is legal for both nhra safety and the comp rules. 
 

I do think one of the limitations on the drags is the reliability of parts drops a ton with the quicker ets. However, even if those parts can land in budget, they won't play well with autox for example. Its a strategy game and a quarter mile missle can get beat. 

alfadriver said:

So since the hat cars are winning now, will anyone make a competitive DM or EM car and win?

Stampie has one.  He just needs to find cheap 13x10 wheels.

In reply to Mr_Asa : I Corner waited the car in February on the super heavy rims I ran on and it was 1724 lb

ojannen said:

alfadriver said:

So since the hat cars are winning now, will anyone make a competitive DM or EM car and win?

Stampie has one.  He just needs to find cheap 13x10 wheels.

"Stampie has one" is cheating.  Who else has one?

In reply to fireflybug_and_wallkisser2025 :

Hey man!  Good to see you on here. 

Stampie said:

In reply to alfadriver :

My thoughts are that the current hat cars (all Miata based this year I believe) are a way to get around having a line of Miatai at concours.  You get a nice handling base but are limited by power if using the Miata engine. 

This.......If there were no concours scoring there would be a lot of Miatas running power adders, aero and suspensions to eke out a few extra tenths on the autocross course. Throw in an LS swap to gain time on the drag strip and you have a winning combo. The 13 points available in concours (over the 12 unjudged) is roughly equivalent to 6-7 seconds. The story and the effort in prepping for concours can change the results markedly and move slower cars up the standings. Gaining 2 points in concours might take less effort/budget than trying to go a second quicker on track.

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

Stampie said:

In reply to alfadriver :

My thoughts are that the current hat cars (all Miata based this year I believe) are a way to get around having a line of Miatai at concours.  You get a nice handling base but are limited by power if using the Miata engine. 

This.......If there were no concours scoring there would be a lot of Miatas running power adders, aero and suspensions to eke out a few extra tenths on the autocross course. Throw in an LS swap to gain time on the drag strip and you have a winning combo. The 13 points available in concours (over the 12 unjudged) is roughly equivalent to 6-7 seconds. The story and the effort in prepping for concours can change the results markedly and move slower cars up the standings. Gaining 2 points in concours might take less effort/budget than trying to go a second quicker on track.

This.

We were the slowest dynamic score in the top 10. 

Concourse points are WAY cheaper to earn relative to actual time and money spent.

We invested about $150 on Concourse prep.  Between Swedish meatballs, painters tape stripes and hood decoration, printed graphic for the car, Soki, IKEA team shirts and posters / pictures.

Where else are you going to pick up 2 seconds on the dragstrip or autocross for $150?

Indy - Guy said:

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

Stampie said:

In reply to alfadriver :

My thoughts are that the current hat cars (all Miata based this year I believe) are a way to get around having a line of Miatai at concours.  You get a nice handling base but are limited by power if using the Miata engine. 

This.......If there were no concours scoring there would be a lot of Miatas running power adders, aero and suspensions to eke out a few extra tenths on the autocross course. Throw in an LS swap to gain time on the drag strip and you have a winning combo. The 13 points available in concours (over the 12 unjudged) is roughly equivalent to 6-7 seconds. The story and the effort in prepping for concours can change the results markedly and move slower cars up the standings. Gaining 2 points in concours might take less effort/budget than trying to go a second quicker on track.

This.

We were the slowest dynamic score in the top 10. 

Concourse points are WAY cheaper to earn relative to actual time and money spent.

We invested about $150 on Concourse prep.  Between Swedish meatballs, painters tape strips and hood decoration, printed graphic for the car, Soki, IKEA team shirts and posters / pictures.

Where else are you going to pick up 2 seconds on the dragstrip or autocross for $150?

I have an opinion on this...

I think your car scored well in the concours because of the car.  I'm not saying that all of the other things didn't help the score, but the story and end result of that car sort of speak for themselves.  

Not that it wasn't appreciated, but I don't think the meatballs added any points to your score.

To put it another way, if you had come with a stock miata and did the presentation the way you did (excellently), your score would have been considerably lower.

I hope you don't think I'm being negative.  Quite the opposite.  The car itself is so awesome that it was gonna get a high concours score as long as yall could articulate how and what you did.  

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

I thought the meatballs and sake were attempts to bribe judges. I did not try the sake. The only effect the meatballs had was to lower the rumbling noise from my belly.

the car, and the story, are what I judged.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

So because I put the motor for the bug in the front that automatically throws me an emod at my local autocross events and nationally as well. I am working on trying to tuck formula Atlantic rear tires in it which are 14 in wide instead of just the formula Atlantic fronts on all four corners that I ran at the challenge this year. Hoping to do it without getting the car any wider so that it stays narrow enough to be quick through the slaloms and such.

so I'm hoping to make this into a relatively competitive E-mod car while staying budget for the challenge which is a extreme double challenge in and of itself.

It has no Miata unibody to it anymore I first built it and got it on the road 2015 in beginning of 2016 at that point in time it was challenge legal to build a tube frame car and then it was quickly not legal so part of me not coming back then was it became illegal challenge car for awhile.

The biggest reason I built it into a hat car is I really wanted an Exocet or a catfish but I did not care for the way they looked they always looked like a shark jumping out of the wayer on the front end and I also really enjoy clean rat rods and patina. But I wanted to build one that could turn ((not just go straight.)) and be really fun at autocross and somehow that turned into this monstrosity

In reply to fireflybug_and_wallkisser2025 :

It's a nice car and you did well.  Take some of this talk in a good way as people are trying to figure out how to beat you next time.

In reply to Stampie :

oh. yes absolutely!!!

I'm all about getting faster as a group. pushing limits and going faster is the goal. 

fireflybug_and_wallkisser2025 said:

But I wanted to build one that could turn ((not just go straight.)) and be really fun at autocross and somehow that turned into this monstrosity

Same.  The Crown Vic is gonna end up gettin the body pulled one day and a dent side F-series put on it (maybe, probably.  Depends on how much I end up likin it once I get AC, but some Panther is gonna get its head cut off)

The performance aside, I really liked the aesthetic of having just enough front fender (or body side?) remaining in front of the front wheels to continue the visual idea of a Beetle.  That was genius IMO.

like moths to a flame...

In reply to fireflybug_and_wallkisser2025 :

Wallkisser LOL. Welcome to the party. Amazing car and craftsmanship. 

This car was fantastic.  Lots of details and some excellent fabrication. 

Was a pleasure to talk to you and see the car have success.  Excited to see what you can do with it next year and into the future.  

Thank you guys!!! each and everyone of you made it amazing.

as far as ac goes Asa that's definitely going in the next real car i build that's not a challenge car. regardless of cost n weight. It sure would be cool to see AC components and such not count towards our cost as long as you still had to pay for the belt and anything that improved performance in any way.

Angry corvair. 

The green one locally was called cicada and so I had to come up with something that fit and Firefly just seemed right never even considered the moth to Flame part that's pretty funny.

no cones. Super nice to meet you dude and definitely need to chat up and figure out some more stuff together!!

Pete. I really appreciate you saying that! It's funny it was kind of a happy accident. When cutting up the body originally I just tried to only remove what was absolutely necessary and pretty quickly it became a staple that is not usually there on hot rods and rat rods now anytime I see somebody do it for an engine beetle I feel like it's missing that triangle

In reply to fireflybug_and_wallkisser2025 :

I was wondering that as well.  Not like a stock AC gives any performance advantage (first run with him, Randy pointed to my AC knobs and asked "that thing on?"  "Nope, doesn't even work." "Right.")

But thats not the spirit of the event.