Hi all,

Me and a buddy are looking at building a Class 11 to race SNORE. We have a pan/body (currently not attached) and a bunch of parts. The body already has much of the cage already in it. My buddy has been a VW wrench for 20ish years and knows them inside out, little race experience. I have years of roadrace driving and building experience, but little VW experience. I have been cruising the net and reading the info on this site for the last couple weeks. Lots of good info and experience here so I am hoping you can answer a question we have differing opinions on. In the attached pic there are tubes running along the pan from the front beams to the rear tube. I believe they are for chassis rigidity. My friend does not think they are a good idea. He believes VWs need some flexability and will drive poorly if these are installed. Your input is requested. Thank you, Larry

Larry with all due respect to your friend, I will say he is very wrong and ill informed. the last thing you want in a off road race Vw is things flexing, flexing = broken in off road racing. With out those bars the tunnel and rear torsion housing will bend in no time at all. How do I know this you ask, 36 years ago when I started in class 11 with my dad you were not allowed by rules to attach to the front beam nor the torsion housing, complete floorpan replacement became normal between races if you were running for a championship, some every race had complete new pans under them. I saw my dad replace 4 in 1976-77. no offence meant, but weather you have them bars or not you will not know the difference driving the car, your friend included!! Good luck, get er done for BATTLE AT PRIMM in February!! Should be one heck of a race!!

ask pump gas about not having them. they had a solid car tell the body broke away from the pan at the Mint. when the shift knob hits you in the knee cap you will think different. whos pan was that. best of luck with your build. Dennis

OUCH!

Thanks for the 411. No offense taken - the kid (my friend) is OK, just gets a bug (pun intended) up his arce sometimes. I’ll straighten him out on this. Primm is a bit too ambitious for this project. Work etc have a nasty habit of getting in the way of fun. We are shooting for a debut run later in the year on one of the local Arizona (Whiplash or Prescott Valley) short course races as a break in. That is if they ever post their rules. I am planning on checking out Class 11 cars at Primm and Laughlin (SCORE).

I presume you guys will be at Primm.

I got the pic off this site
dsb.yuku.com/topic/738/t/Class-11-Dreamin.html

Larry