Just bought a Speedster from Vintage Speedster

Yes, but if it's new you will having 'teething' problems.

Shouldn't have asked this question BEFORE making a purchase? lol. Sounds like an impulse purchase!

 

I saw a new VS wreck the other day on the 202 West in Mesa, Arizona. Looks as if his passenger side front tire came off or something. Someone told me it was a few weeks old, but I cannot confirm that for sure. Just walk it over and re-torque everything after you take delivery.

 

Enjoy your new toy!

Is it pretty rough?  I have no problem with rough ride.  Most of my cars are lower.

Yeah..One day at a dinner table my wife said she wanted a Speedster for her BD (April 11).  So we bought it..  Taking delivery this Saturday 

haha, that's awesome. My girlfriends birthday is April 10th... I should probably plan something...

 

Congrats! What color combo did you guys go with?

As they say (usually) Welcome to the madness.

A few badges are still available 

We got Silver ext / Red int, 1900cc, 3.88, heated seats, stero sys, tires 195.

Before you, too, have a wheel fall off while driving or something else, take the time to g through this checklist - It's cheap insurance against disasters large and small.

 

https://www.speedsterowners.com...acceptance-checklist

 

If you don't post pictures then the transaction never happened.

Hi bqn...I'll be joining you, possibly this Saturday, to buy a Speedster as well. A red one though. Do you live in the L.A. area ? It would be beneficial, interesting and fun to keep in touch regarding/ sharing our joint "madness"! I really like Gordon's check list...Thanks Gordon. I am also a new member on this site and have found it to be a wealth of help and information. Congradulations!.........Aircooled

Here it is.. Still a few days away

       
       

Yes that would be great..
I'm in Westminster area (right by 405&22 split)
Bchantravat@gmail.com

Bert

BQN / Bert - Welcome to the Madness of replica Speedster ownership!

 

There are a lot of SOCers in Orange County that frequently get together for cruises! Keep an eye on the 'Events' thread for upcoming cruises in your area. Also give serious consideration in joining the gang for the West Coast Cruise in San Luis Obispo. Cool cars, great folks, awesome time.

 

Looking forward to meeting you and seeing your new rides! 

 

You may have already seen this but here is a short video of the cruise in SLO coming up in June...

 

NOTE: When the video starts playing - click the 'Gear' icon in the lower right corner and adjust video quality to 720HD for better viewing.  

 

I love my Vintage Speedster and believe that no doubt it is an entry level car but it can be made as reliable, fast and comfortable as about anything out there.  20+ trophies and some Best Of Show awards show it has the classic lines everyone loves.  It will show over 40,000 miles after our 7th trip to Carlisle in a few weeks with about half on the "new" engine.

 

I have definitely graduated from "The madness" to the INSANITY.  My take: a VS can be as great as you want to make it. 

 

Good luck with your new car---do follow Gordon's list and spend time on this SOC site.  The best people and  the best advice obtainable.

And even if the advice is the best, at least it's free....

 

I'm jus' sayin......

 

Jack:  Didn't you have some sort of "Apocolyptic Weather" down there today?  Rain, Snow, Sleet, Dust storms, Tornados and Hurricanes.....

 

All at the same time (or something like that...)

and Locusts !!

Dogs and cats living together!!!

 

(Name that movie)

Gordon---that wx is passing through St Louis right now.  Light cloud here --that's all.

Ohh, so it is most likely Breakfast club, but it could also be Ghostbusters.

Second guess was correct.  Bill Murray said it to the mayor of New York.

nice job on the video jim

Question :  how are you guys protecting your car when parking in a public place?  Alarm?

A picture of Vince usually does the trick

 

cut off switch is about it for some protection---

And just how would one make it as reliable?

bqn109   I had a VS for 3 weeks about 5 months ago-if you would like to hear about my problems and things to look for call me   Jerry 973-641-4142

Adam, you just fix and adjust things as you go. These cars are hand-built and as such they develop teething problems when new and need regular maintenance as you go.

Adam--my post said that the car was made as reliable as "about anything out there" so I guess this what you are asking about.

 

Reliable to me means that it is able to take me (and my wife) where we want to go without 

breaking down.  That it will start when I turn the key, and deliver the speed and MPG I want consistently and handle safely when I am on highways and stop quickly and straight when I use the brakes.  That could travel day after day at interstate speeds without overheating. That I can count on staying dry in a light shower as well as a downpour. 

 

To accomplish that I installed a best-available Type IV engine rather than the car's original  Mexicrate that I constantly feared would leave me stranded on the side of the road. The best builder put the best parts into a Porsche 914 case and expertly tuned it for reliability.  I wasn' t looking for speed and don't take over 80 that much but it dynoed at 142 MPH so it has speed as well.   I have confidence that I'll make it to my destination now. It has been well tested on a coast to coast trip.

 

For braking the car now has discs on all 4 wheels rather than drums on the rear.  I heard that "you don't need them" but after a panic stop with rear drums on I-40 in Knoxville I knew the drums were a joke.  The 4 wheel discs always stop srtaight ahead with confidence.

Weatherproofing is a topic unto itself and you can search here about how to do that.

 

 I do feel that it is as reliable as just about anything out there.  I hope this is helpful.

 

 

 

 

The problem is that these things can go much faster than the original engineers from Wolfsburg ever envisioned. I have also had a similar experience in a bug, and it's plain scary when the brakes just "go away" before you're even close to stopped. Do you remember, Jack, how fast you were going when initially hitting the brakes and at what speed they overheated and "disappeared"?

It wasn't so much fading as it was zig-zagging.  I almost lost control!  I was doing 75 and maybe a bit more like always om I-40 and when I topped this hill there were cars already everywhichaway because they had to stop so fast. No wrecks but real close to a pileup.  I was very surprised when I topped that hill to suddenly see all the stopped vehicles and I was flying.  It's an odd hill that makes it difficult to see what's ahead on the other side even when you're right at the top ---I don't ever remember seeing one like it and have 

passed it a few times going east since my incident.  Anyway, I immediately hit the brakes when I saw the vehicles---I didn't lock them up and the tires didn't squeal but the way the steering wheel jerkedto one side and then the other was frightening.  I really thought I'd loose it for a second.  I did stop in time but never want to repeat that incident.

 

I haven't had to brake all that hard since adding the rear discs but a couple of times I did have to brake pretty hard and it was a smooth stop with no steering wheel involvment.  Just straight and smooth.

 

No, we don't "need" 4 wheel brakes but how much margin for error do we want?  I'd like all I can reasonablly have.

 

The real lesson is that no one should drive any faster than they can see ahead to stop----regardless of what kind of brakes they have so I blame myself rather than the design of the road at that spot.  

We've had our VS for about a year and couldn't be happier. Put away in November for a long cold New England winter and she fired right up on Saturday morning. No issues at all to report.  

Jack- I had a Baja bug (stock drum brakes) with larger rear tires and had to panic stop on the freeway in full traffic from about 70mph ( a very stoned kid picking magic mushrooms on the side of the road got up and decided to join his high girlfriend on the other side of the road). Brakes went away at about 35 or 40 mph and if I hadn't dived on to the shoulder I would have splatted him. When I put type 3 drums on the back it was a completely different car; they're designed for a heavier car and handled the bigger rear tires with ease in any situation.

 

Also had them on the back of my Cal Look bug with Karmann Ghia discs on the front- with smaller front tires (135's on 4 1/2" rims) and close to stock height on the back (185/70's on 6" rims) they again balanced the braking force just right. When I had stock drums on the back, the discs would lock up at the drop of a hat (especially on wet or dusty roads) while the back didn't provide nearly enough. The type 3 rears meant you didn't have to rely on the fronts nearly as much, and I didn't seem to be able to find their limit.

 

Before anybody thinks I'm trying to start a drum vs disc war, all I'm saying is that beetle rear drums are woefully inadequate when the car is pushed harder than the elves at Wolfsburg ever intended. With better handling, more power and spirited driving, the back brakes ALSO NEED UPGRADING! Adding discs on the front may not be enough. How you do it on the back is up to you.

 

And Jack, I know you know this; I'm hoping someone else here will realize how important it is... Yoda out. 

ALB---absolutely---Type 3 drums are infinitely better than the bug drume.  Much larger drums and much lareger brake shoes.  I have always wondered why the Type 3 drums aren't more widely used for Speedsters.  I don't believe I'ver read a post saying someone had them.

 

I am a far from a great  wrench but read and save everything I can get my hands on about these cars and engines and have definitely read about the benefits of the bigger drum brakes.

 

I believe you are so right in your opinion of the Type 3 drum brakes. I enjoyed your post.

 

My discs haven't locked up because I don't just slam on the brakes to the floor but I suppose any kind of brake short of ABS can be locked up.

One of the reasons type 3 rear drums aren't used more is availability- although you can still buy most of the parts, there's no source for new backing plates other than used (and they are much harder to find these days!). Also (I'm guessing here), as well as discs being harder to overheat, they have that "cool factor" that drums don't have. When I used them in the past, it was because discs were still way more expensive and there wasn't the proliferation of kits that there are now. The first time I used type 3 rear drums the only alternative for street legal rear discs (with a working parking brake) was to adapt 914 rears, which can be done but need custom fabricating for the caliper mounts. The type 3 pieces are a bolt-on deal.

 

As I said earlier, I'm not trying to stir up the pot here as I'm the first one to admit that discs are the better technology, but the type 3 stuff can be a great low cost alternative...

 

 

Add wide5 to the mix and it gets a little harder. There are plenty of kits for Ghia type front discs and even rear disc with ebrake.

 

Wide5 is a different ballgame. I'll deal with front first. Socal and EMPI make a cheap, very heavy, low quality unit. CSP makes the only TUV rated aftermarket brakes. Very pricy($1600) but good quality, although I'm not a big fan of the single piston GM/Opel caliper(I have these). Also, it is over $300(exchange rate from Euro AND shipping) to replace the rotors which are showing hairline cracks after 32K of abuse. The per axle price is VERY high. Lastly are Airkewld BAD brakes($1000 to 1200 an axle), which, while expensive, are way less than CSP, readily available rotors($75), pads and calipers(Wilwood).

 

The rear wide5 are funny, as all providers use the VW parts bin(Jetta/Golf?) rear caliper with e-brake. Yes, every single one, be it CB, Socal, Empi, CSP, and Airkewld. So here it is a matter of weight and component quality. I haven't really researched CB, but I believe the rotors/hubs are iron for them as well as Empi and Socal. Be careful as there are a cast(forged maybe?) and a stamped caliper bracket and I've read the stamped bracket is crap. Again, the CSP are well made and light but expensive as hell, and still use the same caliper as all. The Airkewld has very nice looking machined aluminum hubs and the same rotor as the front. Also, the Airkewld will let you change to any 5 lug pattern, 2 American, Porsche 911, or wide5 with the same hub, you just need to order new bolt patterns to bolt on.

 

The best drums to use in back are 356, but that stuff is scarce, expensive, and old. Good luck finding rust-free backing plates and serviceable drums. But the 356 drums really fill the wheel up as compared to the puny VW ones, type1 or type3.

 

I've ordered 4 piston fronts and e-brake disc rears from Airkewld, waiting for them to arrive. And you can trash talk all day about the coward pedal, but I have no desire to experience hi-speed brake fade again! Also, better braking means faster entry, faster exit because you spend less time driving SLOW!

Ahhhhh, My old nemesis, drum brake fade.......

 

I had a '57 VW Oval Beetle when I was in college, Bone stock but with an almost duplicate 2,110 to what I have in Pearl.  My college was in Boston and I would come home on weekends, driving out the Mass. Pike (I-90). 

 

If there were other "spirited" drivers around me that I could impress with a hot little bug, I did it.  Too many times, though, I would come hurtling up on my exit in Framingham to get off, stand on the brake pedal with all I had while I saw the exit glide past on the right and then I had to drive another ten miles to the next exit and backtrack to home.  Not cool.  I found that if I really wanted to get off at Framingham, I had to regain my senses a couple of miles ahead and slow down to under 50 before I got to the exit ramp - even that had to stretch out if I had anyone else in the car.....

 

You really had to plan your stops much farther in advance with that car and I never did upgrade the brakes but sold the car and bought a '66 Mustang instead.  At least it could stop!

Oh, and I auto-crossed "Pale Blu", my '57 Oval, just once.

 

Brakes were totally gone by about the sixth corner, missed turn eight completely as the rear came around to meet the front and whistled across the finish line backwards!

 

Gotta love old bugs.

Funny, Gordon! Drums, what a great technology????

 

I forgot to mention that if you have the 911 pattern, 5 X 130, there are many many options from stock Porsche 944 to total custom brakes. Probably the best bolt pattern to have if performance is your goal. And according to others, you're a "coward".