Official VWvortex Super Beetle Project Build Thread

[jamie@vwvortex]

How does 500hp and AWD grab you?


VWVORTEX SUPER BEETLE

01 - PROJECT INTRODUCTION

02 - DISMANTLING BEGINS

03 - REAR END REMOVAL

04 - CUTTING AND SPLICING

05 - SURGERY COMPLETE

06 - SUSPENSION AND BRAKES

07 - ENGINE WORK BEGINS

08 - PUTTING IT BACK TOGETHER

09 - THE FINAL COUNTDOWN TO THE SEMA SHOW

10 - SEMA BOUND

[silverspeedbuggy]

Eep!

[drtechy]

Whaaaaaaa

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[eunos94]

Ya know what would be super? If my Beetle would stop unlocking and locking itself and if the dealer would replace my 5x soaked interior with one that doesn't smell like gym socks... I'm not even going to complain that they haven't fixed the upsy downsy yet.

Ok Ok back on topic. Can't wait for details of this project.

[drtechy]

Ya know what would be super? If my Beetle would stop unlocking and locking itself and if the dealer would replace my 5x soaked interior with one that doesn't smell like gym socks... I'm not even going to complain that they haven't fixed the upsy downsy yet.

Really? in a build thread

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[eunos94]

Really? in a build thread

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meh grumble grumble just really annoyed with my car today as it won't stay locked... sigh

[GTarr]

I'm loving the profile of that whale-tail spoiler.... very interested to see!

GTarr

[jamie@vwvortex]

Beetle donor car arrived today. Six-speed manual, no sunroof, turbo in Platinum Grey. Car is down at APR along with the Golf R donor (former autoshow crusher car that VW had written off already) that will supply the AWD system and various support pieces.

I'm just posting up a few teaser bits here in the Beetle forum till this more formally kicks off early next week. We'll be posting regular updates in this thread for everyone.

500HP and AWD should make this a fun Beetle.

[silverspeedbuggy]

:jawdrop:

[TragicallyHip]

500HP and AWD should make this a fun Beetle.

And you get paid for this too, don't you

[jwcardy]

got my attention...

[ViRtUaLheretic]

sub'd!

I was hoping to see HPA make another monster, but this def works!

[ridgemanron]

Might rekindle VW's thoughts about actually making an AWD Turbo Beetle.

[GTarr]

Forget the Beetle R, I want this one.

GTarr

[LEBlackRob]

OOO Pretty cool, and you don't sound like some kid just talking big game. Sounds like you got what it takes to back these numbers up.

[Skimmy290]

knew i shouldn't have clicked on this thread....
i'm not getting anything done now
just going to wait for updates...

[eunos94]

Well well well now this I can get excited about.

[ridgemanron]

This could be the most anticipated event since sliced bread was first introduced to the
masses. For those unfamiliar with the origin of sliced bread, note that in 1732 a duel
developed in a country inn over the affections of a pretty wench who answered to the
name Ba-bie. During the duel of swords, one of the combatants accidently slammed his
sword onto the top of a nearby table where a loaf of bread was resting and for the first
time known to man, a slice of bread was born. The man sitting at the table called out
to the man by name, saying 'LeSlice, do it again !' Pierre LeSlice did do it again and now
with two slices before him, the seated man called out to the bar keeper for some salted
meat. He then placed the meat between the two slices of bread. The name of this man,
it turns out, was The Earl of Sandwich and he was the inventor of the prepared food that
bear's his name.

[Skimmy290]

This could be the most anticipated event since sliced bread was first introduced to the
masses. For those unfamiliar with the origin of sliced bread, note that in 1732 a duel
developed in a country inn over the affections of a pretty wench who answered to the
name Ba-bie. During the duel of swords, one of the combatants accidently slammed his
sword onto the top of a nearby table where a loaf of bread was resting and for the first
time known to man, a slice of bread was born. The man sitting at the table called out
to the man by name, saying 'LeSlice, do it again !' Pierre LeSlice did do it again and now
with two slices before him, the seated man called out to the bar keeper for some salted
meat. He then placed the meat between the two slices of bread. The name of this man,
it turns out, was The Earl of Sandwich and he was the inventor of the prepared food that
bear's his name.

Haha gotta love this site
Always something new

[VWBugman00]

This could be the most anticipated event since sliced bread was first introduced to the
masses. For those unfamiliar with the origin of sliced bread, note that in 1732 a duel
developed in a country inn over the affections of a pretty wench who answered to the
name Ba-bie. During the duel of swords, one of the combatants accidently slammed his
sword onto the top of a nearby table where a loaf of bread was resting and for the first
time known to man, a slice of bread was born. The man sitting at the table called out
to the man by name, saying 'LeSlice, do it again !' Pierre LeSlice did do it again and now
with two slices before him, the seated man called out to the bar keeper for some salted
meat. He then placed the meat between the two slices of bread. The name of this man,
it turns out, was The Earl of Sandwich and he was the inventor of the prepared food that
bear's his name.

Well that was random. I can't wait to see how this one turns out...

[KahviVW]

Bring it!

[--DaRk-AnGeL--]

Any more news on this yet?

[ridgemanron]

Any more news on this yet?

I've hear rumors that NASA wants to use it as a booster for one of their upcoming
rockets and the only problem is that all their astronauts are afraid to pilot it due to
the scary power levels planned for it.

[--DaRk-AnGeL--]

I've hear rumors that NASA wants to use it as a booster for one of their upcoming
rockets and the only problem is that all their astronauts are afraid to pilot it due to
the scary power levels planned for it.

....

I'm happy to take that position!

Strap me in and fire me up!

[jamie@vwvortex]

Our main project home page is now live HERE

[ik04]

Since you are looking for a unique, outrageous color for this project car, I suggest a chrome wrap with a pink/rose/salmon kind of color.
Kind of like the Mercedes Benz Electric SLS, but pinkish...

That would be an impressive sight!

[l3it3r]

Wow! This will be epic. Cool concept for sure!

[wraithkl626]

Wow just WOW!!!!!!!!

I wish VW would have made some like this from the factory. This is an extremely awesome project that I will be watching closely. After you get the kinks worked out for all to see, I just might build my own in the future. Thank you for the new dream.

[LEBlackRob]

So this is on the main page now with more information then the build thread WTF mate. So you guys are looking to bust this out before the end of the month. Please give us a time line of the build or something. It would be cool to see what all goes into this car. If you guys are willing to share. I mean come on the most of us can only dream of doing a project like this.

[Cort]

Well this should be interesting.

[jamie@vwvortex]

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

02 - Dismantling Begins

So it begins...

To get this project started, there are a few things that need to happen in a certain order. First we need to get suspension parts and brakes on the vehicle so we can take final measurements for the wheels. The initial wheel design is locked down, but we need to get final dimensions both front and rear to make sure the offsets, back spacing, width and brake clearance is where we need it. So far we are discovering that there is a LOT of room in the wheel wells of the Beetle. In the rear we are potentially looking at 10" wide wheels if we wanted to - easily. That guess is with the stock suspension bits still in place and there is a strong likelihood that the Golf R pieces we we transfer over may be a bit beefier as we very quickly discovered with the front subframe.

So knowing that we wanted to lower the vehicle, we also wanted to ensure that we didn't adversely affect the handling (bump and torque steer). To help combat this we want to use TT-RS drop spindles. As Doug McClintock from APR points out, "The TT-RS drop spindles make a great change in bringing the control arms up and level with the tie rods. This decreases the bump and torque steer found when lowering the car by changing the camber circle. If you remember people changing to MK1 TT spindles on their MK4 cars, it's the same reasoning. We've had to do a couple of machining operations to make them work, but the were extremely effective on our MaxR project and that's why we elected to use them here."

So let's take a quick look under the rear end of both the Beetle and the Golf R below.



As you can see in the photo above, both the Golf R and the Beetle have a central tunnel that can support both the prop shaft for AWD and the exhaust routing to the rear. The multilink rear suspension common to both vehicles supports the Haldex AWD coupling. While there are some other minor differences, the main part that we have to deal with is the gas tank. Since the Beetle doesn't have to worry about the AWD system, the gas tank uses some of that empty space. The Golf R on the other hand has a saddle gas tank the straddles the prop shaft and exhaust. This tank requires a different sheetmetal floor pan. So we're going to have to do some major surgery to get the AWD system and gas tank into the Beetle. While we could go with a racing fuel cell in the hatch, we wanted to try and keep this installation as stock looking as possible, so we're going to be cutting some metal.

To install the suspension, we'd like to install those drop spindles we talked about previously and to install those spindles we'll need to swap over the Golf R front subframe. So out comes the stamped steel Beetle subframe:



Next the Golf R's front subframe is removed. In the photo below you can see the stock Beetle subframe above the Golf R front subframe. Note that the Golf R has a far more robust and completely aluminum subframe carrier unlike the Beetle's more simple (and heavier) stamped steel unit. Also notice how much more substantial the Golf R lower control arms are to cope with the additional horsepower:



In the photo below you can see the stock Beetle front subframe on the top made of simple stamped steel and beneath it the much beefier (and lighter) aluminum subframe from the Audi TTRS (middle) and Golf R (bottom).



Why the Audi TTRS subframe? Well we discovered the Golf R front subframe doesn't bolt directly to the Beetle. Missed it by *that* much:



However APR had a TTRS aluminum front subframe laying around and decided to give it a try and it fit perfectly. This begs the question of whether VW started their CAD chassis/floorpan design process using the Audi TT as a base to start with. This would logically make sense since both cars have convertible versions and would be more similar in design than the regular Golf. Who knows for sure, but we have a subframe that matches and that's all that matters. So here is the TTRS subframe (bottom) and Beetle steel subframe (top) along with APR's beautiful lower aluminum control arms.



Lastly we test fitted the Beetle's steering rack and the H&R front sway bars on the TTRS aluminum front subframe and everything seemed to bolt right up. So far so good.

Our next installment moves to the rear end and we start unbolting everything back there to see what we're dealing with. Stay tuned...

For the full story layout and a gallery of high-res photos check out our Super Beetle article HERE.

[HalvieCuw]

ttrs subframe lighter than the r/gti? If so does it fit on either of those?

[Beets]

ttrs subframe lighter than the r/gti? If so does it fit on either of those?

I wouldn't think the TTRS would swap into the gti since they used thenTTRS on the Beetle because the Golf R didn't fit the Beetle...

[SchnellFowVay]

I wouldn't think the TTRS would swap into the gti since they used thenTTRS on the Beetle because the Golf R didn't fit the Beetle...

This.

These are the best kind of build threads, because very few, if any, individuals would ever attempt to hack apart two nearly brand new cars to end up with a single one-off creation.

I am looking forward to this!

Also, when you say 500hp, are you guys thinking of swapping in the 2.5T out of the TT-RS?

[Twizted_bunny]

Definitely excited to see where this goes!