Safari Rally VII

SAFARI RALLY VII

1966 NEW MODEL - NEW DOUBTS

For 1966, Richard Barbour and Mike Doughty had entered one of the newly imported VW 1300 Beetles, there may have been doubts about the new "ball joint" front suspension - was it as good as the old "king and linkpin"? (A debate that still goes on today). In what was another very wet rally, Barbour and Doughty - with only a faulty starter motor to spoil an otherwise trouble free run - splashed their way up to a very credible second place overall by the time the Rally reached Kampala, the finish of the first half of the Rally. So perhaps the Beetle wasn't dead yet.

Between Kampala and the finish at Nairobi, disaster struck. They hit a rock damaging a track rod and the time needed for repairs dropped them down the field. So out of the 9 cars that finished the VW (with the smallest engine of all the finishers) finally came home in 7th place beating a Ford Cortina GT and a Mercedes 220SE in the process.

What the VW really needed to stay competitive was more power. And it finally got it when, in late 1966, the 1500 Beetle was imported into Kenya.

1967 TIME FOR A RE-THINK

Fjastad, Khan and Barbour's giant killing acts had not gone unnoticed, for meanwhile down at the Cooper Motor Corporation some one had a bright idea: -

It was as easy as ABC!

A/ The 1500 were being marketed as the "Hot Beetle".

B/ The last 4 Safari's had been mud baths – and Beetles go well in the mud.

C/ If an almost standard private entry1300 could get up to 2nd place, The new 1500 with full backing might be quick enough to win in a wet year (In a dry year it would be very different story.)

A team of 1500 Beetles were prepared for the 1967 Rally, this was to be a full blooded effort just like the '62 event and a second team of private entry 1300 Beetles were also given help and advice . The cars were to be driven by the best VW drivers available and were allocated as follows.

TEAM No 1. VW 1500 Beetles

No 16. B Bengry & J Bradley

No 22. T Fjastad & B Smith

No 25 R Barbour & M Doughty

No 39 E Ruthmann & C McNaughton

No 59. B Ferguson &/ M Stahl (VW AUSTRALIA) Ferguson was a non-starter

TEAM No 2. VW 1300 Beetles

These were unsponsored Private entries.

No 40 M Khan & H Reuter

No 57 C Walles & C Dickson

No 68 S Desai & G Turner

No 74 N Singh Bachu & P Singh Bachu

No 78 P Choda & G Choda

Other VWs in the event were:

No 84 A Singh Gill & T Singh Sembi (VW 1300)

No 88 G Barbour & D Brooksbank (VW 1500)

No 92 J Bhamra & D Parker (VW 1300)

THE CARS

The Safari was historically for Group 1 cars - this does not allow any major modifications to the cars - but in 1967, for the first time in the Safari's history, Group 1, 2 and 3 cars were allowed to run in the '67 event. To tune the 1500 Beetles to Group 2 specification Coopers turned to Scania Vabis and Okrasa in Europe for help.

THE ENGINE.

The crank, flywheel, clutch and connecting rods were balanced to within 0.4 gram.

Pistons from a 1500S Notchback were fitted to give 8.5 to 1 compression ratio, these were lightened by machining off the pistons skirts, the flywheel was lightened by 3.5 lbs. and the cylinder heads were gas-flowed and the combustion chambers balanced. Standard valve gear was used.

The camshaft was from Okrasa, most likely an Okrasa Rally grind; this gave 254 degrees duration 8-mm lift and 19-55-54-20 timing. The carburettor was the 30 PICT with the venturi bored out to 26.5mm. The pre-heater pipes to the manifold and the hot air pipes to the air filter were blocked, and the Carburettor insulated to help stop vapour locks

THE CHASSIS.

This had protection plates fitted to the spare wheel well and to the jacking points, a roll cage was made locally from 2" X 3¼" square tube. The engine was protected with a sumpguard - made from the leaf springs of a Land Rover, attached to the rear bumper hangers and to the forks by the front gear box mounting. This gave good protection, but still let air flow round the sump. Problems with overheating had been found with a fully enclosing guard - even with this leaf spring guard, oil temperatures were in the 120°C region.

PERFORMANCE.

It is difficult to be exact about power output but, working from other tuners data, I would estimate around 55/60 bhp at sea level (where the cars were good for over 90mph), but because most of the Safari Rally is run at a height of 6000ft above sea level, the thin air gives a power loss of about 18%, so the usual maximum was 87mph.

Speeds of over 50 mph were available in second gear, and up to 77-78 in third. This equates to a maximum engine speed of 6000rpm; maximum power was at 4300 RPM.

The rear torsion bars were thicker than standard, and Bilstein dampers were used, not Koni as in previous years. The "Z" bar fitted to the rear suspension was modified to come into action sooner than normal.

Disc brakes were a standard fitment on the 1500, the first Beetle to have them. Most of the cars had the braking system modified with a pressure limiter fitted into the front brake line. This stopped the front wheels locking before the rears came into action.

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