Joel and kevin black just ran 8.98 @ 162. I believe that is the first fwd vw in the 8s. Congrats!

 

wow!!! GOOD JOB.

 

that's a great time, congrats!

 

first in n.america in the 8's and im pretty sure kevin said something along the lines of "hole in the block, jb weld is still wet"

 

WOW thats awesome! Congrats!

 

was that on wheelie bars?

 

yes, car is hot rod setup

 

great job guys !!

 

time to pimp z auto!!!! congrats..

 

I usually unpimp ze auto.

Congrats guys.

Seems like all these "records" are being set lately.

 

congrats

 

 

Good job guys!!

 

Joel isn't the first FWD VW in the 8's. There are a few cars from Argentina that have been running 8.7x for a while now.

I wasn't posting that to be a downer, or to scoff at his MASSIVE accomplishment, more to just clear things up

 

Im thinking what he ment is in the USA. Cause he would be the first.

 

Makes us proud. Well done, boys.

 

Congrats man I know its been quite the road. Well deserved.

 

Hey guys, thanks a lot for the comments. Theres some people that need to be mentioned:

- Thanks to Brian Ballard for starting the thread, and the drill bits, etc. Brian,Charlie, and Jason are some of the the best guys around.

- Thanks to Joe Simpson and Tempest Racing - who let us go to his shop and borrow parts off of his own car so we could run Sunday, awesome dude.

- Thanks to Miller and Greg at NRG Tech - for helping hook up the BOV parts when I'm sure they were busy with other things.

- Thanks to Rick Benner, who showed up with a backup BOV haha.

- Thanks to Jason Miller and the entire MIR crew. The race was great, and it's really nice to go to a track where the crew is polite and doesn't seem to hate their jobs and lives - and you! The track was on point! - ask our clutch!

- Thanks to AP Tuning, Mike built a spare trans for the car at the last minute, but we didn't need it because the AP gears are so strong they had no problems!

- Mark (Chuck) Morris, crew chief for Joel Brown Racing - who sustains my motivation during my times of temporary despair, lol Made it happen!

- Jamie (wifey) Black - video services, truck security, etc.

- Thanks to Autoextrem, Todd, Ivan bros, Corbit bros, Steve Merman and Dave, Chuck Seitsinger, Tony1, Miller, Cuhna, etc. for the motivation.

- I think that's it. There's a good video, it should be up in a day or two.

 

glad we got you guys back out at the track, can`t wait for 2010 hopefully we will line up a few times. congrats again.

 

Congrats!!!

 

Would those VW's meet all the rules and regulations to run in the class he was in, and still run an 8..?

 

Thanks guys-- it's nice to get props from the Honda (and extended) community. Honda racers are some of the most helpful guys out there. People went out of their way this weekend to help us with parts and tools we needed to keep car the going when we encountered some hurdles. Special thanks to Joe Simpson for the bov parts and Greg from NRG Tech for going way out of his way to help us Saturday night.

This isn't the first fwd VW in the 8's-- there are two cars from South America we've heard about that have broken 8's-- but it's the first fwd VW in North America. As far as we know, Joel's car is the only fwd VW that has run 8's in what *was* considered Hot Rod legal trim. It's 2125#, 71mm turbo, 26" tires and "wheelie bars" on meth. Joel built the car a few years back when there still was a Hot Rod Class, and unfortunately timing wasn't ideal and life got in the way of racing, ha ha.

Joel ran the 8.98@166 right off the trailer Saturday in the first qualifying round. To say we were pleased is an understatement. The previous best was 9.5, and this car has 12 passes on it this year (including licence passes) and it has been over 2 years since it was out for it's first shakedown runs on a then-new setup.

We turned it up a bit for the second qualifier Saturday night, but the bov came loose and fell off-- whoops! That caused a bit of a boost leak and slowed the car down considerably. We were relieved nothing serious happened, and proceeded to hunt for missing bov parts.

Third qualifier Saturday night was cancelled , so we had one more hit Sunday morning to make some adjustments. We were in line Sunday when we heard Felix smashed 8's with 24.5's. Kevin and I looked at each other and thought the same thing-- let's turn this b*tch up-- the track is definately there. Kevin made some adjustments and we were ready to go. The bump had dropped to mid 8's, so we knew we had to make something happen in order to get into the field. Unfortunately the clutch didn't hold what the engine and tires were prepared to dish-out, and Joel went a 9.44 with the clutch slipping the entire length of the track. It was an anti-climatic way to end the weekend, but "that's racing". We'll be back out with some more tweaks and hope to see what this thing will really do. Power is still turned down considerably as we're trying to keep everything together and get some seat time/ data before getting nutty.

Joel built this car in his garage, including all the fab work like the engine manifolds, rollcage, piping, etc, and Kevin is the brains behind the laptop and a whole lot more. Big congrats to both of you-- you guys are the real deal. You've been around a long time paying your dues, and nobody deserves it more. Things have come a long way since that first Callaway kit on the Scirocco making hits on Shade Lane. Thanks for letting me play a small part in this whole thing. I'm honored to call you guys friends.

 

I doubt it.


On Morris' story: I like hearing stories like that. Garage built burners, with everything built by the owner. I have been building my scirocco for 27 months now, buying parts when I can, working on it when I have time (60hr work weeks), and maybe it will make a trip down the track with a decent time.

 

That in a nutshell, is what it's all about. Hot-rodding in it's purest form. Absolutely nothing against people with more resources, because those guys started out the same way-- working their asses off, scraping things together and doing what it takes to make races-- otherwise they wouldn't be where they are now. Racers are racers, regardless of their stripes-- the same fire burns within.

 

Very well said, congrats on the milestone accomplishment. I'm sure it was a tough road, not that it's going to get any easier to get deeper in the 8s :p