The Shark! my club rabbit racer build

Skip doesn't drive a Club Rabbit as far as I know. He drives a "Q" production rabbit (or some other suitably high letter). That was my point - it doesn't matter how wide Skip makes his car, Brads Rabbit is SURPRISINGLY fast. A hybrid Stig creature made from Senna and Schumacher's best bits driving Skip's car couldn't beat Brad unless he broke. And wrecked. And burst into flames. Twice.

Brad's car is a ball to watch.
 
ive been gathering more parts and i finally have somewhat of an update. hopefully the month of december and january will be very productive

finally got a carb head thats nice and fresh. needs a cam, but i hope to get the cam and weber from tyler this weekend if our schedules work with each other.

IMAG0035.jpg


IMAG0036.jpg


nothing special really...

now this other box i was very excited about. its a full set of plastic windows for the car. 5 in total, though i dont think i will be using the fronts. I know for sure that the driver window needs to be open with just a net and i believe the pass side also needs to be open. if thats the case, i will just use the two fronts to make two more rear side windows as i can use those on my project jetta.

IMAG0034.jpg


i hope to get the last few parts together in the next week so the motor and trans can go in before the end of the year. it may not be ready for the track but if it runs and drives it will motivate me to finish that much quicker.
 
Big Thanks to Tyler! I finally made my way down to pick up a weber carb and manifold from him this weekend and walked away with a lot more than I expected. Among the goodies that I wasn't expecting were an oil cooler, a g-grind cam, a massive front spoiler, a 4 speed transmission, a radiator, a window net, a wink mirror and more stuff im forgetting right now.

weber.jpg


oilcooler.jpg


frontspoiler.jpg


my tiny garage is overflowing with parts and VWs. i went and bought a storage shelf, immediately filled it up and it doesnt feel like ive gained any room! doh!

i guess i better get to work, if i install the parts IN the car, they wont take up space on the shelf...
 
long overdue update. most of the work hasnt been anything worth taking pictures of and the progress was slow. summary of the work:
-motor mounts are all new and filled with 3M window weld
-rebuilt the steering rack. new tie rods, steering rack boots and poly bushings for the rack.
-knuckles pulled so the new wheel bearings can get pressed in.

other news:
-not doing the tie rod flip just yet because my ball joint extenders ended up being wrong and communication with PMWltd has been lackluster at best. regardless, those will all be done soon enough.
- i have some early strut caps that will get cut and rewelded to regain back some suspension travel. again, in due time.
-the motor is bolted together, but a stripped brake line is preventing me from installing that just yet. im close to being done tearing the car apart and just installing goodies. but for now, some pics

engineandtrans.jpg


mounts1.jpg


mounts2.jpg


mounts3.jpg
 
Simon,

Keep it going. Looks good so far. I found another source for the ball joint extenders. I got no response from your source for the extenders. Unix performance is out of Quebec and they will have them shipped to you for $230.00. I am measuring my ball joints tonight so I can place my order tomorrow. Do you know the size of your ball joints?
 
17mm, the ones I have are the 19mm for the mk2. Im going to keep them and use them on the Jetta project once I get around to it
 
cant wait to hear how yours are tyler, the quality of the PMW parts is there, but his customer service sucks. even if its a one man operation he should be trying to get back in touch with people. i probably would just buy another set from him, but im likely to get the ones you bought.

in other news, ive been chipping away at it. i should have my knuckles back this week with fresh bearings, so ive been focusing on getting things done. hopefully ill be done with the front suspension before the end of the week so i can try to drop the motor in over the weekend.

new steering rack boots, tie rods and poly steering rack mounts
steeringrack_done.jpg


another view of the new tie rods, new control arms with delrin bushings and new ball joints, new stainless steel brake lines. also the coilovers, all just waiting for the knuckles to put it all together.

front_right_almost.jpg
 
So just an update on where I'm at now. The motor is pretty much in, both side mounts are nice and tight. Bad news is that the front motor mount is bent. God knows how that happened, but it should be fixed once I get a chance to work on it when its ok for me to hammer. I live in a complex with an HOA that I would rather not piss off. Besides there is plenty of stuff to keep me busy. The rest of the mounts are in and good.

bentmount.jpg


I dropped the motor in a little while ago but today I finally thought I would see if I could get the head on. While I was at it, I also hooked up the intake manifold and weber carb. Looks like Im going to have to cut out part of the rain tray. Also got a nice idea of how the engine bay would look when its all done.

problems.jpg


I also got my knuckles back with the new wheel bearings pressed in. I reinstalled them with the wheel studs and the new rotors. Calipers arent just ready yet, once those are ready, the wheel wells will be pretty much done and I can focus on the engine bay.

wheelstuds.jpg


I dont feel like tearing through the rule book, but I remember there being a requirement of 4 threads showing on the studs. Am I way off?
 
Simon,

I recently procured a similar Club Rabbit complete with marbled blue paint job and (seriously) glow-in-the-dark flames. There is always a place for old Rabbits to do double duty in RAT Racing. This year's VW project is called the Ratbit and last year's build was a Wolfsburg Edition Cabrio, called "The Wolf". I look forward to The Wolf and The Shark doing battle together someday.

Keep up the good work,
Bill Murray
 
Last edited:
this little bastard killed my motivation, took months to fix and effectively destroyed any chances of racing in 2012. for those that dont know what they are looking at, its a bent control arm mount. it frustrated me to work on the car so I stopped working on it. finally I got a friend to come over and he fixed it in 15 minutes.

IMAG0112.jpg


this deserves its own post, next post will be a more legit update
 
Last edited:
Is that a "Master Caution Light" (a la aircraft) or a shift light? If it's the latter, that's the biggest one I've ever seen! Definitely starting to look like a race car, though. Keep going!
 
I think that one means "The engine has expolded, prepare for shrapnel coming through the floor and firewall."
 
One suggestion is to turn any gauges with needles so at "normal" reading the needle is pointing straight up, to 12 noon, regardless of the orientation of the numbers. That way you can quickly sweep the gauges and not have to "read them". If one is not pointing to Noon you can then take an extra moment to read it. Otherwise Noon equals Go.
 
That red light works, let me tell you. That instrument cluster came from my ol Jetta.

A result of my inability to properly plumb an oil cooler to the block led to a catastrophic lock up on the straightaway at PR during a test n tune day. The light was bright and mesmorizing and for some reason seemed to be on for a really long time. Speed seemed more important though. Kabang!!!

Tyler
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top