1973 VW Super-Beetle(1303) Hill-Climb Build

[dsldubn]

I can only comment on one of those...the direzzas. I've run a couple sizes. The same you're looking at (borrowed them for one burke) and a set in 195 60 14. I've been really happy with them. Bang for the buck, best street/race tires I've owned. They don't have hoosier or kuhmo 710 grip, but they are still quite sticky for a street tire. They don't have much of a warm up at all, they have good grip quick...are predictable, more than many other tires I've tried...they warn you a little before they just lose grip completely. I've run them in the rain or on wet pavement too and they aren't bad. I would buy them again, for what it's worth. For a whole season I drove to the races on them and then raced all weekend and drove home...and i dailied the car during that too...and the tires still have good life left in them.

I want a set of 13" 888s some day, but haven't actually tried those. I think Steve (turbo golf, rabbitfarmer) runs them and if you look at his times the tires must be decent

[sachilles]

R888 is the stickiest, but also the most money.
I'd rank the dunlop second
R1R third
Hankook last.

All are good. The R888 is at a level ahead of the rest, but will not last as long, and isn't really street friendly. It is roughly twice as much money.
You won't get twice as much grip, but you'd get a lot more.
For your first full season, I'd go with any of the bottom three to save you some money. Get the r888's a year or two down the road.
Perhaps ryed will chime in as well, he's run that size in both the r888 and the r1r in the same season.
There really isn't a bad choice there.

I run r888's and their predecessor the RA1. I also run the dunlops on my street car.

This doesn't help, but I'm having the same debate, go all out for the R888 or save some money and go with the Dunlop or also the BFG Rival.

[Ryed]

I had the R1Rs and then the R888s as Seth mentioned. The R1Rs were pretty darn sticky, but not nearly as sticky as the R888. The R1R might be a better mixed-use tire (wet & dry), and much less expensive. I never felt the car getting loose with the R1Rs, but upgraded to the R888s due to the R1Rs being pretty chewed up from a weekend at SLMP.

So that's my limited experience. Last year was my rookie year on the hills, so I'd definitely get some feedback from some more experienced drivers.

[Chief Geek]

Last year was my rookie year too and the rock hard, 20-year-old tires I ran were great. Not that they had any grip, they didn't, but they did allowed me to learn what the car does at the limit without going warp-3. Based on my data set of 2, I'd run the cheapest tires you can find.

Paul

[Super1303]

After 16, damn, years the car is finally painted!!!
While sanding, priming and painting this thing all I could do was think about the amount of work that had gone into the body.

New roof. This was the test of metal working patience
All rust was removed sanded car too metal
All hole were filled with a patch panel
New floor boards
Restored frame not just painted
Cracks in B-pillar(common to the super beetle) were welded
Front Hood was reinforced and notches added to body to accommodate
Cellulose foam stuff in rear cavity of car behind side vents was removed and a metal fire block was made to fit inside this cavity
All unnecessary anything was removed
Seam stitched body
Replaced seam sealer in gutters
Deleted Antenna
Deleted Trim and filled holes
And all the stuff in the thread you have seen.
And I better keep it on the road!
Saturday and Sunday was all Sanding(80grit, 120grit, 180grit, 220grit)and prepping the metal for Monday which was de-Grease, tack-cloth and masking off the car for the spray down at 5:00 PM.
I think it went pretty well for a windy bug fest day.

[drummingpariah]

Looks great to me! I'll throw my $0.02 in on tires as well, I've been extremely happy with my Kumho Ecsta XS tires. They're definitely street tires (180 treadwear) but I was blown away by the amount of mechanical grip they offered at Ascutney (and as daily driven tires, but it doesn't look like they're long for the world if I keep driving them every day). I found them to be extremely forgiving, and not as 'snappy' as the Dunlops I used to run on my Datsun. They're also inexpensive enough that I don't mind tearing through a couple sets a season.

[minirally]

wow, lots of work,great job.....almost alive!!

[walterclark]

Looks good! I have painted 2 cars outdoors. Hate it. Seems like everything conspires during the painting to mess things up. Sun, clouds, breeze, bugs, trees, weeds. At least I could see what I was doing.

[dsldubn]

looks great! Can't wait to see this thing in person...any idea of which hill you might make it to this summer?

[sdwarf36]

Oh look-its Steve Jones green!