Petermax Müller Gedächtnis Rennen

The Oldspeed Cannonball Challenge is DEAD!

Long live the "Petermax Müller Gedächtnis Rennen"

we thought the original name was not in the spirit of the event, so we have re-named it after the one and only original Oldspeed Maestro.......

Heart transplant

The gearbox is nearly ready to go back in the '53, so focus has turned to the motor

We know our friends up North are busy with Ferdinand's finest, so we thought we too should use a zuffenhausen heart for the '53....

We know they have some tricks up their sleeves, but so do we, only the big day will tell if they get to take the trophy back up north with them ;)

Wired !

Work continues on the '54 and the wiring loom is nearly finished...

Gripping stuff

Herr Blower has got himslef some new XZX rubber upfront ready for the big day.......

Nearly together again!

All the gears and the bearings are back on the pinion for the '53's gearbox.

Just checking all the gears select OK and then the two halves can be joined again.

Although it wasn't without drama, the box was on the bench and something fell off the shelf and landed on the reverse selector !

The end snapped off, but luckily well known vintage parts guru Filip Garsbeke is only 10mins away. A phone call was made and soon enough we were back with a NOS reverse shifter.

Thanks again Filip for saving the day ;)

Guess the lesson to be learned here is "less haste more speed"

Just in time!

The pinion bearing arrived this morning, so work can carry on

Big thanks to Shawn over at Vintage Parts inc for sending the bearing super express....

'53's box!

We started reasembeling the '53's box today, although the clock is ticking and work is behind, guess it's time we pulled our finger out!

We are still waiting on a bearing for the pinion and then we can reassemble it with the new gears and get the box back together.

Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.......

Holly Molly!

The '53's modified torsion arms are back from powder coating and ready to be installed, although we had to modify the spindles for the new backing plates we made......

4 Wheels on your wagon!

The gearbox is back in the '54 and all the wheels are at last back on!

Just need some new boots!

The '53's rims came back from the powder coater today, now we just need to get some new boots and a set of racing inner tubes and they'll be ready to go..............

1 down 1 to go.......

The Oldspeed gearbox of the '54 is nearly back together with the new 3rd & 4th gears installed, some slight modification was required on the case to accept the taller 4th gear.

Now just the '53 one to assemble.......

Spindles

We tidied up the workshop today and found the box of NOS King & Link pins we had misplaced, so a few hours were spent fitting them into the dropped spindles that the '53 will run.

Nice surprise !

Some outstanding German engineering for the '53 just arrived at OOC headquarters ;)

We've been neglecting the Blog lately, but now things are moving again..........

Already testing!

The snow has gone and Herr Blower, with an eye already on The Cannonball, is out road testing and fine tuning his Pepco ready for the big day ;)

Holidays over!

The temperatures are warmer in the workshop now, so work has started on the cars again, soon the Cannonball will be upon us !

The '54 sunroof now has a new inner and outer cover. It was alot of work to make it it all from scratch, but it does look cool :-)

Christmas is Early

We just got a "special Delivery" in time for Christmas, our new 3rd & 4th gears for the '53 & '54 Plan B gearboxes.

Although not too much has been happening in the workshop lately due to the -8ºC weather conditions, maybe that will change now ;-)

These gears were really made with the Le Mans Classic in mind, for going down the Mulsanne .......... at 5500 rpm we will pushing more than 200km/h

We are looking forward to seeing how the perform in the Cannonball.....

The Devil is Back

Yes it's true, he's back and rumoured to be making a guest appearance in the Cannonball........

Just like the originals !

Another part of the jigsaw just arrived......

Lifter inserts, nitrited and with circlips just like the originals as used in PreA and Denzel motors :-)

Cannonball Brakes Pt 2

The second stage of the "Cannonball" brakes is complete....

If you want to brake late no good using those skinny original brake shoes.

Today we machined the front drums, ready for some bigger ones :-)

Cooking on Gas!

Things are moving along now at a rate of knots, it's all hands on deck with the Cannonball on the horizon!

Our OOCrasa heads are now machined to accept 80mm Nicasil cylinders, If the original Nicasil's were good enough for Porsche to use on the 917's, then they are for sure good enough for us ;-)

Next step will be to put the heads on a flow meter to get some numbers, that is after we finish the manifold modifications.......

What a dilemma!

It's looking like the most Cannonball fun will be in the smaller displacement class, so we are thinking...................

Which Porker crank?

Run the 74mm crank and enter the 1500 class or 64mm crank and the 1300 class..... Mmmmmmm

A pinch of this and a dash of that.....

Here's a very cool Blog we've been following for a while now, Shinya Kimura, formally of zero engineering.

He's now started Chabott engineering and still doing his stuff, mixing a little of this with some of that to fabricate some amazing creations.

He's very much like us .......... who wants to go to a shop to buy all your parts when you can think outside the box and make them yourself.......

Shinya we take our hat's off to you!

Cannonball Brakes

2 are better than 1 !

The first stage of the "Cannonball" front brake modifications for the '53 are just about complete .......

Plan B

We've spent a lot of time thinking about the gearboxes of the '53 & '54.

Many hours of calculations, working out ratio's and various scenario's, in the quest the get the maximum out of these boxes.

We came up with what we thought was the ideal solution......

Then it was a hunt for someone who could actually make what we wanted, a Spiral bevel to Klingelnberg Palloid system, or to put it in plain English, a new R&P.

We eventually found someone who could make it, but before we went ahead and had these made we did more calculations and realised that for the R&P we wanted it would require us to machine the inside of the gearbox to make everything fit snugly.

This wasn't really an option, as we thought it would weaken the gearbox and we plan to push these little boxes to their limits.....

Luckily we had a contingency plan................... PLAN B.

We can still achieve the same overall outcome, Maybe Plan B should have been our first choice.

Stay tuned to see the outcome of PLAN B................

Gentlemen, start your engines!

Registration is open.....

OOC 54 Commented

"Bring it on, there is only one place to be next summer.....the race of the century...........OLDSPEED CANNONBALL CHALLENGE........ They built the cars in Germany.........and they are coming home...........but we have made a few changes!"

Denzel powered '52 Kab

Herr Specializer's '52 Kab is finished :-)

We received this video, shot after it had just made it's maiden voyage. For those of you that don't know it is running under Denzel power and doesn't it sound amazing ;-)

It's a shame it's on the other side of the pond and won't be able to attend the Oldspeed Cannonball Challenge to help fly the flag for the OOC.

We aren't going to say too much more about it as it will be at a photo shoot in the next couple of days for a magazine feature. Be sure to lookout for it........

Nice job Rich and all involved :-)

Loaded.....

All the big cannon's up north are loaded and primed ready for the Oldspeed Cannonball Challenge and we know you have some secret one's still under wraps ;-)

Our friends over at the Sechs Volt Garage already have The Abarth Zwitter in race trim, ready to have some breakfast in the smaller displacement class.

We also know you Northern boyz wear your colours with pride and will try to fly your flag the highest in all the classes, we can't wait............... for "The Clash of the Titans"

There's a few renegades within the OOC, so all we'll say is

It's not the loaded Cannon's you need to look out for, but "The Loose Ones" ;-)

Wait for it !

Fingers are twitching and feet are tapping, Just over a week to go before registration opens.....

They're at it again!

Look what our friends up north have found now.....

A March '52 Panel van

Not even they can get this ready in time for the Cannonball, or can they.........

Tick Tock.....

The clock is ticking and it's not too long now until June and the Oldspeeed Challenge.....

We're still busy with the gearboxes on the '53 & '54, now we have bearings there is just one last 'special' piece missing.

Hopefully we'll have it soon and then the boxes can be reassembled

Our Norwegian friends are also busy getting ready, the HPD special is in the garage to be put into race trim in preparation for the big day, they are also working on some secret fast projects :-)

In their words, B.C. Oldspeed Challenge - 'man against man, machine against machine, the mother of all Cannonball runs Belgium to Bad Camberg', this is one not to miss.

It will probably never happen again that's why all the lightest fastest Oldspeed Vw's from Europe will be taking part......

Nuts!....

In our quest to make the '53 as light a possible the wheel nuts are now ready :-)

Once again a big thanks goes to 'The professor' for his ingenuity.....

I spy....

Herr Blower was recently spotted at VW Action, looks like he was in need of a little extra motor cooling ;-)

OOC Juniors

As the winter is coming and in the quest for more speed, it looks like the OOC juniors will be burning the midnight oil too, modifying some of their toy's ;-)

'54 sunroof reunited

The summer is nearly over, so it's time to get back on our projects.

The '54's body has been reunited with the pan so the build up can continue, although there is no gearbox in there yet as we are still working on that one ;-)