Kalahari Desert Speedweek

[36hplandspeedracer]

Has anyone on the forum raced at the 2012 or 2013 Kalahari Desert Speedweek? Or are you planning on racing in 2014? If yes to either of these could you please PM me with your email contact info so I can learn about your speeds, Volkswagen, and future plans.



Thanx............................

Burly Burlile
VW Land Speed Racing Historian

[vw59beetle]

Hi Burly

There are a hand full of us that's done Speedweek. I am part of the Speedweek crew and have been at both Speedweeks. We would love to see you out here in SA. I raced my 356 both times . You can reach me at or +27 82 825 4875
Barry Ashmole is another good person to speak to. You can find him here on the forum . Username Barry

Cheers

Wernher

[Barry]

Hi Burly - Wernher would be about your best starting point. You're welcome to mail me: though I've only run a couple of V8's (both years) - can't give much input on air-cooleds.

There have been some issues with the track surface breaking down, though as loudly as some have squealed about it, I haven't had any issues (running just under 200km/h)
Couple of Hyabusas ran deep in the 300's so it can't be tooooo bad
Hopefully the organisers will make some changes we discussed with them this year to address this.

Will be great to have some more international flavour - we had an Aussie friend in our group last year. He'll be back in 2014, probably with a couple of mates.....

Is the car in the pic yours? I would love to hear more about the sheet metal work

[vw59beetle]

I would also love to know the story behind the car in your picture. That must be a dream project.

[36hplandspeedracer]

Wernher & Barry

Thanx for the response. Wernher, is your last name Hartzenberg? I saw a white 356 Porsche (59?) coupe while perusing the Speedweek result sheets to find top speeds and photos of VW's (all models-air and watercooled) and four cylinder air cooled Porsches. While I raced a VW Super Beetle at Bonneville back in the early nineties, today I oversee the 36hp and Big Block VW Challenge records around the world and am the unofficial historian for all things VW and land speed racing. The Type 64 seen in the photos belongs to a team of five in the eastern U.S. and is being constructed in North Carolina. My responsibilities are to share the progress reports forwarded me by the team during it's construction.

Barry, Wernher, I would like to promote the Kalahari Desert Speedweek through the VW Challenge and it's free enewsletter along with articles I write for various VW publications. It would be very helpful to find out details on the course, timing mechanisms, and contact the different VW & 356 racers for more details on their cars. And to hopefully obtain photos for the Challenge photo files I keep on each racer for the magazine articles I write and for our VW Challenge FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/36hpvw.challenge .

Barry, you mentioned the track surface breaking down. Is it dirt like the SCTA El Mirage Dry Lake or is it tar covered? The promotional info on their site called it "tar" but the photos show what appear to be two separate tacks with a dirt or clay area between and large dust plumes following each car and bike?

From the start until they go through the timing device, what is the measured distance? 1 kilo? 1 mile? Or longer?

Is timing done with timing lights(photo cells) or is it by GPS, Radar or Laser? The intro page on the site shows a device that looks like some sort of GPS type timer/camera? If the timing is performed by timing lights, then any top speeds set by VW's racing at Speedweek can be compared internationally for Challenge class record recognition. Irregardless, I have already taken the liberty of adding all the VW and Porsche 4 cylinder top speeds I could isolate onto their respective Top Speed History files.

With the realization of your land speed racing effort in South Africa, we now have land speed events at Hakskeenpan, England, Sweden, and Australia along with the U.S.. I will post more photos of the Type 64 36hp Challenge project to this site later today. Again, I truly appreciate your response and hope you might be able to enlighten me regarding my questions.

And please feel free to pass my email address on to any official, photographer or racer you feel comfortable with.

Till next visit.............................

Burly

36hp & BB VW Challenge
Society of Land Speed Racing Historians

[Barry]

Thanks for the info and interest in our event Burly!

Barry, you mentioned the track surface breaking down. Is it dirt like the SCTA El Mirage Dry Lake or is it tar covered? The promotional info on their site called it "tar" but the photos show what appear to be two separate tacks with a dirt or clay area between and large dust plumes following each car and bike?

Hakskeenpan is a dry lake. Both years the organisers have used a dust suppression company to prepare the track surface - the black material in photos. This seems to bind the surface a little but it still breaks down and the clumps seem to make for a much rougher track as it deteriorates. Running alongside the prepared track on the virgin surface is much better, however we have very little idea how the natural surface would hold up. The dirt makes things a little squirrely at the best of times with some people reporting it difficult to hold on and stay on course - I didn't experience this, though heavy crosswinds on one of the days did make life 'interesting'!

One of our group who has run at Bonneville with the Rolling Bones crew says that there isn't too much difference to running on the salt.

Speeds seem to be at least 10% down from what one would expect on tar. There was an all-tar event at Upington airport (7km runway?) last year but I haven't seen any info about them putting on another one this year.....

From the start until they go through the timing device, what is the measured distance? 1 kilo? 1 mile? Or longer?

The timing point is at 5 kilometers which IMO is way too long for the speeds we are seeing from most vehicles.
I don't know the details of the equipment used but the speeds are based on the average over the final 100 (?) metres. I'm sure Wernher could chime in here.


It has been suggested that a series of parallel tracks are laid out on the virgin surface and the course moved daily or as soon as it becomes too rough. There would be some issue with the setup of the timing/measuring equipment though.
There are also a series of rocky outcrops which would mean only a 3km track would be possible if done this way - I don't see any problem with this and suggested that the shorter distance is used to 'qualify' with only vehicles attaining a certain speed allowed to run on the longer track....

It will be interesting to see what the organisers come up with this year to improve the event. I would hope they would welcome input from anyone with land speed racing experience.

Besides the locations you mentioned I thought that there was a beach event in Holland and one in New Zealand too.....may be wrong.

[vw59beetle]

Burly

I think Barry covered most of your questions. I will find out more detail and also the plans for this year's event and email it to you. As Barry and I already mentioned, it would be great to have you guys at our event. If you interested please let me know and I will see where I can help. Yes my last name is Hartzenberg and the (59) ivory 356 is mine. The results aren't all accurate as some results never got published. My fastest speed so far was 157 km/h and I'm hoping to join the 100 mph club this year. I have rebuild the engine which should help.
Thanks for sharing your project and passion with us.

Wernher

[Wentzel]

Hi, when and where will this years event be? I am also interested but if at all possible I will probably attend as a spectator, don't know if I will or should enter.

Please keep us up to date.

Thanks
Wentzel

[Tony Z]

http://www.speedweeksa.com/

[Wentzel]

Thanks Tony I was going to google but wasn't home yet, pc works better for that.

[Wentzel]

Hi guys I am still thinking about attending as it sound like a great event. It is a long distance but sounds worth it!

I thought i would ask this question here so all could learn more about the event. What would you suggest for camping \ accommodation? What should one take with? Any advice tips appreciated. Does some people take the kids with or would it be better not to take them with?

P.S. I am not geared for camping thus the question as I don't want to forget something important.

Thanks
Wentzel

[Bugger]

Hi

Deon,Bonny,Joggie and myself were there with a Beetle fitted with a n/a 13B Rotary and I managed a speed of 162Km/h on my 2nd trip
The Beetle had a lot more to it but we sufferd mechanical break down

I am actually building a new Beetle with a 4Cylinder Turbo VW Engine as a all rounder toy for drag racing but I am fitting a super long 4th gear in the box for
us to be able to try and break the 200Km/h so wish me Luck

My email is
info AT vdubtech DOT co DOT za

Pls send me info pls

Pierre

[Barry]

Hi Pierre - see you again this year. I'll be trying to push my roadster through 200km/h too! (191 last year, with a few issues as you know )

Wentzel, you should definitely attend and enter - it is a great (and sometimes humbling) experience. I took my boys ( 6 & 10) and will be doing so again. Quite a few other kids there.
The camping facilities are good - there are tents provided, or take your own....

[Wentzel]

Sound good I will start saving up and keep an eye on the website as far as I know the details od this year is not up yet. How many of the forum/aircooled guys attend these events?

I would love to try the 200km/h mark myself but not sure if the std gearbox is up to it.

If I may ask what budget are we looking at for the week? Any rough estimate?

How many runs do you usually do? Over how many days?

Thanks

[Bugger]

Cool Barry as you know each year Experience help for the next

Wentzel buget around R4000 as that was roughly what it cost our trip of 4
Dr Watson
Bonny
Joggie
Bugger

This included our accomodation and food and fuel there and back

I will start a thread most probably later in May to find ot who wants to go with as we will be going the first part of the event this time

Chiiirs
As I am off to bead now and up a 3am tomorrow on my Trip to Botswna Zimbabwe and back with a group of VW 4x4 Syncro Busses