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| For drag racing duties on the IRS axles, Craig chose Sway-A-Way 29 mm torsion bars and their stronger trailing arms. The trailing arms are directly connected to the torsion bars and have full duty of controlling body roll and suspension travel. Well, I didn't see a roll bar, but when it launches on the wheelie bars, I wonder how much body roll really comes into play. |
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| The Fitzpatrick rear dampers are adjustable for compression and rebound. |
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| The wheelie Bars tie into the engine cradle system. This ensures that the wheelie bars are straight and true. It also means that the bars aren't integrated into the suspension, which is difficult to do on an IRS Bug. |
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| The front suspension is pure Type-1, with torsion bars and front tubes. The suspension is adjustable by selecting your torsion bar packs and can be lowered using a ratcheting adjuster that has been welded on. You can see the adjuster if you look between the fuel line and headlight wiring. Now, you noticed I mentioned “packs” instead of bars when I talked about the torsion setup. The reality is that the front uses a leaf-spring setup in a torsional mount, meaning instead of using the lateral movement of the leaf-spring, like very old hot rods and your truck's rear suspension, it uses the rotational resistance and rebound of the leaf packs. The 1302 and 1303, or Super Beetles, used a McPherson Strut in the front instead of the torsion bar for a trunk space increase. |
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| Another unique item to the newer torsion bar Type-1 is the ball joint front end. Original Type-1s up to 1967 used kingpins. From '68, they used ball joints, as you can see here. Craig has also updated the front end to Ghia disc brakes instead of the drums that came on the Beetle originally. Craig also uses 20 year old KYB White shocks with no adjustability. |
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| Craig also uses an OEM style, rebuilt Steering Box and drag link style steering system. From 1974 onwards, Volkswagen put a rack and pinion steering system on the Beetle, but used the drag link system prior to. Changes were made between the kingpin and ball joint versions of the Beetle, though. You can see the OEM collapsible steering column as well as the steering damper. |
