Okrasa Special

[MikeB]

Don't want to hijack this thread, but here is a bit about the Okrasa Beetle, which appears on the Rallybugs site



The picture above is from the "Ulster Motorist" dated Nov 1961

It shows the 1947 VW Bill bought for £10 (not £12.10 as stated) and in which he won the premier event of the season at Kirkistown, Northern Ireland ( the Baird Memorial Trophy). It was a handicap event of course so his trumpet is well muted.

The car was left hand drive and he converted it to right hand by fitting right hand pedals bought from a scrap yard and simply moving the steering wheel to the other side. It had cable brakes and a crash gear-box.. The shockers were an odd size and useless so he did without and the rear wheels were turned inside-out which widened the track and lowered the back-end.

The engine, which he built from spare parts, was fitted with OKRASA twin port heads which he had obtained 2nd-hand (the original owner found that they were prone to break cranks) he also fitted a Porsche crank and flywheel giving an extra 10mm throw, this was accomplished by machining the VW rods to fit the crank, grinding the big-ends to VW size and fitting spacers below the cylinders. He fitted an out-side oil cooler, made from the coils of a commercial air heater and mounted across the inlet grills above the engine door, and to take care of oil surge, he installed an oil tank below the sump attached at the oil filter and extended the oil inlet pipe.

The engine certainly went and when fitted to his ordinary beetle, he had endless fun blowing off Mini Coopers etc.

He also had a few class wins in hillclimbs and sprints before selling the "racer" to a well known rally driver who used the engine for many thousands of hard miles.

Incidently, the race went very well. The scrutineers were not so strict in those days and no attention was paid to the observers who reported that the car was "adopting strange attitudes when cornering"!

Winning the class (saloon cars up to 1600cc) at Knockagh Hill Climb on 7th Oct 1961.

[KS]

My own 1951 Split-0window Beetle had a full Okrasa TSV1300-30 long-stroke conversion which boosted power to around 48bhp. The car was very 'sprightly' and would happily cruise at 70–75mph all day. It was a great conversion in its day and interestingly, there is now a new repro kit available in the USA, which i shall soon be fitting to a customer's engine.

[911hillclimber]

Nice bit of heritage!

How is the 'real deal' doing then?
The body must be close to being trial fitted if not further than that?

[steve wright]

Well I've finally managed to spend enough time in the workshop to get the Porsche 550 Spyder bodywork mocked up on the chassis. Because the dimensions and wheelbase are the same it's gone on with relatively little fuss, although I now have some idea of how much work is going to be involved in getting it mocked up, let alone someone building the thing in aluminium. After spending a few evenings cutting and tweaking I've got it to a stage now where I can start "playing" with some polystyrene foam to add or change details.

The original builder always intended to clothe it in aluminium so that will be the way we go with it, but obviously the NOS KG roof is steel. David added the roof back in May '61 when he took the car up Oulton road in Surrey England at 100mph without a roof, and decided that was not the way to go! I always intended to finish the car as if it had been completed in period and the ideas on this forum and others have cemented that view. Whether it's Ferrari, Lotus, Abarth or Porsche inspired it will be forward-looking rather than backwards to the 50's, especially as David's ideas were pretty radical and forward-thinking for the era. There are plenty of mix 'n match bits on the car too, such as the Lucas rear view mirror, Smith's speedo, Crypton tachometer, and period Ford clutch and brake master cylinder so it feels right to have a blend of inspiration on the bodywork.

So, here's the car today - I must admit I'm a bit nervous putting it up here now given the brilliant ideas that have been penned on Photoshop and the like. Especially as the next phase will be the most time consuming, getting changes and development done to get it mocked up.

As always, ideas, comment and opinion welcome. Cheers, Steve

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[defianty]

Looking fantastic, and very close to how I imagined. Keep up the good work. I hope to see this is the flesh one day.

[KS]

It's great to see how my idea of using the 550 body is working out in practice! Looking good! Interesting about the aluminium body as David always told me over the years that he was going to build a glassfibre shell 'one day'. Made more sense as I guess, back then, glassfibre bodies were all the rage for people building specials.

Also, I don't think it should be much of a surprise that the car is a bit 'mix and match' of UK-sourced and more exotic components. I believe David only used the VW parts because of his dad's VW agency offered a cheap source of bits – wonder what he'd have come up with if his dad had an Austin dealership? A Mini-based special, maybe? Certainly the Okrasa engine was only used because the new 1500 Type 2 engine hadn't been launched. David told me that had he started the project a year later, he would have used the VW Bus engine without hesitation.

BTW, it's "Alton, in Hampshire, England" – not "Oulton in Surrey". It's to the south of Farnham, down the old A31…

Right, go on, back to the workshop!

[911hillclimber]

Now, that's better!
It looks right from every angle to my eye. Great blend of the top to the curvey body forms.

Are you intending to have the body removable or will permanently bond it on (as TVR did?)

Bonding will allow a much easier solution for robustness and weather tightness as well as keeping fumes out.
Bonding to alum needs some thinking about as I don't think they bond well, so big flanges, Sikafex and bolts (beach buggy to VW floorpan style!)

Will you glass the doors or keep it an 'open' coupe?

It looks a great start, just remember: measure twice, then again and cut after another check!

Just one thought, and that is if the wheel is too upright, bit like a Mini?
I would very soon get a seat in there and ensure you are sitting confortably, as that will set your mind in the right direction.

I might be tempted to arrange the glass tub to allow the Ghia roof to be bolted on so allowing easy engine/box access by unbolting the roof, removing the rear deck and exposing all.

Warmer in the garage now, so let's see some real progress and lots of pics!

(you can tell I'm nearly done on my little project!)

[KS]

When I first bought the car, this was my inspiration:


So, with a side view of the rolling chassis:


I Photoshopped on a 'ghosted' 550 body and came up with this:


The idea was to have the rear bodywork opening as per a 550 to give access to luggage/spare wheel space above the gearbox, and to have the roof either fully removable, or cut and hinged above the seat back/bulkhead (which I planned to add to seal the engine off from the cockpit), so the rear of the roof, complete with window, could be hinged forward for engine access.

It's now interesting to see the idea coming together in real life! It should be a real blast to drive!!

[roy mawbey]

Looking good Steve, hope it all works out, not an easy job at all.

Cheers

Roy

[Jez 356]

How do the dimensions compare to a 50s 356 -

I think it looks very balanced but not too much to confuse the front and back if you know what I mean!

If the wheel base is similar to a 356 then it is going to be sweet, if it is too much shorter will it be a bit of a handful in the handling side of things?

I think you have certainly hit the nail on the head with the 550 body and your inspiration looks like a perfect target to emulate.

Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

Regards Jeremy

[KS]

It's the same wheelbase, which is why I had Barrie Martin mold the 550 body for me…

[steve wright]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Thank goodness the original builder didn’t stick a T2 transporter engine in it, as “Transporter Special” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Attached below are a few ideas from a couple of other forums that I’ve put the Special up on that I particularly like. There are some awesomely talented people out there. While I like the 550 kit I’m not wedded to it. The front in particular I plan to mess around with to put covered headlamps in, either inspired by the 904 or more likely the Ferrari 250 LM or an Abarth style treatment. I’ve never been a big fan of the Beetle derived lights on a sports car, the 356 included. It also tends to make the front end too “heavy jowled” as well: the leading lip of the front wing needs to be trimmed and pulled tighter towards the centreline of the car. The front also needs to be extended slightly as the rake of the bonnet will be too steep as the scuttle panel in front of the windscreen is too high at the moment - extending it will allow for a more gentle angle. It would also benefit from being slightly more pointed as the 550 nose is fairly blunt. I’ll probably try and put slightly more “hump” into the top of the front wings as well to give more curvature to the wing. I’ll certainly be putting doors on it, just simple single skin affairs that will have a slightly higher waistline than at present that lead into the rear quarter windows at a higher waistline than the original Karmann Ghia’s would’ve done into the roofline. I also need to get air into the engine bay but detest the 550 Le Mans filling in of the side windows. Given such beautiful lines of the Ghia roof it seems a shame to lose them. I’m more inclined to cut a 907 or 910 inspired vent into the top leading edge of the rear arch and then blend this with a slightly higher waistline but retain a window in the quarter light space there along with a very slim B-pillar. A Kamm tail looks fantastic as styled in the photos below but I don’t know whether I’ve got the skill to mock up a section that large in polystyrene. What I will also try and mock up is RSK/718 bulges to the rear arches with a flattened top to the wheel arch to see what they look like on the car. In fact the RSK would’ve been a better basis for mocking up ideas I think. It’s certainly closer in terms of era, as the car was last driven by the original owner in 1961 and better reflects the forward thinking nature of the Special. The 550 is too much of a retro nod, but it’s what I have as a foundation so I’m not about to throw it out and buy a 718 kit.

I’ve installed 356B brake drums on the car since I took these shots so will put those photos up next. Then I need to get into gear over mocking up some detail ideas above to see what they look like. Plus a Shorrock supercharger to install, an Okrasa engine for my ’52 split window Beetle, and a new workshop to refurbish. It’s going to be a busy summer!

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[KS]

Aren't computers great! If only it was so easy to mock stuff up in real life!! Come on, Steve, time to get busy! One project at a time…

[911hillclimber]

No 9 for me.
Pretty garages can wait.
VDubbs can wait.
We can't.

Get stuck in!

[Ren]

No 9 floats my boat.