Dean Weaver's Drag Beetle

Back in the early days of VW drag racing in this country there were only a handful of people really running the numbers. Parts were hard to get, there were few real experts in high performance VW tuning over here and racing was (and still is) an expensive pastime. As a result, most VW owners were happy to pootle around in their daily drivers and maybe give them a quick blat up the track in the Run What Ya Brung class at Bug Jam or the Spring Championships once or twice a year. Aside from that we all sat and watched in awe when John Maher pulled wheelies in his Mr Beetle race car at the German Car Company Spring Championships in 1988 and when Luke Theochari and Peter Englezos rammed the nitrous-fed Moody into the 11s. The first UK '10' was a matter of great importance and celebration, yet today we've got street cars running consistent 10s and more people building cars with 2.0+ litre capacities than ever before, not to mention turbos, intercoolers, fuel injection and all manner of other exotica being put to good use on the street and strip. In short, things have moved on, yet despite this, there's never been more people dedicated to remembering the past and recreating those halcyon days of VW drag racing in America in the late-'60s and early '70s that, truth be told, most of us were blissfully unaware of when it was actually happening. For the full story check out the April 2008 issue of VolksWorld magazine. On sale on 22 February and then available through back issues. SUBSCRIBE Never miss an issue again by setting up a subscription to VolksWorld magazine! VW Wallpaper You can download a wallpaper of Dean's race car for your computers desktop from our VW Wallpaper section.