Black Betty is in da house...

[Black Betty]

My name is Antoine Godschalk and I'm from the Netherlands. The build of my car has taken 7 years and I did everything myself; including the paintjob.




The engine is pretty special: it's an original VW type 4 (AT) with Riechert cooling. The engine is 'stock' 1800cc and has 105 bhp. The car weighs appr. 690 kg so the power-to-weight-ratio is great

[roy mawbey]

Antoine,

Remember seeing seeing details of your car elsewhere. You have made a nice job of it for sure. Just to get that engine in the back could not have been easy. The power to weight again must make it fun to drive. Probably around 140kg less than my standard coupe

I looked at your photos, had to so individually rather than just scrolling down. Pics can be just sent straight from your document page or resized to make loading to the forum a little faster.

You have some pics of your build I think, when its possible please.

Cheers

Roy

[JTR70]

Antoine,

Thank you for posting and Welcome to our forum!! I am very familiar with your car and can definitely appreciate all the time spent building and planning for this project. The flat-fan alone was quite the undertaking I am certain. Its really a beautiful tribute car and an absolute blast to drive I am sure; love it! Looking forward to your future input and Welcome once again!! Justin

[MMW]

I've seen it before & it is just as cool now! Awesome job on the build.

[Black Betty]

Although the car is practically finished I'll keep changing things every now and then.

I had some nice American Racing wheels installed, but they were from the early seventies and didn't look right in my opinion. So now I have put smoothies on the car and those wheels look much more time correct to me. Furthermore I like the look of that 5 leaf clover in the center...

On the back I now want to install some time correct spacers (thick washers) and I will add some time correct stickers. I'm planning to have these stickers printed on Static Cling Vinyl so I can remove and re-use them whenever I want.

The tank in the front is now black, but that makes the front 'a black hole' when you open the trunk, so in fall/winter (when I cannot/willnot drive the car) I'm planning to spray the tank in a different collour (I'm thinking of dull aluminum).

So my Betty is a bit of 'a work in progress'...

[Rad-Ride]

Welcome to the forum Antoine, great looking car!

[surfer71]

great car i have only just seen this. nice and different for sure.

[Black Betty]

[roy mawbey]

Antoine,

Looks the 'bees knee's ' a nice British expression. That is a fast time round the ring. I seem to remember anything under 12 seconds is really really fast. Is that correct or is my memory failing? What does the average speed work out like? Were there many others on the ring at the same time to slow you?

How did it handle, with the low weight to power ratio with that engine was it a handful or did it glide round? Please give us an account of the day, I for one would find it interesting.

Roy

[Black Betty]

Wow, that are a lot of questions...

well, the Nordschleife is 20.8 km's long and I did it in 12:08, so the average speed is appr. 64 km/h. That doesn't sound fast, but you're right: a time faster than 12:00 minutes is pretty fast! I have passed quite a few cars on the track, but I have been overtaken by some others also

Furthermore I am not very familiar with the Nordschleife (I have driven approximately 4 times on it in the past, completing about 6 or 7 laps; not each time, but in total ) and I clocked the 12:08 in the one and only lap I drove on it with my Speedster.

The handling of the car was great; it rides like a go kart. It has a tendency to understeer though, but oversteer can be reached by going abruptly full throttle when accelerating out of a curve and it can be controlled perfectly...

I've been advised by some Porsche and VW mechanics and pilots to remove the front stabilizer which would make the car grippier on the front and thus preventing understeer. I've decided to try/test this next year and I will see and find out whether road handling and cornering will improve when the stabilizer is removed.

Furthermore I'm planning to visit the Nordschleife next year again and go around it at least 3 times (and preferably following a fast 'Hase' (a pace car) that knows the track really good). The goal would be a time < 11:00 minutes...

An ambitious goal, I know, but achievable I'm sure of!

[roy mawbey]

Thanks for the answers, it must have been a nice day driving for you.

Interesting points about the handling, its only when you have the chance to drive really fast and have the bends to go round can you begin to evaluate. Let us know how you get on there with stabiliser mods if you end up doing them.

Roy

[Black Betty]

Antoine,

Looks the 'bees knee's

I had to look that up ; I never heard that expression before...

[roy mawbey]

Antoine,

That made me grin You know I have a high regard for many Dutch 356 owners ( take Etienne Kerkhoff for example ) whose English text like yours, is always so good. I know for many of you, English is taught in school but it never ceases to amaze me how well you do it.

I worked for the Swiss, so the SwissGerman dialect was not really for me, but after trying to learn High German for over 35 years I have an understanding of just how many words there are I stil don't know Also the grammer, hard? well it still gets me foxed for sure. Why is it I read German so much better than speaking it? I think the chance to see words written down reminds my old brain of the 'meaning'. I still practice but as no doubt you can understand, there are not so many people over here I can practice with. Most just expect other people to just speak English everywhere they go.

So I am pleased you now understand probably yet another old fashioned idiom you might never use again. But, I bet you will remember it!
Don't think its used in the USA????

Sorry to go off track, you have once again a great car

Roy

[Black Betty]

(just passing the finish line)

I felt like him:

[roy mawbey]

Antoine,

Pleased you seem to have enjoyed your UK visits. I live on the South coast about 2 minutes walk from the beach. Mostly pepples though not sand. You never know you might visit Goodwood on a visit and we could meet up there.

A stormy day on my beach and a 356A to keep this thread on track

Roy