Warren and his V8 Baja Beetle

We can all agree that old-school Beetles are cool. We can probably get a consensus on the fact that Baja Beetles are even cooler. So how about a V8-powered Baja Beetle? A Toyota V8 at that?

Start’em young

With both of his parents heavily involved in off-road racing, Warren Irons grew up around cars so it was only natural that he followed in his parents’ footsteps. Even though he cites a Corvette Stingray and an LC Torana as his all-time favourites, Warren has a soft spot for the VW Beetle, and that’s exactly what he chose for his first race car.

“Old Beetles just have a lot a character about them. They’re easy to work on, and have a distinct sound.”

“Not to mention they are extremely versatile with the modifications you can do with them, from classic to drag and of course the Baja.”

The Saga Begins

Warren bought the Beetle back in 1987 and converted it into an off-road Baja-type racer. The car was built using strengthened VW components and was fitted with a Mitsubishi Astron 2.0 ltr engine with an 1800 VW Kombi gearbox.

Over the next few years, a number of improvements were made with custom-made, longer suspension arms increasing the travel from 8 to 10 inches and the engine getting swapped to a worked Toyota 18RG 2L with a 2L VW Kombi gearbox.      

Go Big or Go Home

Fast forward to 2012 and Warren decided the car needed a complete overhaul. And by “complete” we mean a new engine and drivetrain, new suspension and an increase in the car’s wheelbase.

Gone are the two-liter, four-bangers and in their place is one of Toyota’s finest, and best-engineered power plants – a quad-cam, 4L, 1UZ V8. Surprisingly, the engine is mostly factory. The internals have not been upgraded and it’s still running most of the OEM components.

There are no power adders, and no fancy intake manifolds; in fact, the whole setup is a perfect execution of the KISS principle.

Keeping it Simple

Apart from the suspension (we’ll get to that later), the car can be best described as “solid, simple and reliable”. Of course, it all makes sense when you consider the environment this Baja Beetle competes in. It cops inordinate amounts of punishment while being forced to operate in heat and dust. When something does eventually go wrong, it needs to be diagnosed and fixed quickly.

“I’m very proud of the fact that I have built it myself. Even though I have upgraded it a few times, the main cage and soul of the car is still the car I built and welded together when I was 16.”

And speaking of simplicity, the 1UZ is controlled by a Haltech ECU, but it’s not a Nexus. It’s not an Elite or even a Platinum series. In fact, you won’t find it in our current catalogue at all.

“In 2012 we decided to replace the engine with the V8 Toyota Lexus 1UZ after driving for Chris Western in his Lexus V8 powered Off Road Rush buggy.”

“He basically lined up all the bits I needed to run the same setup that he had been running so reliably in his Rush Buggies and key to that was the Haltech E11v2.”

That’s right. The ECU that controls this Baja beast is the venerable E11. Warren was so impressed with it back in 2012 that he has not touched it since and insists that he is not going to, unless he absolutely has to. As the old adage goes; if it ain’t broken….

“I’ve previously done everything myself on the car including the wiring. After a look through the wiring diagram and info supplied with the ECU, I thought: this doesn’t look too hard. I just made my way through the instructions using the wiring diagrams over a couple of nights.”

“I loaded the software on the laptop, connected it to the car, and entered some basic settings like the throttle position open/closed and the current air temp. Then turned on the ignition and primed the fuel lines and checked for leaks. All good, now cross my fingers, crank it over and see what happens. I felt like a genius as it fired up and ran, the first kick!”

“I try to keep things as simple as possible for the hard conditions we race in. The E11 does everything we need (for now).”

“We run the engine and all electrical items for it, such as the fuel pumps, thermofans on the water, gearbox oil and power steering through it.”

Drivetrain, Suspension, Brakes, Wheels and Tyres

The V8 is mated to Albins AGB 5 speed synchro box with Albins 11.5” differential. The car runs 16” (410mm) of travel on both front and rear. It has a static ride height of 16”, at which point the car has approximately 10” of compression left in the suspension. 

On the front, each wheel is controlled by a pair of Fox 2”x 10”  shocks. One being a triple bypass, for fine-tuning the suspension, and the other is an adjustable coil over, running Eibach 200 over 250 lbs springs.  Each rear wheel is controlled by a 2.5” x 14” Fox Shock – a triple bypass, for fine-tuning the suspension, and another being a 2.5” x 12” adjustable coil over, running Eibach 450 over 500 lbs springs.                                                                                                

It runs a dual braking system with 2x ¾” Wilwood master cylinders. The rear brakes (being the most important for off road racing) are Tatum 4 spot calipers and disc while on the front are single spot Mazda 323 calipers and Trik disc. 

Front wheel/tyre combo is Method race 103 Beadlock 15×4.5″ wrapped in BF Goodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM3 32×10.0R15s. At the back, Warren runs Method race 103 Beadlock 15×7 with BF Goodrich Baja T/A 35×12.5R15LT.

“It’s been with me for 35 years, I met my wife at a race with the pink Baja. She has been my navigator ever since.”

“We now have 2 children who are old enough to navigate, so the hardest part is that only one can navigate at a time.”