The Project Pad

I started this project a little over a year after being inspired by a buggy me and a friend built that was converted to run on a 2.0 ABA engine and digifant 1 engine management. The one i built is a bit more elaborate than that one but i wanted to use a 1.8T for more power and the old aircooled transmissions fall short on holding such power and abuse without dumping a ton of money into them. This is my mid engine 1.8T buggy. i will have better pictures posted up eventually.
Its a normal 70's/80's california style buggy chassis that was originally based on using all OG beetle parts. i have since modernized most of it with common and readily available VW/audi parts. it still retains the original beetle front suspension and steering box along with the beetle rear torsen beam. it has custom made swing arms in the rear for the mid engine setup. the arms where original beetle IRS arms with a box arm kit installed on them.
The engine is literally built out of the junk pile in my garage. its running an 03 audi A4 1.8T bottom end with a head from an 02 jetta engine. it has stock turbo/manifold but the manifold is modified to use a tial 38mm external wastegate with 15psi base spring. its running a stock AEB intake with MK3 0BD1 throttle body. on the fueling it has an 8 gallon ebay fuel cell, ebay bosch 044 knock off, 4bar FPR and stock AAN 20V injectors. the transmission is stock from a 1999 VW passat 1.8T with a southbend stage 2 endurance clutch set including single mass flywheel. axles are modified late audi A4 front axles with tripod joint inners and 100mm outer CV's from MK3 VW. custom machined adapters allow the 100mm CV to bolt to the original 90mm CV stub axle. the stub axles and outer hubs are modified with custom machined parts so that the rear is now 5x112 bolt pattern for using modern VW/audi wheels. the brakes are URS4/URS6 rotors and G60 dual piston calipers on custom made caliper brackets. for stopping and clutch i have an OG neal pedal set from the 80's that was NOS along with an empi throttle pedal. the throttle cable is a PTO cable from an international tow truck as well. the cooling system for the engine uses a radiator from an XJ jeep cherokee, fan is from a W123 mercedes benz, thermal switch is from a URS4, and all radiator hoses are custom made. the fuel management system is digifant 1 from a 1990 corrado G60 that uses a 250kpa MAP sensor from a URS4 ECU with a custom made harness to fit the buggy specifically. for the ignition system it uses a custom made distributor that drives off the intake cam where the original cam position sensor was. for plug wires it has old school NGP high output 16V plug wires with custom 3D printed covers to go over the coil holes in the valve cover so no water gets in there. over all im sure there is plenty more im forgetting lol.

Over all its running at 15psi but can run 20psi max before the limit of the MAP sensor is met. it is scary fast at 15psi although i have had it at 20 and its about useless with severe traction issues on pavement or dirt.

here's a few videos off my youtube of it in action. i will upload more later there as well.

This is a hard spark cut launch control, sucks you cant see the flames and fire in the day light lol. i will have to post the night launch videos.


i kept shearing off engine mounts at one point so i made a whole new solution and decided to stress test it the fun way. also you'll notice it has a hard spark cut RPM limiter, i had problems with it pushing over the stock fuel cut one so i created this in the ECU to make sure it stops. puts on a great show for people lol.


This is a trip on my favorite trail in the woods behind my shop.

That looks hilarious.

holy shit! awesome. its rare that a 1.8t excites me....this excites me.

hahaha this is awesome. Junkyard engineering at it's finest.

Well, it looks like I need to build myself a dune buggy!! That thing looks like a riot!

Awesome! Love the branches, some sheet metal work could be good protection though.

Hell yeah, that’s killer!!! Moonshine runner.

Talk about a balls-out project. Much respect, looking forward to where this goes down the road.

thanks for the positive comments guys! yes its most definitely junkyard built lol. i wanted to use 16V turbo originally but that stuff is getting to be far and few between to find so i opted for a 1.8T instead. was going to use an old scirocco 1.8l engine i have with AAN rod/pistons, rig a K03 or K04 to it and let it eat lol. im mostly impressed with how much abuse the 1.8T can take being beat off a spark cut RPM limiter constantly for minutes on end lol. i have been thinking about fitting the 07K i have to it but i love turbo lol. i have a part mocked up to run a distributor where the air pump went on the 07K so running that on digifant 1 would be no problem since i've already done it on 20v and 20v turbo engines in my 4000 years ago.

Here's a video of my buddy in a 1600cc aircooled buggy following me in the 1.8T one lol. its like racing a self propelled lawn mower against a liter street bike

Some fresh pictures.

The engine now.


The tiny little K03


More engine from the left side


Custom axle with custom 90mm to 100mm CV adapter


Custom made shift linkage


MK4 VW shifter and cue ball shift knob lol.


Digifant 1 ECU mounted behind drivers seat.


Custom made distributor that's half ABA distributor housing mounted on a custom machined mounting plate with a custom machined drive that runs off of the intake cam.


3D printed gauge pods and mounts with AEM uego wideband and autometer boost gauge.


Custom made over head switch/indicator panel made out of a random piece of aluminum panel.


3D printed velocity stack for EBay air filter.


Front shot.

This is awesome

i finished my new addition to the buggy's ECU today. i rewrote the ISV code so that it no longer controls the ISV. now it controls an N75 valve from a 1.8T and references a 16X16 table for the duty cycle of the N75. the 16x16 might be a little over kill for map resolution but the boost control can be fine tuned this way. i found a way to invoke map switching in the ECU when the old AC wire is grounded so my next step is to have 2 PWM tables for high and low boost plus an extra set of timing and fuel tables for high and low boost. so this will allow me to have a pump gas tune and an E85 tune but it will probably end up being the "when im driving" tune and a "when anyone else drives" tune lol. i dont want people getting hurt or destroying the buggy. just having fun being a nerd!!!!! also i have a working data logging solution for digifant 1 too, it works pretty good.