Umbrella Handbrake

One thing that I dislike about the VW based speedster kits is that they all have the handbrake in-between the seats, rather than under the dashboard like the originals, which is an obvious giveaway on its provenance. So this has always been on my list of things to change with my kit. Of course it will only fool the casual observer but it's these small details that set some projects aside from others.

Think I've worked out an easy-ish way to make an under-dash umbrella style handbrake using a bay window bus handbrake. I've got one coming in the post so will have a bit of a play when it arrives.

The mechanisms are very similar in that you turn the handle to release it. The Speedster setup uses a lever to transfer the action across to the cable which protrudes from the front of the chassis. I've seen others replicate this but it requires some jiggery-pokery to get it all to work, plus you need to have longer cables made up.

My idea is simply to use a cable directly on the end of the bay handrake mechanism that then runs to the front of the chassis. The inner cable can then continue inside and join up to the two existing cables using a block similar to the original Porsche part (item 27 in the exploded view).

Of course I'm pretty sure that its not going to be as simple as it sounds, as there's going to be some form of force multiplier required (lever-arm), along with making sure that the cable does not interfere with the gear shift mechanism or anything else in the tunnel, but I think the idea can be made to work.