> "(Aerovee Turbo). The aircraft he was in was a test bed for this engine as I understand it."
It's doubtful it was the engine that killed Monnett. It's hard to imagine how a power loss, even a catastrophic one, on takeoff could cause what happened to them. Having said that, I would opine that the Aerovee is very much a second-tier VW conversion. It's a buggyshop grade motor with pretty red paint, kind of like lipstick on a pig. Great Plains and Revmaster are the only two VW-based engines (having owned both) worth considering and after seeing the recent pictures of that R-2300 head posted on this forum I would sure stick to their time-tested 2100D if choosing Revmaster. Unless you're racing and enjoy rebuilding the engine frequently, it would be wise to leave turbos alone when it comes to VW's. They are long-lived and reliable engines if you run them without asking them to run at full capacity for extended periods. Heat extraction is the major issue and always has been. Steve Bennett's friend Bob Hoover had much to say of value re the VW - I hope "Bob Hoover's Blog" is still out there on the web somewhere. He's a great resource for anyone interested in using the VW engine for aircraft use. Pat Panzera did an excellent extended overview of the currently available VW engine conversions in Contact Magazine about two years ago. ********** El Mirage may have preceeded Chino (I'm not sure which came first), but to my mind Chino is the ancestral home of the KR Gathering so there's something very appropriate about that venue. With the climate doing what it's doing though, October or even November would be a lot better time to go there than when the last one was held. Those that attended last year's meet with the over 100? daily temps were real troopers. Mike KSEE ____________________________________________________________ High School Yearbooks View Class Yearbooks Online Free. Reminisce & Buy a Reprint Today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5596e7287d74067286ccdst03vuc