My brother had a '60 beetle that he swapped a Porsche 356 1500S twin
carb engine and aluminum transaxle into back in the seventies. It was
a straight, bolt-in proposition and looked completely stock beetle
from the outside. He used to win drag races with (very surprised!)
Mustang IIs. It would easily do 90, at which point, I recall, it ran
out of speedometer. Handling was downright scary, as the thing would
virtually pivot around it's front wheels, and there was plenty of
power-to-weight for throttle steering. Lots 'o fun.
I believe those would have been the old 36hp engines. Later beetles
put out 40hp or more.
My 1960 Karmann Ghia would do up to 90mph on the flat- when I had
enough time to get it there...
--
Dan Weeks
82 VW Westfalia 1.6 TD conversion 175k
82 Mercedes 300SD, 260k
