the simpler days

[Jim Ratto]

I doubt anybody who got into modified VW's got up one day out of bed and went out and bought a VW and by the end of the day had a set of 48's bolted down and long tire marks down their street. Probably, like me, most of us, grew into the big stuff eventually, after goofing off with stock or near stock crap. If I would have let my teenage hands get near a set of dual springs, 48 Webers, and ratio rockers I would have gotten out of the hobby probably seconds after it all wadded up into a big pile of junk.
I look back on the days of small, stock motors with simple and cheap (often home grown) mods to make them a little meaner. My first hot rod was a stock cammed 87 x 69, stock dual ports, Weber 32/36, S&S header and 009. And for a 16 year old that was learning to shift, it was fine. It was exciting back then just to anticipate the loads of power just blocking the heat risers would give, or bolting on an open stinger would give. Eventually this motor gave way to an overcammed 87 x 69 with dual two bbls, then a 2 liter, then Super Flows, then on and on and on... we probably will all go full circle and go back to some stocker once we get old.

[John Rayburn]

My first " built" engine was when the crank broke on my oem 40 horse. Built a whopping 1385 ( 40 horse with a big bore) engle 100 and a single Weber. That was about 1980. Could've ran faster than the car but managed to get enough tickets to get an onslought of threatening letters from DMV. If my current combo was in the car then, I'd just be getting out of jail today.

[Zach Gomulka]

IDA's on the first day?! HA! I remember it took me 7 hours to yank out my peashooters and install a header!!! 

[Diederick/DVK]

you see, you've got a fair point here.
BUT even though i've had my 67 for 3 1/2 years my first engine is going to be the tricked-out 1915 
and now i regret never having messed about with a stock souped up engine and feeling those tiny differences.

well, perhaps i should mentioned i did work on that kadron 1600 that never got to run more than 60 miles or so. but heck, some cool miles were those! it was a few days before EBI, and i got to drive it like an idiot in my just painted beetle, with no front fenders on it yet. as soon as we got the engine installed. the accelerator cable was cut off and i idled at 2,000 rpm or so. but man i spun the tyres on the gravel, which is not a clever thing to do while being so careful with the paint at the same time.

and later on that night, driving home on a sunny evening with no windows installed in the doors yet. in a light summery rain blasting off 

mmh, sorry for goofing off here. but i can't be bothered to press backspace after all the typing 

[speedwell]

  here're my first engine the pink was a 1200cc and my second on the left was an 1300cc DA with weber 32/36 , 009 ,blue coil ,  4/1 + dbl t bird , the worker ismy grand father that's him who teach me in the vw engine 
and the 1300 was very driveable in the town and autohaus for a daily driver

[louisb]

Actually, I think it is almost too easy to build a 12 or 10 second car these days. You get these kids who don't know how to control the car building monster motors and then balling up the car, and themselves.

I must say that I am having a blast warming up this 1500. Its a torquey little bastard and a blast to drive. As fun as it is to tinker with it, almost makes me want to hold off on the two liter a while longer and just drive it this way. 

--louis

[Rick Meredith]

1641cc ported single ports Engle 110 and Kadronuts.

[Zach Gomulka]

Actually, I think it is almost too easy to build a 12 or 10 second car these days. You get these kids who don't know how to control the car building monster motors and then balling up the car, and themselves.
--louis

Yup. You have to go up the "horsepower ladder", and that starts with a stocker!

[Lemonade]

The 1st mod on my bone stock engine was putting on a Holley Bug Spray, woo hoo!

 

[lawrence]

My old 1641 was a great motor. It had an 009 distributor, header with j tubes, and a single quiet pack. Sure was slow compared to a looker motor, but super reliable and got me everywhere I wanted.

[javabug]

I remember not too long ago putting on an extractor/QP that someone gave to me, and noticing how much better the car ran.  Still a stock 1500 singport then, so much more drivable with that small improvement in breathing!

[SlingShot]

Wow what a flashback. My first Beetle was a 68, it was what I call a good cruiser. Pretty much stock engine when I got it. Had a local shop put a dual euro tuck exhaust on it. My Dad was very against VW's (Total Ford Guy ) so he did not want to try and help me put the exhaust on. Anyway a little bit down the road one of the oil rings went to hell, and it was time to dig in  . I had the heads redone and bought some new 85.5 P&C's  to replace the stock vw set (never had a rebuild). After doing just a top end, threw on a single 44 idf, and I swear that thing was a total kick in the pants, maybe it was because the old top end was tired, but I was grabbing second gear rubber all over town, it was awesome

[Dave Galassi]

My first " built" engine was when the crank broke on my oem 40 horse. Built a whopping 1385 ( 40 horse with a big bore) engle 100 and a single Weber. That was about 1980. Could've ran faster than the car but managed to get enough tickets to get an onslought of threatening letters from DMV. If my current combo was in the car then, I'd just be getting out of jail today.

That there is funny!...
Kind of a bummer, though, as I don't think kids today have as much lattitude to screw up as we did.  The ramifications are too tough.

For what it's worth......first VWwas.......67 Squareback with a 1776....stock 32PDSIT's, mystery cam and an S&S.......I didn't know I was hurting anything until the sidecover loosened up pretty good...........

[danny gabbard]

My moms boss gave me a 62 2 door nova sold a.s.p.THEN,purchased a 66 bug that didnt run. spent the whole summer working. then bought some riveria's in the box, $150 buck's and 145s and the 165's. My old man thought I was out of my ....ucken head, a vw? shuck his head. good times they were.

[Jim Ratto]

My moms boss gave me a 62 2 door nova sold a.s.p.THEN,purchased a 66 bug that didnt run. spent the whole summer working. then bought some riveria's in the box, $150 buck's and 145s and the 165's. My old man thought I was out of my ....ucken head, a vw? shuck his head. good times they were.

next tiime Nicks rolls around, come find me and we'll share some beer

[Worm]

1956 Oval window pre paint job with stock 1600 and dual Solex 40 P11's with huge velocity stacks!  Looked cool ran like shit.

[Bewitched666]

First engine i thinkered with was a 1679 with 88 cima slip ins
weber 32/36 carb
brazilian puma 1700 heads
009 distributor
1:25 rockers
and alot of chrome on it
and a s&s header with stinger

[Fastbrit]

Not much stuff (or money) available when I messed with my first Bug. Following Bill Fisher's book, ported the heads (it was a stock 1200 motor), spending hours and hours achieving a mirror-like finish (good or bad, it looked cool), fitted a home-made velocity stack to the stock carb, blocked the heat-risers, had the flywheel lightened to 12 pounds, fitted 'straight-through' tailpipes to the original muffler and a mechanical-advance distributor. First time my brother drove it, he dumped the clutch and it actually broke traction (205/70s on the back) – OK, just a little 'chirp' but more than the original set-up would do. Topped out at an indicated 90mph, too. Guess it proved to me early on that headwork etc was the secret to a good hot VW...

Yes, it was kinda more fun back then – having no money and a shortage of available parts certainly focuses the mind!

[Neil Davies]

My first foray into the world of modified engines was the 1300 single port that was in my '68. Took the heads off so Dad could have a go at the ports and found it had got 1600 B&Ps on it, so we lightened the flywheel, put a berg merged header (given free!) with a single quiet pack on, and drove it for a couple of weeks until the flywheel came loose!