The Awesomeness of the IDA

[Zach Gomulka]

maybe some guy would bring his sandrail in and want 44's and trade me?

That happened to me about a year and a half ago! There is a VW/Porsche shop 3 doors down from where I work, and I'm good friends with the owner so he sends a few deals my way from time to time. Anyway, he sent a guy down to our shop, who said he had 48 IDAs on his 2332 sandrail, and he wanted 44's because the IDA's were too big I didn't have any 44's in stock at the time, and was too broke to buy a set, so I passed the info along to Slinger who picked up a pair of 44's at Drag Day. Swapped them over, and the guy was as happy as a pig in shit! Even though the 44's only had 32mm vents! The IDA's also came on a pair of Skat Trak manifolds

My set fell in my lap a few years ago. There was a neighbor kid who had a resto-custom '64 bug with a 1915. He really didn't know that much about performance VW's though. One day he stops by our house with a pair of IDA's, manifolds, and linkage some guy sold him. We told him that they were the carbs to have, but they would take a little money and some TLC to get them in running order. He only paid $200! A few months later he drops by our house, says he's moving to Japan and is going to sell his car, and the IDA's (he never put them on). He asked if I know anyone that might be interested... Yeah, I might He tells me to give him an offer, so knowing what he has in them, and knowing that we told him what they were worth, I severly low-ball him and tell him $300. He says, "For you, $250." I nearly messed my trousers I've still never bolted them on a car of my own, but they have been on a couple of friends cars which I was given the privilege to drive. Someday they'll find their way to my GTV

[nicolas]

i know that the IDA's are what sort off made our cars over the years to what they are today. but i am not entirely convinced about their 'supremacy'

and yes i have a set off very cool and new IDA's that i bought from 'monsieur no-pants', and i would love to keep them, but i also have a set off 48 trijets... so ia hev this big problem, which ones do i keep and which ones do i sell. on off these has to go, but i would regret either one off these leaving the house. i was intrigued by the fact that Mark Herbert was so keen on the dells that i bought those. i got lucky that they were indeed trijets. they were on the samba for a few months and no-one picked them up, i was suspicious, but took the risk and they turned out to be a nice set off 48 dells.
the IDA's were offered by an amigo, who needed to sell some stuff to finance his car. so i took them in and like them very much as well. they are the classics.

so what to do. i would like to build an engine and run them both on it and see what is best, but in reallity if i ever will build an engine i need to sell one set...

[181]

Sorry, no IDAs yet, but nice NOS 48DRLAs work for me the same way..

[beetletom]

tonight, i heard a car with ida's fire up
wow! what an awesome sound! 

[rick m]

Sarge,

Your pricing is dead on.  I still have my DDS receipt and bought a set of 48s from them when in Santa Ana. The total bill was around $350 with DDS manifolds, IDAs and their centerpull linkage.  Wow would we kill for a set at that price today!

I also ran 48 Dellortos on my 67 when doing most of my over the road driving.  They worked well but I could tell a noticable difference when strapping on the IDAs for events.  When I held my 2110 at 7,000rpms in the water box, the IDAs seemed to be singing to me!  :-)


Rick Mortensen

[Harry/FDK]

This evening, after screwing up 5 intake gaskets for the manifolds, finally all fitted well. (I hope). Then i fitted my first set of (late) IDA's on top of the UD heads.



 It's the Holy Grail.

[Jim Ratto]

This evening, after scewing up 5 intake gaskets for the manifolds, finally all fitted well. (I hope). Then i fitted my first set of (late) IDA's on top of the UD heads.



 It's the Holy Grail.

[Harry/FDK]

Jim. It's like the chickenskin when you hear that perfect song.

[Jim Ratto]

Jim. It's like the chickenskin when you hear that perfect song.

I am a proud man anyway...

[Peter]

Lets bring this back to life... great topic!

[Dominick Luppino]

I bought my first set in around 1972, even when I got into the Turbo stuff in the mid 80's I never got rid of them! Today they are on my Son's 67 and work just as good today as they did back then...

[Peter]

When I started getting interested in performance engines and reading your stories, i allways dreamed of a set.
I just wanted to hear the roar you guys were all talking about.
For my final dissertation at school I could do something with an aircooled engine but carbs could not be involved:
the school pricipal thought this would be too easy/ old technology..
so i bought a used type 4, changed the cooling on it to upright and used a fuel injection system with ITB's and tuned it.
Later, I saw the light; so i sold the type 4 and started saving for my big type 1. I didnt know a thing about carbs, so i kept the ITB's and ECU.
After a few years of driving around i got fed up with NA, so changed to turbo...
That was a short story (my wallet couldnt follow) and in the mean time I built another engine with my nephew with 40 Dells.
That engine started right up and drove like hell...we only bolted the carbs on...no jetting change!
That was like a moment when you see everything clear! I found some used Italians locally and couldnt be happier since I got them...
I just love the sound when the cam comes on! still gives me goosebumps

[andrewlandon67]

I finally got to drive my first IDA-equipped bug today, and sweet lord do those things howl... the car is a ratty little '63 body on an IRS pan, no interior, insulation, or bumpers running a 2160 throw together motor, with solid tranny mounts and short gearing. This beautiful little monster runs consistently mid-low 14's at 6000 feet, and pulls harder than anything I've ever driven, or even been in. The cam wakes up at 3500 rpm and from that point on, it just screams and barks its way to the shift light at 6500. As I sit here now, waiting to bolt on the 44 IDFs to my 1914 to break it in, I can't help but imagine a teardown and rebuild to allow me the joy of hearing those carbs on my own car is too many years off... A man can certainly dream, and this thread is providing much of the inspiration...

[RobtheManx]

wait till you get your hands a Hilborn injection setup........ now thats the daddy!

I came into an N.O.S. Hillborn set-up for a small block Chevy a few years ago.     Opening that box and seeing all those nicely wrapped velocity stacks, linkage, fuel block, and all those hoses was a pretty cool experience too.  Just not as much as the IDA's because I didn't have a motor for the Hillborn to go on 

You don't ? That set up would look great on top of my 383 in my Plymouth !

[Ninho/DKM]

I just bought my first couple of 49 IDA on ebay.com, one night by my mobile phone sitting at the cinema while watchin' Batman's Begin.... They were in need of total rebuilt but That was a blast!!!
Than my friend scored an online local ad about an old man selling webers were standing in a bix on the shelf during last 25 years since race cars of a team passed to injection than carbs....
Story goes we got 3 pairs for just 600€....
Now i let images talk on how i am in 48 IDA...

[Rick Meredith]

I remember getting my first set of 48s. Must have been about '81.

I was working at the BAP/Geon store in Anaheim on St. College. I had a customer who had a reputation for coming across parts that were of... shall we say questionable nature. One night, he comes into the store with a hall of HiPo VW parts. 2 sets of Carillo rods, a nickle plated 4_tuned merged header and 2 sets of 48s. One missing some parts and the second set were brass plated. I think I paid $400 for the lot. I flipped one set of Carillios and the brass plated 48s for $400. I put together the other set of 48s and put them along with the Carillio Rods and the header on my 1776. My out of pocket cost was less than $50.

[henk]

nothing that spectacular for my first pair.
i bought them here on the forum,i think from Jonny Grigg.
but spectacular or not ,i really like them as well.

henk!!!

[mungouk]

When I was restoring my oval  I bought a set  Pair of IDA's before I got any other engine parts or trans or running gear...then everything I had buy had 
be at the same level as the carbs ....turned out nice.!!

[Neil Davies]

I got my pair from Dave Southcombe, who's wife Ali raced a beautiful 10 second LWB buggy. He was selling them for a friend if I remember right, but they'd previously been owned by Keith Seume - strange how parts move around...