Date:         Mon, 3 Sep 2001 10:37:28 -0400
Reply-To:     Terry Tan <terrytan@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Terry Tan <terrytan@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      5 speed transmission
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Hello Guys,

Times up ! just have no time for all these phobia for copyrights and patents epecially with stuff that is already several years old.
If MDS wants to protect their Intellectual property,  it is their right.
After all, things vanagon only has appeal to us, a limited bunch of crazy Vanagon enthusiasts.. I suppose we like to be different from the rest of the conformist society, just like the flower children of the '60s..
I surveyed all those new SUVs and Minivans that are being touted with their high price tags of 40K,50K . None of them come close to the common sense functionability and the comfortable ride of the Vanagon for the money invested... Except for the infamous  wasserboxer engine which I think VW should have been sued for their incompetant engineeiring , it is still to me the ideal design for a peoples's wagon.

With the kinds of improvements experimented by so many Listers here on the net we should be able to achieve this goal of the
perfect van for daily use.


If the fifth gear can have an overdrive ratio of 4.86 or better this would be ideal.
Can any one confirm whether the Porsch G50 has this value. ?

Next we need to beef up the engine with an Audi inline like what is being done in South Africa.

Anyone has any contacts in South Africa ? Are there any complications in importing this engine into the US ?
 
I was down in Sao Paulo, Brazil recently and all you see are white aircooled breadloafers all over.. They only come in
one color ( white) from what I notice..

I was so tempted to bring one back to the US but i know i cannot due to the emission laws. They are still being 
manufactured there and only cost about US$10000 brand new.

VW has so much opportunities but instead they come up with a Transporter 4 that literally has few takers in the US.
Sometimes I cannot understand the minds of their marketing strategists. They need to look to people like us rather than the
army of MBAs they hire every year that supposely can forecast what people want.
 
The breadloafer was a concept design sketched by one of the original VW dealer on a napkin and became an overnight success 
in the sixties and is still being manufactured today ! Anyone remember his name ? I it just slip my mind. Carl ???? 

Terry
  

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