Date:         Thu, 12 Sep 2002 21:12:57 +1200
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: Comments on Splittie
In-Reply-To:  <F22jK4LRNJJwj0EuwVZ0000148a@hotmail.com>
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>Ah yes, reminds me of a day on the river, on the west side of Philly... The
>owner of the bus (a 66 or so) was trashed from one or six too many beers....
>His wife (both very dear friends of mine) asked me to drive the bus home
>from the end of the tube.
>
>Now Eastern PA roads are very narrow and have very high crowns... Here I am
>driving my first Splittie (and last, come to think of it) with about 120
>degrees of slop in the steering, down roads I don't know with this extremely
>high crown and trucks coming the other way on a 12 foot wide pavement.
>
>I was glad I only had three beers that day.... (youth you know).

Fortunately neither my 57 Panel or 66 Kombi had any slop in the
steering... the 57 could've done with a swaybar, though!

>After driving this 66 Splittie for about thirty miles these are my
>comments:
>Definitely the Tin Can of transportation.
>That steering wheel is what got the Ape Hanger handle bar craze started.

Those with long arms (eg me) appreciate the driving position!

>With engine rpms that high I can see why they had 40,000 mile engines
>(worse than Yugo) even worse than that Ford Festiva of the early 90s.
>Now I know why Bay and Splittie folks are always looking for sound
>proofing.

My 75 Bay was not at all noisy. And it was a bare-bones Kombi.

>Did these things come with four wheel brakes?

My 57 and 66 had decent brakes. The 75's were not adequate, despite
the boosted discs.

>It takes a brave soul to get on the road in an Old Splittie.

Only by having to worry about being hit by another vehicle and
damaging the precious VW!

--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut