Date:         Fri, 4 Jan 2008 00:54:15 +1300
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: Driving a splittie...  NVC
In-Reply-To:  <477C5CEB.5060105@gwtc.net>
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>One of my favorite driving activities when I owned my 1966 SO-42 camper
>was to break loose the rear end as part of making left hand turns.  I
>didn't like the feeling when I broke it loose in a right hand turn.  I
>felt too exposed...
>
>Jeff Olson
>Martin, SD
>
>craig cowan wrote:
>>< However, i did not see it on the road, and
>>only drove it about 25feet into a garage. Based on that though, they do seem
>>to drive pretty nice

I had a 57 panelvan as my first car. Lacking a front swaybar, it
suffered extreme oversteer on tight bends taken fast with no load in
back. Much of NZ is made up of tight twisty roads... or was, until
they began to "improve" the roads... now falling asleep is becoming a
killer. Apparently it looked pretty spectacular from behind. With a
load in the back it handled very well, with no hint of over or
understeer (neutral). I drove it really hard. Wish I'd known about
swaybars at the time... though back then a wrecker would've charged
an arm & a leg for one. Radials made all the difference... it had
crossplies when I bought it. Crossplies should have been illegal
decades ago; they are outright dangerous (and I include repro tires
for veteran cars here... these should be radial). Went very well
after I put a single-port 1.6 (1.3-based) into it. I wish I still had
this van.

Later I had a 66 Kombi. With its stock front swaybar it was pretty
neutral under any load. Gearing was too "tall" and performance was
definitely well down using the engine from the 57.

My 75 Kombi 1.8 with 1.9 slip-in kit tended to understeer when pushed
on sharp bends. If the bend wasn't TOO sharp the van could happily do
a Banzai! attack on it, but really tight bends needed caution to
avoid plowing nose-first off the road (it wasn't actually as bad as
that sounds, but I did get a fright once). I guess the front-end
geometry was changed somewhere between 1966 and 1975; the front
suspensions are interchangable on all "series 1" Transporters
(1950-1979 & Brasilian). It had plenty enough go to be fun to drive
at speed on good curvy backroads.

My 84 Caravelle was a pig-understeerer, but from all I am led to
believe this is not normal and I hopefully attribute it to the
cast-iron anchor it had in the back (3.8 Holden V6).
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
‚ Opinions stated are mine, not those of Otago University
"There is water at the bottom of the ocean"  - Talking Heads