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Date:         Thu, 16 Jul 1998 09:01:36 -0400
Reply-To:     "John S. Cronin" <john.cronin@OIT.GATECH.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "John S. Cronin" <john.cronin@OIT.GATECH.EDU>
Subject:      Re: six cylinder vanagons
Comments: To: Perrinvan@AOL.COM, Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
In-Reply-To:  Jim Perrin <Perrinvan@AOL.COM> "Re: six cylinder vanagons" (Jul
              15, 11:17pm)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I used to keep up with racing quite a bit more in my youth. Porsche was/is my favorite marque, and I believe I read somewhere that the bay window and Vanagon Porsche six cylinder conversions done by the Porsche factory were originally done to support the Porsche rally teams, which were running 911s in such off-road/rough-road races as the East Africa Safari and the Paris-Dakar race. They needed support vehicles that could carry spare engines and what not, and that would have some chance of catching up to the 911 racers in a finite time.

I too lust after a 911 powered Vanagon-Westy. I don't need a turbo or anything, just six air-cooled cylinders and at least a five speed transmission.

By the way, I noticed people talking about the five speed Vanagon transmissions, and saying that first is geared too high, and the ratios are all wrong. As to the first part, is it not possible to change the final drive ratio in the transaxle, and should that not cure the high ratio first gear problem? It may or may not improve the problem with the wrong ratios, it depends on whether gear spacing is the problem, etc.

Who needs an Oettinger? If I am going to have to spend big bucks, I would prefer to have something that has been in production and is proven, like the Porsche flat six. The fact that it is air-cooled is a plus in my opinion - no need to run all that radiator stuff forward, although it would probably require an external oil cooler, and I doubt there would be room anywhere to mount it back near the engine, so I guess I would have to run oil lines to and from a front mounted oil cooler.

On Jul 15, 11:17pm, Jim Perrin wrote: > Subject: Re: six cylinder vanagons > In a message dated 98-07-15 Kennedy wrote: > > << One of the catalysts for my long > dream of a Porsche=powered Vanagon was a conversion done by > the Porsche factory, which I saw in the early eighties as it > passed through NJ on its way to CA, to the dealer who had > commissioned it. It was a white Vanagon with grey interior, > Porsche gauges, and a Porsche six which you would swear had > been installed on a factory line. Nothing about the engine > looked at all out of place or cobbled-up. >> > > I was at the Porsche factory for a couple of days sometime in the late 80s. > They had a Vanagon in Zuffenhausen which was converted at the factory to have > a six-cylinder 911 engine. It had other changes as well, including upgraded > brakes. It's performance was very impressive. It was being used as a > general-purpose-and-run-errands vehicle, but I don't know what department it > was assigned to. > > When I asked about the Vanagon I was told that the factory had done, as I > recall, about six of them. They said a couple of them had gone to Porsche or > Piech family members, and a couple had gone to friends of the factory. If > someone has a big interest in these vehicles, email me directly and I'll try > to learn more.

-- John S. Cronin phone: (404) 894-6164 Office of Information Technology Operations and Engineering 0715 Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 Internet: john.cronin@oit.gatech.edu


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