Rockies regional randomness

Did you buy it new?

I once bought a '77 VW Westfalia with a Porsche 911 (2.7L ?) in it. You'd think it would have been a screamer, but it wasnt. No matter what powerplant you put in it, the shape, weight and lack of aerodynamics make them all various degrees of slow. It was better that the stock motor, but not by much. And parts of course were verrry spendy.

My '74 westy 2.0 was happy at 65. That was a great travelling machine; I still miss it.

hell no....I don't think I bought a new car until 1988 after I'd worked where I am for a couple years.

I traded my '78 Fiat X1/9 for it.

I used to lust after the x1/9. I love tiny mid-engine cars.

I had mine when I moved my long haired, hippie ass from northern California to Texas in the late 70's for a few years of culture shock. The Texas heat/humidity kept cracking heads between the spark plug and exhaust valve - so I finally tossed the big bore kit and put it back to stock.

Other than it was a fresh motor breaking in - I noticed virtually no difference in performance. Still loved driving that thing though, it was cool. I brought it back to Chico in '80 when I went back to school (age 25) - and the block cracked. The new motor that came out of that fun was a good runner.

I see a Fiero in your future

And you could trick it out and stuff....

old age kickin' in....I got rid of the bus by trading it and acquiring the X1/9.
I sold a '69 Chevy van and bought the '71 bus.

Hah! I actually had a fiero once, Robert Higdon of Lakewood did me the favor of running me off road on 72, highspeed off roading suddenly led to jumping the car into a ditch, flexing the car like a banana and popping out the windshield and cracking the body all over the place. Good times.

Anyhow, yeah. Type IV parts are expensive. Supply and demand i suppose, but a set of decent cylinders and pistons for an upright vw is about 160-180 bucks, for type iv is more like 480 bucks. Cylinder head for an upright, 150 bucks or so, type iv more like 400. That combined with the fact that even with all that space-age technology like l-jet fuel injection it still only puts out (fresh) 70hp or so. Thats why it's getting an ej22, it wont be a race bus but it should be able to get out of its own way.

Hayduke: mines actually a 77 2.0 too
Driving it back from boulder was exciting. Highway 36 was not nice to it, i hope i didnt piss off too many people but i figured the four lane highway was easier for everyone else than trying to attempt 93 would have been. It's really fun to drive. I dunno, something about sitting way up over the front wheels, having tons of leg room, and the mass of it makes it ride and drive around quite nicely. It's the westfalia, so its got all the goodies on the inside as well as the circus tent option (i havent set it up yet but what i can feel through the opening in the bag feels VERY over engineered for a tent).

Anyone want pictures?

Geraldine Fiero, wasn't she a VP candidate? I suppose GM will come out with a Palin .

I sold my Porche 356B to buy a brand new '72 VW bus so I could haul all my worldly possessions from CA to CO. I think the '72 was the first year for the "big" engine. It had plenty of power at sea level but was totally gutless going over Rabbit Ears.

I'm looking for a Hi8 player. Anyone have one for sale or know where I could get one?

Someday, I will have a 914.

My pick for a ridiculously small mid engine car...

I saw that lotus that ran it's owner over on 119 the other day.

I had a 71 Westy with a 1600. I put a 1776cc engine in later, with dual Dells. I found the same thing: it was better, but definitely still slow. I came to love the experience of traveling without being in a hurry . . . because the bus just didn't let you hurry.

Now I long for the Westy again, so I'm headed for Fort Collins this weekend to pull a complete Westy pop-top, so I can install it in my Chevy conversion/adventure van, Sportsmobile-style. I'll post some build pics in Hayduke's "Vans" thread down in Shiny Things as the project progresses.

Here's the victim of the coming ugly stick. Imagine a Westy Pop-top on this:

I drove an X1/9 for years, and loved it. It was an early model, 1300cc and four speed. I'm sorely tempted to get another, but make it a 1500cc with a five speed this time, and install an UNO Turbocharger on it. That would be SWEET!

Those cars handle marvelously. Mine would take pretty much any corner at any speed I wanted to carry, but the key word was "carry": they were just not powerful enough to power out of a corner after hard braking. The trick to driving them fast was to keep the engine wrapped up, keep your speed up, and only rarely brake, because building speed again was such a slow process. They were lots more fun to drive DOWN the twisty mountain road than they were going up!

If anyone here has one, I have a pile of parts sitting in the corner of my shop. Come get em, free!

Here's a pic of mine:

Mine was a '78 (1.3 4spd, dual throat Weber), and I looked for a '79 (1.5 5 spd & EFI wasn't it?)

I had a great guy to work on it...the Macpherson struts up front would crack the top towers, he welded a horseshoe shaped collar up there and fixed it.

You could literally almost go around any corner at any speed, it was an amazing little car. I tossed timing belts on both Fiats I owned (128 was the other one).

I have a sony video 8 recorder that plays back, is that what you mean? It does not say "Hi" though

No, not exactly. The 79s had the larger engine with electronic ignition and five speed, but they didn't get fuel injection until late 1980. The blue one in the photo is like yours was, a 78 with 1.3 liter and four speed. I did the reinforcement to the strut towers as well. Mine had obvious cracks when I got it.

I was skeptical when someone told me they cornered that well, but it was definitely true. I don't remember ever breaking the tires loose around any corner, and I took some at ridiculous speeds!

I never tossed a timing belt, but I heard enough stories like yours that I'm religious about keeping fresh belts on my Fiats. I still drive a 78 124 Spider. I don't drive it quite as recklessly as I did the X1/9. The 124s don't handle nearly as well.