Re: JW3 and other VW enthusiasts!!!
Never mess with success. Nice ride.
I had my '68 Volvo 142S for 14 years and well over 200k miles. It owed me nothing and because it didn't, I did a complete overhaul on it. By then we had another car for Celia, a '79 Charger RT/SE with a 440 Magnum, a cam, and a Holley 3310. Would do an honest 145MPH. The inside of the trunk lid was wallpapered with first place stickers from Englishtown.
When I sold it in '82 to buy an IROC, it had American Mag 14" wheels, H70R14 tires, 7/8" diameter front and rear sway bars, dual functional Corvette sidepipes (sounded fabulous when the resonance kicked in at 85MPH) with no crossover, an overdrive tranny with the top gear electric lockout disabled and routed through a gearshift knob with a Linelock electric switch installed (8 forward, 2 reverse speeds), GM Firebird metallic olive paint and a very radical white striping job. The engine had a pair of very small (reduced turbine lag to dang near nuthin') Garret turbos, two Weber DCOE50 carbs, and a spacer under the head to drop the compression ratio from 11:1 to 8:1. Estimated HP was around 250. At the time the Volvo B18B engine was the only one in the world with a forged block. Would take any corner at twice the speed the yeellow warning signs recommended. Only had one bad habit. Under hard cornering, the rear sway bar would occasionally lift the inside rear wheel of the ground. That was fixed by remounting the bar to reduce its mechanical advantage.
Very little under the car was original.
Used to give Corvettes (Hell, damn near everything) some mighty big surprises. My cars were serious machines back then.
Greg
