My old '73 bus with a stock 1.8L would easily do 85mph.  I got a ticket on
I-5 one day to prove it.

Kind of funny story though, when I went to juvenile court (this happened
back in the 70's) to "defend" myself, the judge agreed with me that the
Highway Patrol guy must've been wrong because there's no way a VW bus could
go that fast.  He knocked the ticket down to 65mph and a much lower fine.
Sometimes the perception people have of VW buses works in your favor.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of David Brodbeck
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 7:29 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: State of the Art in Engine Swaps is....long

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, Andrew Grebneff wrote:

> So anyone know what rpm an engine would be turning at 80mph when
> attached to a 57 van's stock trans? My old single-port 1600, in this
> panelvan, would readily do 80mph (premetric speedo).

I suspect a very optomistic speedometer or a downhill slope.  Everything
I've read suggests the top speed of a van of that vintage was about 60
mph.  My '75 bus would just about do 80, but it had a 2.0L.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Volkswagen Diesel Westfalia
'86 Volvo 240DL wagon