Rich Pournelle wrote:

> I
>wonder what the German engineers who made these vans would think.
>
They'd do the same! I remember reading an article in a German car
magazine (Auto, Motor und Sport, about 18 years ago) about a Vanagon
that was equipped with an old Porsche 911 engine. Porsche used Vanagons
to take their spare parts along on test trips to the desert. They got
tired of waiting for the Vanagons, so they put old Porsche engines in
some of them. They were described to be the horror of every Golf GTI
driver on the "Autobahn": Imagine being in the passing lane at 100 mph
(legally!) and have a Vanagon show up in your rear mirror, indicating to
overtake ;-) This car was apparently used a lot by VW and Porsche
executives for fun, and there were speculations that they would make a
small series of these cars. Don't  think that ever happened...

Roli Steck