<< Ray and Tom just dont get the vanagon thing. >>
<<They might just know better. They are MIT grads who ran an auto repair
shop for fun and profit. At worst, they are realistic.>>

Who in the world ever metioned anything about being realistic?

If any one here had one ounce of sence they wouldn't be driving a 20
some year old vehicle seriously.
Ok, I'll bump it up a couple.
14 year old vehicle.

<< Now realistically, I love the platform and I love they concept, but
everything inboard of the wheel bearings which rotates or contains
coolant is a compromise. At least in this land of wide open spaces.>>

Actually it isn't all that bad.
What has happened here most of the current owner's of Vanagon's have
"hand me downs"  and have left over from an original owner that probably
did nothing to the poor thing but flog it just to keep up with traffic,
and unloaded it when it started giving them troubles, or it was time to
do some serious PM work on it.

Thinking that most of the Vans out there have well over 100k and up,
amazes the heck outa me, and they are still running, (in one state or
another)
And that little flat 4 pushes a bunch of weight at some really crazy
RPM's for a long duration.

A late model anything runs down the road at 17,19 19 hundred RPM at 70
mph.

Not the VW.

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !.

3800 big ones, for hours on end.

It's gotta be half assed tough if ya really think of it.

It's the guys that own the Synco's that really have their hands full in
the un- realistic fantasies of motoring about.