All this talk of 6 bangers, SVX Turbos, etc brings me to this question...Has anyone considered supercharging for the Vanagon?  A bunch of my pals from the Porsche 928 world have recently started doing it to their beasts, rather than the 'traditional' method of getting over 400 rwhp, which is to use a stroker crankshaft.

  It'd seem to me, from looking at some of their installs and superficially perusing the net sites about superchargers that a SC and a Vanagon were meant for each other...Looking at my little inline four transplant motor sitting in there with all that extra room, I am thinking..."Hmm"..and I see lots of sand rails, buggies, etc.  with supercharged small motors putting out some decent power with good dependability....
  I am gonna look into that...One thing I do know for sure is that at altitude, a forced induction (turbo or SC) motor still retains lots of power, but a Normal Aspirated motor drops off dramatically at about 5000' of elevation...
  It's also my understanding that the boost from a supercharger can be 'dialed' to the desired level, right from a dash knob...So if you are just donking down a flat road in no particular hurry, you can use Zero boost but if you need some power, you just dial it up a bit and cram more air/fuel mixture into the cylinders...Of course, you have the extra drive belt drag always, and some plumbing to do and you would have to make sure your motor had some knock sensors, probably...but attractive thought..
  Dunno for sure, but it sounds good..
  Don Hanson