I'm glad you finally got the mail I sent you, Tom. Yes, you can keep those
articles as I had them copied especially for you and for your club because
you have been so helpful to me. I finally found the 16" people!

Tell me when you are done with those articles and I can send you some more!

Great to get your scanned pictures. I am getting a scanner too soon so I can
send you some back.

At 01:16 PM 4/21/97 UT, you wrote:
>From:	Thomas Niksch
>	CCT_tom_niksch@msn.com
>
>To:	Derek Drew
>	drew@interport.com
>
>Hi Derek,
>
>cause I had got a message from Munich customs office that some mail from you 
>is waiting for me, I went there this morning and after beeing qustioned like a 
>latino immigrant without a passport, I figuered out that the only problem was 
>that the parcel should have been declared as a "personal gift" or of a "very 
>low commercial value" - that's all. Nevertheless it took me half  of the 
>moning plus lunchbreak cueing and discussing that with the guy (sorry, 
>"officer" is the correct word)

Funny. I hope it was worth it! Let me know what to put so next time I send
you stuff they won't do this. Do I just write: "No commercial value" on the
envelope?

>Anyway, thank you so much for the copies - may I keep them for our archive or 
>do you need them back ? A brif loke made it clear that we would never have got 
>them in Europe without your help ! As it is a lot of material and reading in 
>English takes me more time, than the same in German there is enough work for 
>several rainy sunday afternoons.
>
>Your letter is dated 11th of March wich is more than six weeks back from now. 
>I would guess that some of the questions you mentioned, have been answered so 
>far by Tobias, somebody else or myself in the meantime. I propose to get 

Not really answered by anybody else yet. You seem to be the #1 source of 16"
info at this point.

>through the questions in your letter to come to a quick response and we enter 
>into the deatails later, if necessary.
>
>"Standard syncro 16'' gear ratio" 
>=> there was none! As all body versions like crew-cab, panels, Kombi, Westy, 
>Caravelle etc. were offered as syncro 16'' the gear ratio depends on the 
>version. There is a simpe way to figure out the richt gear ratio. From your 
>tire dealer you will easily get date on the girth of your tires. If not figuer 
>it out with the "white-chalk and black pavement method" Tom Fornham mentioned 
>in one of the WWW Sites (don't know which at the moment). As a result you get 
>the RPM in relationship to the miles made. If you then calculate the girth of 
>the new tires you whish to mount in the relationship to the ones you have and 
>the gear ratio you have you get the gear ratio you need to achive the same RPM 
>for the same speed. (If I was shure to get it through the email I'd add add an 
>EXCEL sheet to make it clear, we can try that later)
>Formula: 
>RPM  [1/min] x  gear-ratio x tire-girth [km or miles] x 60 [min] = speed [km 
>or mls / hour]

I am determined to pick the tallest tires that will fit, and then order gear
ratios to match (6.17s) from Germany.

>"Tallest Tires" 
>=> all of them in combination with the coil-springs / absorbers package from 
>Autohaus Seikel, I know about 245/75 R 16 with 7x16 rims, 7,50 R 16 wit 6x16, 
>215/85 R 16 with 5,5 x 16. All of the cars are factory 16'' equipped.

This is great information

>"body lift" 
>=> without a bodylift (=different springs) on your 14'' the 195 R 16 on 5,5 x 
>16 or maybe 205 R 16 with 5,5 x 16 should work properly without prior body 
>modifications. What max load is beeing given to to you by VW oA. In Europe the 
>complete weight for a syncro 14'' used in havy off-road conditions is limited 
>to 2300 kg and 2500 kg for the 16''. Sorry Derek, but from my point of view it 
>seems completely foolish to load up a syncro to more than 3,0 tons without 
>changing the coil springs and absorbers to something more havy duty. This may 
>also explain your tremendous consumption of new cv-joints. The body 
>reinfocements on the 16'' were done exactly for the same reason. 

This is a matter of philosophy. Some serious off-roaders prefer relatively
mild (not stiff) shock absorbers and springs so that, when they smash into
rocks on a bad road, the springs and shock absorbers will give instead of
transmitting the shock into the body of the vehicle. But, since I drive at
nearly 3 tons a lot, I certainly do want to upgrade to stronger shocks and
springs, as you say.

>"ground clearance" 
>=> in the factory 16'' version the lifting derived only from the enlarged 
>tires

WOW! I have been trying to get an answer to this question for several years.
Now you have said it.

>"rear-axis arms" 
>=> the longer arms give you more clearnce for larger tires because the car 
>gets a 20 mm longer pace (=distance between center points of the front and 
>rear wheel)

Excellent piece of information. Now I have to order new rear-axis arms.

>"Oettinger-Westfalia 16'' syncro" 

I ordered and installed Oettinger fog lamps in my syncro.

>=> Sorry again, forget about it  !! The (suspectedly) only Oettinger 3.2 
>syncro 16'' ever built had the motor blown off at 60 000 km and was recently 
>converted into a 1,9 TDI . Besides that, it was a Caravelle not a Westfalia. 
>Forget about the Oettinger 3.2 itself! This engine had been developed by 
>Volkswagen and later canceled because of the high manufacturing costs. Later 
>Oettinger recieved the existing parts and tools and built a few cars but only 
>one syncro 16'' prototype. You should also forget putting an Oettinger 3.2 
>into any syncro. You can count the miles, until the gear-box will "explode" 
>because of the power - and more impotant - high torque. (They used to hve 
>automatic with most of the 4x2 WBX 6. We have had several 1,9 TDI (110 HP, 260 
>Nm) conversions and the gear boxes sometimes make it only 5.000 km.
>
>"2.1 engine for Westfalia" 
>=> don't know what kind of engine they sold with the Westaflia in the U.S. but 
>I belivesd so far it was the 2,1l (95HP) Kat. In Europe most of them were 1,6 
>Turbodiesel (70HP) or 2,1 gasoline (95HP)
>
>"syncro 16'' Westfalia" 
>=> there were not many of them as a California / Joker. This wasnot offered 
>through VAG but you could get it throghe westfalia, they should know how many 
>of then they made - we don't know. With the price thre is a little 
>misunderstanding. You get a 16'' non Westfalia Camper at 20.000 $ or below. 
>The Westies are very rare but probably the price is quite similar, in case 
>tehre is one offered. 
>(I'll try to send you a copy of a 16'' Camper conversion done completely in 
>ultralight aluminium-sandwich material. From my point of view I would not 
>bother a minute with Westfalia if I could get one of these.)
>
>"Westfalia" => We had three kinds of factory-made campers offered over here: 
>Multivan, Joker/California, and Club Joker / Atlantic. The multivan was the 
>the cheapest of them with optional pop-up roof,  a rear bench/bed a table and 
>a fridge. The Joker or later called California had a little kithchen besides 
>the driver's seat with a fridge and stove, water tanks and optional diesel/gas 
>heater. the Club/Joker or Atlantic was the GL version vith isolating windows, 
>nicer trims ond some comfort extras. I guess the thing you could buy was 
>something in between the California and the Atlantic. Beware that over her AC, 
>cruise control, power-windows and mirrors, and stuff like that are not inclued 
>in most of today's VW Campers. They make a lot of money out of these things 
>and it is not a hard job to bring a California Club (4x2) up to 70.000 DM 
>(50.000 $).
>
>I hope you don't suspect me playing the "teacher", but I still think the idea 
>to bring a compete 16'' Kombi, Caravelle or Camper to the States would 
>probably be an economic solution. Recently a 1992 16'' 2,1 l (95HP) went off 
>at about 16.000 $ in a little town near Munich. And a 1990 16'' 2,1l Crew-Cab 
>with 120.000 (professional) km was sold for nothing more than 9.000$. What if 
>you came to Germany with your wife visit some 16'' drivers, have a demo-drive 
>with a 16'' and than decide if it is enough reason for you to change tires, 
>gear-ratios, and springs in your existing car or even to procure a "new" one. 
>This trip may be 2.000 $ but it might avoid "spilling" 20.000 $.

Ok. We will do this in the year 1999 as I have some business affairs I am
trying to attend to in the meantime that reduce my free time.

>Did you get the broshure I ordered from "projektzwo" for you ?

Not yet. I got one about five years ago and admired their black double tube
bumpers, which I considered ordering.

>Best regards
>Tom
>
I think I better forward this note to the list so its contents get into the
archives.

Have you been to my URL? (See www address below).
____________________________________
Derek Drew                              New York, NY
drew@interport.net
'90 Syncro Westfalia... 
...seen off-road at http://www.anet-dfw.com/~ddes/vw/drew/index.html