Finally some reason in this auto vs manual thread. My old '83.5 auto
going home from Salt Lake up to Park City was a long drawn-out joke of
firewalling the throttle all the way in 2nd gear, sometimes having to
shift to 1st and moaning along at 20 MPH, all the time wondering how
much longer that motor was going to stand the sustained RPM.  I'd like
to see these speed-demon 85/90 MPH automatic Westy's do that climb.
 My '86 Syncro, even with all the additional running gear, is quite a
different beast.  Come to think of it, if I was so stuck on having a
Vanagon with an automatic, then I wouldn't be driving a Syncro.  And I
wouldn't have that cool granny gear to bail me out in Moab!

Scott