This would give the best handling characteristic and the best hope of avoiding catastrophic acute deceleration trauma to man and machine alike.
I'm referring of course to the entertaining habit older Beetles have of swapping ends if you lift off mid-corner or get a bit lairy with the loud pedal on a roundabout.
Backwards down the road can be fun if you're prepared but proper scary if you're not.
Hitting walls and trees is never a chuckle, prepared or otherwise.
I've known for years that an IRS rear-end is far superior to a swing-axle one, mainly due to the fact that (with IRS) suspension travel doesn't significantly alter wheel camber.
I've also known for some time that Mc.Pherson struts are superior to torsion bars at the front, (for many reasons) but being an off-roader I prefer torsion bars - for all the other reasons.
My own personal "ideal" car is the semi-automatic bug as it's unique in the fact that it has IRS at the rear and torsion bars at the front.
That's why I have one......I also prefer the cleaner styling of torsion-bar (pre-strut) cars.
Anyhoo, I digress.
If you want proper fast-road capabilities you're better off with IRS and struts - you therefore have two choices, either a 1302 or a 1303.
I've never been a huge fan of "strut" Beetles generally, such as the 1302/1303, but can appreciate their merits over earlier cars.
The 1302 preceded the 1303 and is, in my opinion, nicer to look at as it retains the flat windscreen of the earlier cars and other touches such as the rear lights.
The 1302S comes with disc brakes, a 1600 engine and a better gearbox so that's the one to have.
I spotted this particular 1302S on a popular forum and thought it looked good value, especially as it had a 1500 Alfa Romeo engine from an Alfasud already fitted. It also had Porsche "Cookie Cutter" alloys (my favourite type) and it was under 10 miles away.
This is it - V.Nice, No?
After a moment of "that's so cool, I'll buy it" and another moment of "how many cars do you need?" I gave Matt a call and suggested we nip over to view it before it sold.
Next day we did just that and Matt left a deposit.
Sorted.
A week or so later we collected it with a spectacle type recovery rig loaned from Paul (thanks Paul).
What an ordeal that was, mainly due to the lowered front end and the front-mounted radiator making it impossible to get onto the rig.
We ended up locking the steering straight ahead and lifting the back up, towing it home backwards.
Oddly, when we finally got it to Matt's gaff all of 3 miles away it wouldn't fire up.
It had to wait a week for a closer inspection but it turned out the starter motor had a loose connection inside and it had picked that particular moment to fail.
Bummer!
I called to see a bloke called Tony local to me who's as potty about Alfas as we are about VWs, he ferreted a good used starter from an Alfa 33 out of his garage (thanks Tony).
I hauled ass to Matt's gaff to bolt it on.
As is often the way with modified cars we hit a problem - the starter wouldn't bolt up fully and needed a little clearancing with a file...........the adaptor plate, it turns out, was designed for an Alfasud starter which has a slimmer front.
We ended up spraying the new starter with paint, bolting it up and removing metal where the paint had rubbed away - like a sort of poor-mans' engineers blue.
The starter went in and out a few times, as we removed just a small amount of metal each time - It took a while but it worked.
Fits now!
Once the starter was in and the air-filter refitted all was well, looks the sex I reckon.
The engine in Matt's car is the desirable 1500 8valve and makes 105bhp,
this is due in no small part to the twin Weber 36 IDFs it breathes through.
The previous owner has rather skilfully grafted a 4 into 1 extractor exhaust from an aircooled bug engine to the Alfa exhaust down-pipes.
Time to fire it up.......
It sounds remarkably similar to a Beetle engine and looks very similar too.
Revs up much faster though and gives some obvious clues to its potential when you hear the throaty roar from those twin Webers.
Awesome Alfa music!
I just had to take it down the road for a quick blast, good job the road was closed for roadworks!
Goes like a bastard, like shit off a stick!
Though the car is virtually ready for use it will need a good dose of checking over before any serious work. It was sitting in a garage for a few years and as such may need a little TLC.
Get to it Matty me lad!
More next time
