I've owned this car since I was 15, I'm 32 now! From age 15-18 I completely disassembled the car(sans the motor and tranny), sandblasted, smoothed, filled and painted everything, and them it went back together. It stayed that way until 1999, when something started to make noises AGAIN, and I said forget it, I'm going nuts on this thing. I pulled the motor to make it official and it sat until 2004.
From about 2002 until now I've been planning what to do with it. I knew I was going water cooled, and my original thoughts for power was rotary. The trouble is that I want a car that handles too, and because this IS a lifetime project, I decided to go all the way.
I think the double wishbone front end popped into my mind by itself, and has been growing ever since. People I've learned, discussed, and shared things with include:
Bolts-On
Dobergoose
Ricola Racing
and without doubt the person who has contributed almost everthing that is really important
Rorty Racing
As far as powering this thing, I realized that everything hung out the back of a bug is just a pendulum. Porsche fought with it for years, and unless you want to plant a complete late Porsche suspension into your bug, the only way to get the weight forward is just to move it. Thus the midengine 1.8t.
I wanted something reliable, powerful, relatively lightweight, and VW.
Nobody has ever done this before that I'm aware of, but someone who has been working on it for awhile, but has recently stopped, are the Coopers at
Central VW Audi
Ask away with any questions you have. My email can be reached by going to my website and clicking "Email" at the bottom. Also on there at the top of the home page are the links to the bug stuff, the 1.8t conversion and double wishbone links.
The Ford-VW-Bimmer Page
It's going to be a long haul, so don't hold your breath, but I have a pretty fierce determination, so it will happen!
Jason