I stopped by Vintage Motorcars today, took some pix

@ALB posted:

@Jon T- It's looking stunning- loving it without the side trim and the holes in both the engine lid and frunk hinges are a nice touch as well!  What did you specify for wheels?  And I'm curious to see what Greg puts in the 2332's he puts in his cars- is possible to post a build sheet?  Does he give a size for the kadron carbs? And it would be interesting to know the specs of the (I believe) VM2 cam he uses- duration, cam lift and duration @ .050"?  Does he have published horsepower figures?  Engine redline?             Thanks!  Al

PS- my apologies for all the questions- I'm always interested in new type 1 engine combinations, and curious as to how much power and how high his 2332's rev.

Kadrons are more commonly 40's; at least as per my recollection, unless that has changed more recently.

@ALB posted:

@Jon T- It's looking stunning- loving it without the side trim and the holes in both the engine lid and frunk hinges are a nice touch as well!  What did you specify for wheels?  And I'm curious to see what Greg puts in the 2332's he puts in his cars- is possible to post a build sheet?  Does he give a size for the kadron carbs? And it would be interesting to know the specs of the (I believe) VM2 cam he uses- duration, cam lift and duration @ .050"?  Does he have published horsepower figures?  Engine redline?             Thanks!  Al

PS- my apologies for all the questions- I'm always interested in new type 1 engine combinations, and curious as to how much power and how high his 2332's rev.

Hinge holes must be Greg’s standard now, I did not ask for the ALBy special.  Wheels will be polished 5.5 Vintage 190s with drum skins.  The engine will be Greg’s standard 2332 offering, I did not ask for any mods.  I liked the idea of gaining some additional HP (and torque) without doing anything exotic.  No replacement for displacement.  I’ve asked him for a build sheet for future reference.  I didn’t think about asking him where redline is, but that is a good question.  He said the engine has been broken in, so after about 300 miles I’ll change out the break-in oil and check valve clearances and then start to have some fun.  (And by ‘I’ll’ I mean my local mechanic, but I will sweet talk him into letting me watch and learn.  I don’t yet have a floor jack, jack stands and such.)

Other features include IRS in back, stock sway bar in front, lowered seat pans, kill switch, USB port, body color painted fuel tank, driving lights, leather straps for the frunk lid, and carpet delete inside the frunk.  And as I mentioned above, I allowed Greg to persuade me from swapping twin exhaust for a single centered exhaust, and I’m adding a spare in the frunk (which means I will be looking for a small jack, lug wrench and will certainly carry a large garbage bag).

My first tinkerings will likely include adding a third brake light, swapping tail and headlights with brighter options, adding a louder horn, and adding an extinguisher.  Yeah, all safety related.  I am leaning heavily towards a quality ceramic coating - and Im sure as soon as I see Jim’s black coupe in person I will pull the trigger.  Oh, and I’m still sitting on a 5 Cent Racing fuel gage damper.  And I have a pair of black Pegasus decals, just not yet decided if I will run with them.  Converse shoes, check.  Garage rug ala Marty, check.  ‘How to keep your Volkswagen Alive’ manual, check.  Kadron manual, check.

Beyond that I will try to resist the madness as much as possible and just drive and enjoy.    (But I am intrigued about the thought of adding a zipper to the soft top rear window area so I could drive with the top up, side curtains out, without severe buffeting.  You know, for the occasional longer drive when the UV index is high.  Just saying.)

When my VMC Speedser was built in 2019, I provided an LED strip for the 3rd brake light and a louder horn. Greg installed them during the build process. I have a kill switch under the dashboard for the electric fuel pump, and a battery disconnect switch under the hood.

JIm Ruiz

Westchester, CA 90045

I believe mine will have the same two kill switches.

@Jon T wrote- "Hinge holes must be Greg’s standard now, I did not ask for the ALBy special."

Ok, I got a good laugh out of that!  The Vintage 190's will be cool, and your are right, there ain't no replacement for displacement!  You can make a smaller (think < 2 liter here) make the same power, but  it'll take more rpm's (so more wear) and it won't have the bottom end/lower midrange torque (where one actually does most of his driving) that the bigger engine will produce. You'll (of course) shift regularly at 3500-4500 rpm but when you want to use every bit of the power the engine produces, knowing where it stops making power or 'peaks' is important- generally, revving it past redline doesn't provide any more acceleration and quite often it's hard on parts, so that's why (in part- I also just want to know what they're building) I'm curious.  And I can see the back window zip out option being handy... Al