After several "special" cars and motorcycles, I vowed to my wife that I wouldn't make this one a garage queen. It's a hard promise to keep, but I've done my best. So has everybody else.
The transport driver closed the seatbelt buckle in the drivers side door about 3 times during the trip from BC to IL, and I had the car a week when my son put a very noticeable 2" long scratch in a spot right where the eye falls in the back. I've had the engine in and out every year since I bought the car, and there are the usual warts as a result.
I've got about 17.5K mi in 8 years. I've had just about every possible permutation of Type 1 and 4 speed transaxle somewhere along the way.
Originally, I had no intent to use the car for anything but summer "date night" or an after-work 20 minute vacation. I had a couple of Mexi-crate 1776s, a 2110, and finally a 2332 short-rod monster. Lord Acton said, "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". The 2332 was a step backward in usability, but MAN was it fun. I dry-sumped it last year. I'd do that again.
My transaxles have run the range from stock "freeway fliers" (.89/3.88) to a .82/3.88, back to a .89/3.88 with a longer first and second (nearly perfect for trips of less than 500 mi). I've got a ZF LSD in the car, and everything built to 99/100. I've got more in my VW 4-speed than I care to admit.
Last fall, I drove the car to CA, and changed my definition of a "perfect" speedster. I had more fun that 100 "date-night" cruises, and comparing a legit-2 week vacation to a 20 min bomb-around after work is like comparing a ribeye to a McDouble-- I can enjoy the McDouble, but it's a poor substitute.
My current configuration is what I hope to be the final solution, but I'm worried about a couple of things. It's a 2276 with a cam that is basically an FK8 ground on closer lobe-centers. I'm back to iron cylinders and Mahle pistons, but they are coated and I've got 911 oil squirters to cool the piston crowns. I'm worried that I might have gone too far on the narrow lobe centers of the cam, and perhaps have the deck a bit too wide (.075), and the static compression a bit too high (9.6:1). I wonder if I should've stepped back even more and gone with tick-wall 92s and run a tighter deck and lower compression. I wonder if I should've just done a straight-up FK8 on 108 lobe centers.
I'm STILL on jack-stands, waiting on McMaster/Carr for the final bits of "special" (you know-- 1/2 AL hexbar to make my own linkage. CB's is 2 lbs heavier than it needs to be), but I hope to be running this weekend.
For me (and me alone), I still believe that an air-cooled mill is the essence of a speedster, and I still think (against all evidence) the Type 1 can come close to being all things to all people. I went a bridge too far last go-around (with the 2332), and I've stepped back this time. I may step back further in the future. If I were starting with a clean slate, I'd run a Type 4 with 95s, a mildish cam, and some Tangerine Racing tri-Y headers, and drive it 75K mi before it needed anything major. I'd still have to mess with the carbs, and the timing, and the what-nots, but I like that. I might even dry-sump it.
If I came home to a pile of money every night-- rather than swim in it, I'd give a bunch to Henry and have a IM6 built with an SC 911 3.0 with the updates and a set of PMOs.
If I knew nothing about cars, and just wanted to get-in-and-drive and have a shop do the work, I'd get a Subaru flat-4. It's probably a better solution anyhow.
Forewarned is forearmed. Your mileage may vary.
