Tom B - Oh, sure, it SOUNDS like a good idea. Four and a half tons GVW at 32 MPG. But can you imagine trying accelerate uphill into the wind on a day like today? (By the way, my stock F-150 with the straight six, fuel injection, and the five speed gets twenty-two miles per gallon if I leave the camper shell on for reduced wind resistance and never drive much faster than fifty.)
V8s have definitely been put in VWs in the past. I think one of the guys who lurks on these boards has done it, but he refuses to talk about it anymore because so many people were annoying him with questions about it.
So much has to be done, that when one of these cars sells it probably brings $50,000 or more; and I don't imagine they sell very often.
I don't remember all the details of the two or three conversions I've seen at auto shows and such, but I do remember that in one case the engine came into the passenger compartment. The back seat disappeared and a new firewall was built. The result was no longer a rear-engine car, but a mid-engine one. I suppose the transaxle was turned around. Obviously, all sorts of braces had to be installed in all sorts of places to allow the VW pan to stand up to the resultant torque.
I don't remember where the radiator went.
A much better idea was employed just a few years back by a local hot rodder, who took an old Toyota pickup, with its close-spaced five-speed transmission, decent steering, and modern brakes and tires, and mounted a big V8 in it. He just stuck it between the frame rails behind the cab. Brilliant!
He ended up with one kick-ass sports car. No one could keep up with it, and it cornered really, really well on our twisty field-boundry-corner roads of eastern Travis and Williamson counties. (Mid-engine cars may not necessarily be the best in terms of ultimate cornering speed, but many think they are; and certainly, they are more predictable and easier to set-up than home-built front- or rear-engine designs.)
The problem was, even though on the open road it could run away from just about any car in the greater Austin area, it failed to be a babe magnet; even with a custom paint job and fancy wheels, it just didn't look sexy. So, he sold it. I never have yet found out what he got for it, but it wasn't on the lot for very long.
Now he drives a badly mutilated 1933 Ford V8 with 1975 Gran Torino or similar running gear just like all the other hot rodders drive. No doubt it handles like garbage compared to the Toyota and my stock '66 Type I will probably pull away from it in those same tight corners. Certainly he doesn't go barraling down the open road in it like he would with the pickup; but even so, he can't fend off the hot babes fast enough.
And then there was the kid in Louisiana who alledgedly put a Cessna engine in a late '60s Chevy C-10. I've been told he didn't like to drive it much faster than about 120 MPH. Avgas is expensive and kind of hard to find on the back roads of Arcadia; and, it turns out a stock C-10 with the coil spring rear end and old-fashioned GM ''knee-action'' independent front suspension really doesn't do too well at very high speeds...
